Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  confirmare aliisque ex rebus reddere multis,

  nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam

  naturam rerum: tanta stat praedita culpa.

  [164] and to invent and add other figments of the kind, Memmius, is all sheer folly.

  For what advantage can our gratitude bestow on immortal and blessed beings, that for our sakes they should take in hand to administer aught? And what novel incident should have induced them hitherto at rest so long after to desire to change their former life? For it seems natural he should rejoice in a new state of things, whom old things annoy; but for him whom no ill has befallen in times gone by when he passed a pleasant existence, what could have kindled in such a one a love of change?

  Did life lie groveling in darkness and sorrow, until the first dawn of the birth time of things?

  Or what evil had it been for us never to have been born?

  Whoever has been born must want to continue in life, so long as fond pleasure shall keep him; but for him who has never tasted the love, never been on the lists of life, what harm not to have been born?

  Whence again was first implanted in the gods a pattern for begetting things in general as well as the preconception of what men are, so that they knew and saw in mind what they wanted to make? And in what way was the power of first-beginnings ever ascertained, and what they could effect by a change in their mutual arrangements, unless nature herself gave the model for making things?

  For in such wise the first-beginnings of things many in number in many ways impelled by blows for infinite ages back and kept in motion by their own weights have been wont to be carried along and to unite in all manner of ways and thoroughly test every kind of production possible by their mutual combinations; that it is not strange if they have also fallen into arrangements and have come into courses like to those out of which this sum of things is now carried on by constant renewing.

  But if I did not know what first-beginnings of things are, yet this judging by the very arrangements of heaven I would venture to affirm, and led by many other facts to maintain, that the nature of things has by no means been made for us by divine power:

  200 principio quantum caeli tegit impetus ingens,

  inde avidam partem montes silvaeque ferarum

  possedere, tenent rupes vastaeque paludes

  et mare, quod late terrarum distinet oras.

  inde duas porro prope partis fervidus ardor

  205 adsiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert.

  quod super est arvi, tamen id natura sua vi

  sentibus obducat, ni vis humana resistat

  vitai causa valido consueta bidenti

  ingemere et terram pressis proscindere aratris.

  210 si non fecundas vertentes vomere glebas

  terraique solum subigentes cimus ad ortus.

  sponte sua nequeant liquidas existere in auras.

  et tamen inter dum magno quaesita labore

  cum iam per terras frondent atque omnia florent,

  215 aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol

  aut subiti peremunt imbris gelidaeque pruinae

  flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant.

  praeterea genus horriferum natura ferarum

  humanae genti infestum terraque marique

  220 cur alit atque auget? cur anni tempora morbos

  adportant? quare mors inmatura vagatur?

  tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis

  navita, nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni

  vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras

  225 nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,

  vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequumst

  cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.

  at variae crescunt pecudes armenta feraeque

  nec crepitacillis opus est nec cuiquam adhibendast

  230 almae nutricis blanda atque infracta loquella

  nec varias quaerunt vestes pro tempore caeli,

  denique non armis opus est, non moenibus altis,

  qui sua tutentur, quando omnibus omnia large

  tellus ipsa parit naturaque daedala rerum.

  235 Principio quoniam terrai corpus et umor

  aurarumque leves animae calidique vapores,

  e quibus haec rerum consistere summa videtur,

  omnia nativo ac mortali corpore constant,

  debet eodem omnis mundi natura putari.

  240 quippe etenim, quorum partis et membra videmus

  corpore nativo mortalibus esse figuris,

  [199] so great are the defects with which it is encumbered.

  In the first place of all, the space which the vast reach of heaven covers, a portion greedy mountains and forests of wild beasts have occupied, rocks and wasteful pools take up and the sea which holds wide apart the coasts of different lands.

  Next, of nearly two thirds burning heat and the constant fall of frost rob mortals.

