Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

7574

Lucretius Carus, On The Nature Of Things, 5.194-5.508
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Quod si iam rerum ignorem primordia quae sint But knew I never what The seeds primordial were, yet would I dare This to affirm, even from deep judgments based Upon the ways and conduct of the skies- This to maintain by many a fact besides- That in no wise the nature of all things For us was fashioned by a power divine- So great the faults it stands encumbered with. First, mark all regions which are overarched By the prodigious reaches of the sky: One yawning part thereof the mountain-chains And forests of the beasts do have and hold; And cliffs, and desert fens, and wastes of sea (Which sunder afar the beaches of the lands) Possess it merely; and, again, thereof Well-nigh two-thirds intolerable heat And a perpetual fall of frost doth rob From mortal kind. And what is left to till, Even that the force of nature would o'errun With brambles, did not human force oppose,- Long wont for livelihood to groan and sweat Over the two-pronged mattock and to cleave The soil in twain by pressing on the plough. . . . . . . Unless, by the ploughshare turning the fruitful clods And kneading the mould, we quicken into birth, [The crops] spontaneously could not come up Into the free bright air. Even then sometimes, When things acquired by the sternest toil Are now in leaf, are now in blossom all, Either the skiey sun with baneful heats Parches, or sudden rains or chilling rime Destroys, or flaws of winds with furious whirl Torment and twist. Beside these matters, why Doth nature feed and foster on land and sea The dreadful breed of savage beasts, the foes Of the human clan? Why do the seasons bring Distempers with them? Wherefore stalks at large Death, so untimely? Then, again, the babe, Like to the castaway of the raging surf, Lies naked on the ground, speechless, in want Of every help for life, when nature first Hath poured him forth upon the shores of light With birth-pangs from within the mother's womb, And with a plaintive wail he fills the place,- As well befitting one for whom remains In life a journey through so many ills. But all the flocks and herds and all wild beasts Come forth and grow, nor need the little rattles, Nor must be treated to the humouring nurse's Dear, broken chatter; nor seek they divers clothes To suit the changing skies; nor need, in fine, Nor arms, nor lofty ramparts, wherewithal Their own to guard- because the earth herself And nature, artificer of the world, bring forth Aboundingly all things for all. THE WORLD IS NOT ETERNAL And first, Since body of earth and water, air's light breath, And fiery exhalations (of which four This sum of things is seen to be compact) So all have birth and perishable frame, Thus the whole nature of the world itself Must be conceived as perishable too. For, verily, those things of which we see The parts and members to have birth in time And perishable shapes, those same we mark To be invariably born in time And born to die. And therefore when I see The mightiest members and the parts of this Our world consumed and begot again, 'Tis mine to know that also sky above And earth beneath began of old in time And shall in time go under to disaster. And lest in these affairs thou deemest me To have seized upon this point by sleight to serve My own caprice- because I have assumed That earth and fire are mortal things indeed, And have not doubted water and the air Both perish too and have affirmed the same To be again begotten and wax big- Mark well the argument: in first place, lo, Some certain parts of earth, grievously parched By unremitting suns, and trampled on By a vast throng of feet, exhale abroad A powdery haze and flying clouds of dust, Which the stout winds disperse in the whole air. A part, moreover, of her sod and soil Is summoned to inundation by the rains; And rivers graze and gouge the banks away. Besides, whatever takes a part its own In fostering and increasing [aught]... . . . . . . Is rendered back; and since, beyond a doubt, Earth, the all-mother, is beheld to be Likewise the common sepulchre of things, Therefore thou seest her minished of her plenty, And then again augmented with new growth.
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Quod super est, umore novo mare flumina fontes And for the rest, that sea, and streams, and springs Forever with new waters overflow, And that perennially the fluids well, Needeth no words- the mighty flux itself Of multitudinous waters round about Declareth this. But whatso water first Streams up is ever straightway carried off, And thus it comes to pass that all in all There is no overflow; in part because The burly winds (that over-sweep amain) And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves) Do minish the level seas; in part because The water is diffused underground Through all the lands. The brine is filtered off, And then the liquid stuff seeps back again And all regathers at the river-heads, Whence in fresh-water currents on it flows Over the lands, adown the channels which Were cleft erstwhile and erstwhile bore along The liquid-footed floods.