  What is left for tillage, even that nature by its power would overrun with thorns, unless the force of man made head against it, accustomed for the sake of a livelihood to groan beneath the strong hoe and to cut through the earth by pressing down the plow.

  Unless by turning up the fruitful clods with the share and laboring the soil of the earth we stimulate things to rise, they could not spontaneously come up into the clear air; and even then sometimes when things earned with great toil now put forth their leaves over the lands and are all in blossom, either the ethereal sun bums them up with excessive heats or sudden rains and cold frosts cut them off, and the blasts of the winds waste them by a furious hurricane.

  Again, why does nature give food and increase to the frightful race of wild beasts dangerous to mankind both by sea and land? Why do the seasons of the year bring diseases in their train? Why stalks abroad untimely death? Then, too the baby, like to a sailor cast away by the cruel waves, lies naked on the ground, speechless, wanting every furtherance of life, soon as nature by the throes of birth has shed him forth from his mother’s womb into the borders of light: he fills the room with a rueful wading, as well he may whose destiny it is to go through in life so many ills.

  But the different flocks herds and wild beasts grow up; they want no rattles; to none of them need be addressed the fond broken accents of the fostering nurse; they ask not different dresses according to the season; no nor do they want arms or lofty walls, whereby to protect their own, the earth itself and nature manifold in her works producing in plenty all things for all.

  First of all, since the body of the earth and water and the light breath of air and burning heats, out of which this sum of things is seen to be formed, do all consist of a body that had a birth and is mortal, the whole nature of the world must be reckoned of a like body.

  For those things whose parts and members we see to be of a body that had a birth and of forms that are mortal, we perceive to be likewise without exception mortal, and at the same time to have had a birth.

  haec eadem ferme mortalia cernimus esse

  et nativa simul. qua propter maxima mundi

  cum videam membra ac partis consumpta regigni,

  245 scire licet caeli quoque item terraeque fuisse

  principiale aliquod tempus clademque futuram.

  Illud in his rebus ne corripuisse rearis

  me mihi, quod terram atque ignem mortalia sumpsi

  esse neque umorem dubitavi aurasque perire

  250 atque eadem gigni rursusque augescere dixi.

  principio pars terrai non nulla, perusta

  solibus adsiduis, multa pulsata pedum vi,

  pulveris exhalat nebulam nubesque volantis,

  quas validi toto dispergunt aëre venti.

  255 pars etiam glebarum ad diluviem revocatur

  imbribus et ripas radentia flumina rodunt.

  praeterea pro parte sua, quod cumque alit auget,

  redditur; et quoniam dubio procul esse videtur

  omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum.

  260 ergo terra tibi libatur et aucta recres
cit.

  Quod super est, umore novo mare flumina fontes

  semper abundare et latices manare perennis

  nil opus est verbis: magnus decursus aquarum

  undique declarat. sed primum quicquid aquai

  265 tollitur in summaque fit ut nihil umor abundet,

  partim quod validi verrentes aequora venti

  deminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol,

  partim quod supter per terras diditur omnis;

  percolatur enim virus retroque remanat

  270 materies umoris et ad caput amnibus omnis

  convenit, inde super terras fluit agmine dulci

  qua via secta semel liquido pede detulit undas.

  Aëra nunc igitur dicam, qui corpore toto

  innumerabiliter privas mutatur in horas.

  275 semper enim, quod cumque fluit de rebus, id omne

  aëris in magnum fertur mare; qui nisi contra

  corpora retribuat rebus recreetque fluentis,

  omnia iam resoluta forent et in aëra versa.

  haut igitur cessat gigni de rebus et in res

  280 reccidere, adsidue quoniam fluere omnia constat.

  [242] Since therefore I see that the chiefest members and parts of the world are destroyed and begotten anew, I may be sure that for heaven and earth as well there has been a time of beginning and there will be a time of destruction.

  And herein that you may not think I have unfairly seized on this point for myself, because I have assumed that earth and fire are mortal and have not doubted that water and air perish, and have said that these are likewise begotten and grow afresh, mark the proofs: First of all some portion of the earth, burnt up by constant suns, trampled by a multitude of feet, sends forth a cloud and flying eddies of dust, which the strong winds disperse over the whole air.

  Part too of the soil is put underwater by rains, and rivers graze against and eat into the banks.

  Again whatever increases something else is in its turn replenished; and since beyond a doubt earth the universal mother is found at the same time to be the general tomb of things, therefore you see she is lessened and increases and grows again.

  Furthermore, that sea rivers fountains always stream over with new moisture and that waters well up without ceasing, it needs no words to prove: the great flow of waters from all sides clearly shows it.

  But then the water on the surface is always taken off, and thus it is that on the whole there is no overflow, partly because the seas are lessened by the strong winds sweeping over them and by the ethereal sun decomposing them with his rays; partly because the water is diffused below the surface over all lands; for the salt is strained off and the matter of liquid streams back again to the source and all meets together at the river-heads, and then flows over the lands in a fresh current, where a channel once scooped out has carried down the waters with liquid foot.

  And next I will speak of the air which is changed over its whole body every hour in countless ways.

  For whatever ebbs from things, is all borne always into the great sea of air; and unless it in return were to give back bodies to things and to recruit them as they ebb, all things ere now would have been dissolved and changed into air.

  It therefore ceases not to be begotten from things and to go back into things, since it is a fact that all things constantly ebb.

  Largus item liquidi fons luminis, aetherius sol,

  inrigat adsidue caelum candore recenti

  suppeditatque novo confestim lumine lumen.

  nam primum quicquid fulgoris disperit ei,

  285 quo cumque accidit. id licet hinc cognoscere possis,

  quod simul ac primum nubes succedere soli

  coepere et radios inter quasi rumpere lucis,

  extemplo inferior pars horum disperit omnis

  terraque inumbratur qua nimbi cumque feruntur;

  290 ut noscas splendore novo res semper egere

  et primum iactum fulgoris quemque perire

  nec ratione alia res posse in sole videri,

  perpetuo ni suppeditet lucis caput ipsum.

  quin etiam nocturna tibi, terrestria quae sunt,

  295 lumina, pendentes lychni claraeque coruscis

  fulguribus pingues multa caligine taedae

  consimili properant ratione, ardore ministro,

  suppeditare novom lumen, tremere ignibus instant,

  instant, nec loca lux inter quasi rupta relinquit:

  300 usque adeo properanter ab omnibus ignibus ei

  exitium celeri celeratur origine flammae.

  sic igitur solem lunam stellasque putandum

  ex alio atque alio lucem iactare subortu

  et primum quicquid flammarum perdere semper,

  305 inviolabilia haec ne credas forte vigere.

  Denique non lapides quoque vinci cernis ab aevo,

  non altas turris ruere et putrescere saxa,

  non delubra deum simulacraque fessa fatisci

  nec sanctum numen fati protollere finis

  310 posse neque adversus naturae foedera niti?

  denique non monimenta virum dilapsa videmus,

  quaerere proporro, sibi cumque senescere credas,

  non ruere avolsos silices a montibus altis

  nec validas aevi vires perferre patique

  315 finiti? neque enim caderent avolsa repente,

  ex infinito quae tempore pertolerassent

  omnia tormenta aetatis, privata fragore.

  Denique iam tuere hoc, circum supraque quod omne

  continet amplexu terram: si procreat ex se

  320 omnia, quod quidam memorant, recipitque perempta,

  totum nativum mortali corpore constat.

  nam quod cumque alias ex se res auget alitque,

  deminui debet, recreari, cum recipit res.

  [280] Likewise, the abundant source of clear light, the ethereal sun, constantly floods heaven with fresh brightness and supplies the place of light on the instant by new light; for every previous emission of brightness is quite lost to it, wherever it falls.