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Aera Aëra nunc igitur dicam, qui corpore toto Now, then, of air I'll speak, which hour by hour in all its body Is changed innumerably. For whatso'er Streams up in dust or vapour off of things, The same is all and always borne along Into the mighty ocean of the air; And did not air in turn restore to things Bodies, and thus recruit them as they stream, All things by this time had resolved been And changed into air. Therefore it never Ceases to be engendered off of things And to return to things, since verily In constant flux do all things stream.
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Largus item liquidi fons luminis, aetherius sol Likewise, The abounding well-spring of the liquid light, The ethereal sun, doth flood the heaven o'er With constant flux of radiance ever new, And with fresh light supplies the place of light, Upon the instant. For whatever effulgence Hath first streamed off, no matter where it falls, Is lost unto the sun. And this 'tis thine To know from these examples: soon as clouds Have first begun to under-pass the sun, And, as it were, to rend the rays of light In twain, at once the lower part of them Is lost entire, and earth is overcast Where'er the thunderheads are rolled along- So know thou mayst that things forever need A fresh replenishment of gleam and glow, And each effulgence, foremost flashed forth, Perisheth one by one. Nor otherwise Can things be seen in sunlight, lest alway The fountain-head of light supply new light. Indeed your earthly beacons of the night, The hanging lampions and the torches, bright With darting gleams and dense with livid soot, Do hurry in like manner to supply With ministering heat new light amain; Are all alive to quiver with their fires,- Are so alive, that thus the light ne'er leaves The spots it shines on, as if rent in twain: So speedily is its destruction veiled By the swift birth of flame from all the fires. Thus, then, we must suppose that sun and moon And stars dart forth their light from under-births Ever and ever new, and whatso flames First rise do perish always one by one- Lest, haply, thou shouldst think they each endure Inviolable.
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Denique non lapides quoque vinci cernis ab aevo Again, perceivest not How stones are also conquered by Time?- Not how the lofty towers ruin down, And boulders crumble?- Not how shrines of gods And idols crack outworn?- Nor how indeed The holy Influence hath yet no power There to postpone the Terminals of Fate, Or headway make 'gainst Nature's fixed decrees? Again, behold we not the monuments Of heroes, now in ruins, asking us, In their turn likewise, if we don't believe They also age with eld? Behold we not The rended basalt ruining amain Down from the lofty mountains, powerless To dure and dree the mighty forces there Of finite time?- for they would never fall Rended asudden, if from infinite Past They had prevailed against all engin'ries Of the assaulting aeons, with no crash.
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Denique iam tuere hoc, circum supraque quod omne Again, now look at This, which round, above, Contains the whole earth in its one embrace: If from itself it procreates all things- As some men tell- and takes them to itself When once destroyed, entirely must it be Of mortal birth and body; for whate'er From out itself giveth to other things Increase and food, the same perforce must be Minished, and then recruited when it takes Things back into itself.
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Praeterea si nulla fuit genitalis origo Besides all this, If there had been no origin-in-birth Of lands and sky, and they had ever been The everlasting, why, ere Theban war And obsequies of Troy, have other bards Not also chanted other high affairs? Whither have sunk so oft so many deeds Of heroes? Why do those deeds live no more, Ingrafted in eternal monuments Of glory? Verily, I guess, because The Sum is new, and of a recent date The nature of our universe, and had Not long ago its own exordium. Wherefore, even now some arts are being still Refined, still increased: now unto ships Is being added many a new device; And but the other day musician-folk Gave birth to melic sounds of organing; And, then, this nature, this account of things Hath been discovered latterly, and I Myself have been discovered only now, As first among the first, able to turn The same into ancestral Roman speech. Yet if, percase, thou deemest that ere this Existed all things even the same, but that Perished the cycles of the human race In fiery exhalations, or cities fell By some tremendous quaking of the world, Or rivers in fury, after constant rains, Had plunged forth across the lands of earth And whelmed the towns- then, all the more must thou Confess, defeated by the argument, That there shall be annihilation too Of lands and sky. For at a time when things Were being taxed by maladies so great, And so great perils, if some cause more fell Had then assailed them, far and wide they would Have gone to disaster and supreme collapse. And by no other reasoning are we Seen to be mortal, save that all of us Sicken in turn with those same maladies With which have sickened in the past those men Whom nature hath removed from life.
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Praeterea quae cumque manent aeterna necessust Again, Whatever abides eternal must indeed Either repel all strokes, because 'tis made Of solid body, and permit no entrance Of aught with power to sunder from within The parts compact- as are those seeds of stuff Whose nature we've exhibited before; Or else be able to endure through time For this: because they are from blows exempt, As is the void, the which abides untouched, Unsmit by any stroke; or else because There is no room around, whereto things can, As 'twere, depart in dissolution all,- Even as the sum of sums eternal is, Without or place beyond whereto things may Asunder fly, or bodies which can smite, And thus dissolve them by the blows of might. But not of solid body, as I've shown, Exists the nature of the world, because In things is intermingled there a void; Nor is the world yet as the void, nor are, Moreover, bodies lacking which, percase, Rising from out the infinite, can fell With fury-whirlwinds all this sum of things, Or bring upon them other cataclysm Of peril strange; and yonder, too, abides The infinite space and the profound abyss- Whereinto, lo, the ramparts of the world Can yet be shivered. Or some other power Can pound upon them till they perish all. Thus is the door of doom, O nowise barred Against the sky, against the sun and earth And deep-sea waters, but wide open stands And gloats upon them, monstrous and agape. Wherefore, again, 'tis needful to confess That these same things are born in time; for things Which are of mortal body could indeed Never from infinite past until to-day Have spurned the multitudinous assaults Of the immeasurable aeons old.
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Denique tantopere inter se cum maxima mundi Again, since battle so fiercely one with other The four most mighty members the world, Aroused in an all unholy war, Seest not that there may be for them an end Of the long strife?- Or when the skiey sun And all the heat have won dominion o'er The sucked-up waters all?- And this they try Still to accomplish, though as yet they fail,- For so aboundingly the streams supply New store of waters that 'tis rather they Who menace the world with inundations vast From forth the unplumbed chasms of the sea. But vain- since winds (that over-sweep amain) And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves) Do minish the level seas and trust their power To dry up all, before the waters can Arrive at the end of their endeavouring. Breathing such vasty warfare, they contend In balanced strife the one with other still Concerning mighty issues,- though indeed The fire was once the more victorious, And once- as goes the tale- the water won A kingdom in the fields. For fire o'ermastered And licked up many things and burnt away, What time the impetuous horses of the Sun Snatched Phaethon headlong from his skiey road Down the whole ether and over all the lands. But the omnipotent Father in keen wrath Then with the sudden smite of thunderbolt Did hurl the mighty-minded hero off Those horses to the earth. And Sol, his sire, Meeting him as he fell, caught up in hand The ever-blazing lampion of the world, And drave together the pell-mell horses there And yoked them all a-tremble, and amain, Steering them over along their own old road, Restored the cosmos,- as forsooth we hear From songs of ancient poets of the Greeks- A tale too far away from truth, meseems. For fire can win when from the infinite Has risen a larger throng of particles Of fiery stuff; and then its powers succumb, Somehow subdued again, or else at last It shrivels in torrid atmospheres the world. And whilom water too began to win- As goes the story- when it overwhelmed The lives of men with billows; and thereafter, When all that force of water-stuff which forth From out the infinite had risen up Did now retire, as somehow turned aside, The rain-storms stopped, and streams their fury checked. FORMATION OF THE WORLD AND ASTRONOMICAL QUESTIONS But in what modes that conflux of first-stuff Did found the multitudinous universe Of earth, and sky, and the unfathomed deeps Of ocean, and courses of the sun and moon, I'll now in order tell. For of a truth Neither by counsel did the primal germs 'Stablish themselves, as by keen act of mind, Each in its proper place; nor did they make, Forsooth, a compact how each germ should move; But, lo, because primordials of things, Many in many modes, astir by blows From immemorial aeons, in motion too By their own weights, have evermore been wont To be so borne along and in all modes To meet together and to try all sorts Which, by combining one with other, they Are powerful to create: because of this It comes to pass that those primordials, Diffused far and wide through mighty aeons, The while they unions try, and motions too, Of every kind, meet at the last amain, And so become oft the commencements fit Of mighty things- earth, sea, and sky, and race Of living creatures.
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Hic neque tum solis rota cerni lumine largo In that long-ago The wheel of the sun could nowhere be discerned Flying far up with its abounding blaze, Nor constellations of the mighty world, Nor ocean, nor heaven, nor even earth nor air. Nor aught of things like unto things of ours Could then be seen- but only some strange storm And a prodigious hurly-burly mass Compounded of all kinds of primal germs, Whose battling discords in disorder kept Interstices, and paths, coherencies, And weights, and blows, encounterings, and motions, Because, by reason of their forms unlike And varied shapes, they could not all thuswise Remain conjoined nor harmoniously Have interplay of movements. But from there Portions began to fly asunder, and like With like to join, and to block out a world, And to divide its members and dispose Its mightier parts- that is, to set secure The lofty heavens from the lands, and cause The sea to spread with waters separate, And fires of ether separate and pure Likewise to congregate apart.