  This you may know from the following examples: as soon as ever clouds begin to pass below the sun and to break off so to say the rays of light, forthwith their lower part is wholly lost, and the earth is overshadowed wherever the clouds pass over; so that you may know that things constantly require new irradiation and that all the preceding emissions of light are lost, and in no other way can things be seen in the sun, unless the fountain head of light itself send a supply.

  Moreover, you see, nightly lights which belong to earth, such as hanging lamps and torches bright with darting flames, hasten in like fashion amid great darkness with ministering heat to supply new light; are eager to bicker with fires, are eager; nor is the light ever broken off nor does it quit the spots illuminated: with such suddenness is its destruction concealed by the swift birth of flame from all the fires at once.

  In the same way then we must believe that sun moon and stars emit light from fresh and ever fresh supplies rising up, and always lose every previous discharge of flames; that you may not haply believe that these flourish indestructible.

  Again see you not that even stones are conquered by time, that high towers fall and rocks molder away, that shrines and idols of gods are worn out with decay, and that the holy divinity cannot prolong the bounds of fate or struggle against the fixed laws of nature?

  Then see we not the monuments of men, fallen to ruin, ask for themselves as well whether you’d believe that they decay with years? See we not basalt rocks tumble down riven away from high mountains and unable to endure and suffer the strong might of finite age? Surely they would never fall suddenly thus riven away, if for infinite time past they had held out against all the batteries of age without a crash.

  Again gaze on this, which about and above holds in its embrace all the earth: if it begets all things out of itself, as some say, and takes them back when they are destroyed, then the whole of it has had a birth and is of a mortal body; for whatever gives increase and food out of it
self to other things must be lessened;

  Praeterea si nulla fuit genitalis origo

  325 terrarum et caeli semperque aeterna fuere,

  cur supera bellum Thebanum et funera Troiae

  non alias alii quoque res cecinere poëtae?

  quo tot facta virum totiens cecidere neque usquam

  aeternis famae monimentis insita florent?

  330 verum, ut opinor, habet novitatem summa recensque

  naturast mundi neque pridem exordia cepit.

  quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expoliuntur,

  nunc etiam augescunt; nunc addita navigiis sunt

  multa, modo organici melicos peperere sonores,

  335 denique natura haec rerum ratioque repertast

  nuper, et hanc primus cum primis ipse repertus

  nunc ego sum in patrias qui possim vertere voces.

  Quod si forte fuisse ante hac eadem omnia credis,

  sed periise hominum torrenti saecla vapore,

  340 aut cecidisse urbis magno vexamine mundi,

  aut ex imbribus adsiduis exisse rapaces

  per terras amnes atque oppida coperuisse.

  tanto quique magis victus fateare necessest

  exitium quoque terrarum caelique futurum;

  345 nam cum res tantis morbis tantisque periclis

  temptarentur, ibi si tristior incubuisset

  causa, darent late cladem magnasque ruinas.

  nec ratione alia mortales esse videmur,

  inter nos nisi quod morbis aegrescimus isdem

  350 atque illi quos a vita natura removit.

  Praeterea quae cumque manent aeterna necessust

  aut, quia sunt solido cum corpore, respuere ictus

  nec penetrare pati sibi quicquam quod queat artas

  dissociare intus partis, ut materiai

  355 corpora sunt, quorum naturam ostendimus ante,

  aut ideo durare aetatem posse per omnem,

  plagarum quia sunt expertia, sicut inane est,

  quod manet intactum neque ab ictu fungitur hilum,

  aut etiam quia nulla loci sit copia circum,

  360 quo quasi res possint discedere dissoluique,

  sicut summarum summa est aeterna, neque extra

  qui locus est quo dissiliant neque corpora sunt quae

  possint incidere et valida dissolvere plaga.

  [323] and must be replenished, when it takes things back.

  Again, if there was no birth-time of earth and heaven and they have been from everlasting, why before the Theban war and the destruction of Troy have not other poets as well sung other themes?