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Quippe etenim primum terrai corpora quaeque For, lo, First came together the earthy particles (As being heavy and intertangled) there In the mid-region, and all began to take The lowest abodes; and ever the more they got One with another intertangled, the more They pressed from out their mass those particles Which were to form the sea, the stars, the sun, And moon, and ramparts of the mighty world- For these consist of seeds more smooth and round And of much smaller elements than earth. And thus it was that ether, fraught with fire, First broke away from out the earthen parts, Through the innumerable pores of earth, And raised itself aloft, and with itself Bore lightly off the many starry fires; And not far otherwise we often see . . . . . . And the still lakes and the perennial streams Exhale a mist, and even as earth herself Is seen at times to smoke, when first at dawn The light of the sun, the many-rayed, begins To redden into gold, over the grass Begemmed with dew. When all of these are brought Together overhead, the clouds on high With now concreted body weave a cover Beneath the heavens. And thuswise ether too, Light and diffusive, with concreted body On all sides spread, on all sides bent itself Into a dome, and, far and wide diffused On unto every region on all sides, Thus hedged all else within its greedy clasp. Hard upon ether came the origins Of sun and moon, whose globes revolve in air Midway between the earth and mightiest ether,- For neither took them, since they weighed too little To sink and settle, but too much to glide Along the upmost shores; and yet they are In such a wise midway between the twain As ever to whirl their living bodies round, And ever to dure as parts of the wide Whole; In the same fashion as certain members may In us remain at rest, whilst others move. When, then, these substances had been withdrawn, Amain the earth, where now extend the vast Cerulean zones of all the level seas, Caved in, and down along the hollows poured The whirlpools of her brine; and day by day The more the tides of ether and rays of sun On every side constrained into one mass The earth by lashing it again, again, Upon its outer edges (so that then, Being thus beat upon, 'twas all condensed About its proper centre), ever the more The salty sweat, from out its body squeezed, Augmented ocean and the fields of foam By seeping through its frame, and all the more Those many particles of heat and air Escaping, began to fly aloft, and form, By condensation there afar from earth, The high refulgent circuits of the heavens. The plains began to sink, and windy slopes Of the high mountains to increase; for rocks Could not subside, nor all the parts of ground Settle alike to one same level there.
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Sic igitur terrae concreto corpore pondus Thus, then, the massy weight of earth stood firm With now concreted body, when (as 'twere) All of the slime of the world, heavy and gross, Had run together and settled at the bottom, Like lees or bilge. Then ocean, then the air, Then ether herself, the fraught-with-fire, were all Left with their liquid bodies pure and free, And each more lighter than the next below; And ether, most light and liquid of the three, Floats on above the long aerial winds, Nor with the brawling of the winds of air Mingles its liquid body. It doth leave All there- those under-realms below her heights- There to be overset in whirlwinds wild,- Doth leave all there to brawl in wayward gusts, Whilst, gliding with a fixed impulse still, Itself it bears its fires along. For, lo, That ether can flow thus steadily on, on, With one unaltered urge, the Pontus proves- That sea which floweth forth with fixed tides, Keeping one onward tenor as it glides.
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Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

3 results
1. Lucretius Carus, On The Nature of Things, 1.44-1.49, 1.62-1.79, 1.103, 1.117-1.119, 1.124, 1.129, 1.202, 1.328, 1.370-1.371, 1.442, 1.471-1.482, 1.486, 1.505, 1.586, 1.593, 1.624, 1.634, 1.638, 1.741, 1.856, 1.926-1.927, 1.955, 1.968-1.983, 1.992, 1.999, 1.1082, 2.242, 2.302, 2.573, 2.605, 2.646-2.651, 2.1042-2.1043, 2.1090-2.1104, 2.1129, 3.3, 3.17, 3.27, 3.416, 3.523-3.525, 3.948, 3.997, 4.12-4.39, 4.481, 4.488, 4.1119, 4.1210, 4.1285, 5.43-5.51, 5.76-5.90, 5.99, 5.109-5.125, 5.129, 5.136, 5.146-5.193, 5.195-5.234, 5.306, 5.310, 5.343, 5.727-5.730, 5.735, 5.1104, 5.1271, 5.1321, 5.1439, 5.1444, 6.32, 6.60, 6.379-6.422, 6.708, 6.906-6.907 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 1.44. omnis enim per se divum natura necessest 1.45. immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur 1.46. semota ab nostris rebus seiunctaque longe; 1.47. nam privata dolore omni, privata periclis 1.48. ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri 1.49. nec bene promeritis capitur nec tangitur ira. 1.62. Humana ante oculos foede cum vita iaceret 1.63. in terris oppressa gravi sub religione 1.64. quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat 1.65. horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans 1.66. primum Graius homo mortalis tollere contra 1.67. est oculos ausus primusque obsistere contra; 1.68. quem neque fama deum nec fulmina nec minitanti 1.69. murmure compressit caelum, sed eo magis acrem 1.70. inritat animi virtutem, effringere ut arta 1.71. naturae primus portarum claustra cupiret. 1.72. ergo vivida vis animi pervicit et extra 1.73. processit longe flammantia moenia mundi 1.74. atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque 1.75. unde refert nobis victor quid possit oriri 1.76. quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique 1.77. qua nam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens. 1.78. quare religio pedibus subiecta vicissim 1.79. opteritur, nos exaequat victoria caelo. 1.103. terriloquis victus dictis desciscere quaeres. 1.117. Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno 1.118. detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam 1.119. per gentis Italas hominum quae clara clueret; 1.124. unde sibi exortam semper florentis Homeri 1.129. qua fiant ratione, et qua vi quaeque gerantur 1.202. multaque vivendo vitalia vincere saecla 1.328. corporibus caecis igitur natura gerit res. 1.370. Illud in his rebus ne te deducere vero 1.371. possit, quod quidam fingunt, praecurrere cogor. 1.442. aut erit ut possint in eo res esse gerique. 1.471. denique materies si rerum nulla fuisset 1.472. nec locus ac spatium, res in quo quaeque geruntur 1.473. numquam Tyndaridis forma conflatus amore 1.474. ignis Alexandri Phrygio sub pectore gliscens 1.475. clara accendisset saevi certamina belli 1.476. nec clam durateus Troiianis Pergama partu 1.477. inflammasset equos nocturno Graiiugenarum; 1.478. perspicere ut possis res gestas funditus omnis 1.479. non ita uti corpus per se constare neque esse 1.480. nec ratione cluere eadem qua constet ie 1.481. sed magis ut merito possis eventa vocare 1.482. corporis atque loci, res in quo quaeque gerantur. 1.486. stinguere; nam solido vincunt ea corpore demum. 1.505. corporis atque loci, res in quo quaeque geruntur 1.586. et quid quaeque queant per foedera naturai 1.593. commutari aliqua possent ratione revicta 1.624. credere posse animum, victus fateare necessest 1.634. concursus motus, per quas res quaeque geruntur. 1.638. Heraclitus init quorum dux proelia primus 1.741. et graviter magni magno cecidere ibi casu. 1.856. ex oculis nostris aliqua vi victa perire. 1.926. avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante 1.927. trita solo. iuvat integros accedere fontis 1.955. seu locus ac spatium, res in quo quaeque gerantur 1.968. Praeterea si iam finitum constituatur 1.969. omne quod est spatium, si quis procurrat ad oras 1.970. ultimus extremas iaciatque volatile telum 1.971. id validis utrum contortum viribus ire 1.972. quo fuerit missum mavis longeque volare 1.973. an prohibere aliquid censes obstareque posse? 1.974. alterutrum fatearis enim sumasque necessest. 1.975. quorum utrumque tibi effugium praecludit et omne 1.976. cogit ut exempta concedas fine patere. 1.977. nam sive est aliquid quod probeat efficiatque 1.978. quo minus quo missum est veniat finique locet se 1.979. sive foras fertur, non est a fine profectum. 1.980. hoc pacto sequar atque, oras ubi cumque locaris 1.981. extremas, quaeram: quid telo denique fiet? 1.982. fiet uti nusquam possit consistere finis 1.983. effugiumque fugae prolatet copia semper. 1.992. at nunc ni mirum requies data principiorum 1.999. aer dissaepit collis atque aera montes 1.1082. res in concilium medii cuppedine victae. 2.242. qui varient motus, per quos natura gerat res. 2.302. quantum cuique datum est per foedera naturai. 2.573. sic aequo geritur certamine principiorum 2.605. officiis debet molliri victa parentum. 2.646. omnis enim per se divom natura necessest 2.647. inmortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur 2.648. semota ab nostris rebus seiunctaque longe; 2.649. nam privata dolore omni, privata periclis 2.650. ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri 2.651. nec bene promeritis capitur neque tangitur ira. 2.1042. iudicio perpende, et si tibi vera videntur 2.1043. dede manus, aut, si falsum est, accingere contra. 2.1090. Quae bene cognita si teneas, natura videtur 2.1091. libera continuo, dominis privata superbis 2.1092. ipsa sua per se sponte omnia dis agere expers. 2.1093. nam pro sancta deum tranquilla pectora pace 2.1094. quae placidum degunt aevom vitamque serenam 2.1095. quis regere immensi summam, quis habere profundi 2.1096. indu manu validas potis est moderanter habenas 2.1097. quis pariter caelos omnis convertere et omnis 2.1098. ignibus aetheriis terras suffire feracis 2.1099. omnibus inve locis esse omni tempore praesto 2.1100. nubibus ut tenebras faciat caelique serena 2.1101. concutiat sonitu, tum fulmina mittat et aedis 2.1102. saepe suas disturbet et in deserta recedens 2.1103. saeviat exercens telum, quod saepe nocentes 2.1104. praeterit exanimatque indignos inque merentes? 2.1129. multa manus dandum est; sed plura accedere debent 3.3. te sequor, o Graiae gentis decus, inque tuis nunc 3.17. discedunt. totum video per ie geri res. 3.27. sub pedibus quae cumque infra per ie geruntur. 3.416. hoc anima atque animus vincti sunt foedere semper. 3.523. usque adeo falsae rationi vera videtur 3.524. res occurrere et effugium praecludere eunti 3.525. ancipitique refutatu convincere falsum. 3.948. omnia si perges vivendo vincere saecla 3.997. imbibit et semper victus tristisque recedit. 4.12. cum dare cotur, prius oras pocula circum 4.13. contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore 4.14. ut puerorum aetas inprovida ludificetur 4.15. labrorum tenus, interea perpotet amarum 4.16. absinthi laticem deceptaque non capiatur 4.17. sed potius tali facto recreata valescat 4.18. sic ego nunc, quoniam haec ratio plerumque videtur 4.19. tristior esse quibus non est tractata, retroque 4.20. volgus abhorret ab hac, volui tibi suaviloquenti 4.21. carmine Pierio rationem exponere nostram 4.22. et quasi musaeo dulci contingere melle; 4.23. si tibi forte animum tali ratione tenere 4.24. versibus in nostris possem, dum percipis omnem 4.25. naturam rerum ac persentis utilitatem. 4.26. Sed quoniam docui cunctarum exordia rerum 4.27. qualia sint et quam variis distantia formis 4.28. sponte sua volitent aeterno percita motu 4.29. quoque modo possit res ex his quaeque creari 4.30. nunc agere incipiam tibi quod vehementer ad has res 4.31. attinet esse ea quae rerum simulacra vocamus 4.32. quae quasi membranae vel cortex nominitandast 4.33. atque animi quoniam docui natura quid esset 4.34. et quibus e rebus cum corpore compta vigeret 4.35. quove modo distracta rediret in ordia prima 4.36. nunc agere incipiam tibi, quod vehementer ad has res 4.37. attinet esse ea quae rerum simulacra vocamus 4.38. quod speciem ac formam similem gerit eius imago 4.39. cuius cumque cluet de corpore fusa vagari; 4.481. sponte sua veris quod possit vincere falsa. 4.488. an confutabunt nares oculive revincent? 4.1119. nec reperire malum id possunt quae machina vincat. 4.1210. femina vim vicit subita vi corripuitque 4.1285. vincitur in longo spatio tamen atque labascit. 5.43. at nisi purgatumst pectus, quae proelia nobis 5.44. atque pericula tumst ingratis insinuandum! 5.45. quantae tum scindunt hominem cuppedinis acres 5.46. sollicitum curae quantique perinde timores! 5.47. quidve superbia spurcitia ac petulantia? quantas 5.48. efficiunt clades! quid luxus desidiaeque? 5.49. haec igitur qui cuncta subegerit ex animoque 5.50. expulerit dictis, non armis, nonne decebit 5.51. hunc hominem numero divom dignarier esse? 5.76. praeterea solis cursus lunaeque meatus 5.77. expediam qua vi flectat natura gubers; 5.78. ne forte haec inter caelum terramque reamur 5.79. libera sponte sua cursus lustrare perennis 5.80. morigera ad fruges augendas atque animantis 5.81. neve aliqua divom volvi ratione putemus. 5.82. nam bene qui didicere deos securum agere aevom 5.83. si tamen interea mirantur qua ratione 5.84. quaeque geri possint, praesertim rebus in illis 5.85. quae supera caput aetheriis cernuntur in oris 5.86. rursus in antiquas referuntur religiones 5.87. et dominos acris adsciscunt, omnia posse 5.88. quos miseri credunt, ignari quid queat esse 5.89. quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique 5.90. qua nam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens. 5.99. et quam difficile id mihi sit pervincere dictis; 5.109. succidere horrisono posse omnia victa fragore. 5.110. Qua prius adgrediar quam de re fundere fata 5.111. sanctius et multo certa ratione magis quam 5.112. Pythia quae tripode a Phoebi lauroque profatur 5.113. multa tibi expediam doctis solacia dictis; 5.114. religione refrenatus ne forte rearis 5.115. terras et solem et caelum, mare sidera lunam 5.116. corpore divino debere aeterna manere 5.117. proptereaque putes ritu par esse Gigantum 5.118. pendere eos poenas inmani pro scelere omnis 5.119. qui ratione sua disturbent moenia mundi 5.120. praeclarumque velint caeli restinguere solem 5.121. inmortalia mortali sermone notantes; 5.122. quae procul usque adeo divino a numine distent 5.123. inque deum numero quae sint indigna videri 5.124. notitiam potius praebere ut posse putentur 5.125. quid sit vitali motu sensuque remotum. 5.129. nubes esse queunt neque pisces vivere in arvis 5.136. posset et innasci quavis in parte soleret 5.146. Illud item non est ut possis credere, sedes 5.147. esse deum sanctas in mundi partibus ullis. 5.148. tenvis enim natura deum longeque remota 5.149. sensibus ab nostris animi vix mente videtur; 5.150. quae quoniam manuum tactum suffugit et ictum 5.151. tactile nil nobis quod sit contingere debet; 5.152. tangere enim non quit quod tangi non licet ipsum. 5.153. quare etiam sedes quoque nostris sedibus esse 5.154. dissimiles debent, tenues de corpore eorum; 5.155. quae tibi posterius largo sermone probabo. 5.156. Dicere porro hominum causa voluisse parare 5.157. praeclaram mundi naturam proptereaque 5.158. adlaudabile opus divom laudare decere 5.159. aeternumque putare atque inmortale futurum 5.160. nec fas esse, deum quod sit ratione vetusta 5.161. gentibus humanis fundatum perpetuo aevo 5.162. sollicitare suis ulla vi ex sedibus umquam 5.163. nec verbis vexare et ab imo evertere summa 5.164. cetera de genere hoc adfingere et addere, Memmi 5.165. desiperest. quid enim inmortalibus atque beatis 5.166. gratia nostra queat largirier emolumenti 5.167. ut nostra quicquam causa gerere adgrediantur? 5.168. quidve novi potuit tanto post ante quietos 5.169. inlicere ut cuperent vitam mutare priorem? 5.170. nam gaudere novis rebus debere videtur 5.171. cui veteres obsunt; sed cui nihil accidit aegri 5.172. tempore in ante acto, cum pulchre degeret aevom 5.173. quid potuit novitatis amorem accendere tali? 5.174. quidve mali fuerat nobis non esse creatis? 5.175. an, credo, in tenebris vita ac maerore iacebat 5.176. donec diluxit rerum genitalis origo? 5.177. natus enim debet qui cumque est velle manere 5.178. in vita, donec retinebit blanda voluptas; 5.179. qui numquam vero vitae gustavit amorem 5.180. nec fuit in numero, quid obest non esse creatum? 5.181. exemplum porro gignundis rebus et ipsa 5.182. notities hominum divis unde insita primum est 5.183. quid vellent facere ut scirent animoque viderent 5.184. quove modost umquam vis cognita principiorum 5.185. quidque inter sese permutato ordine possent. 5.186. si non ipsa dedit speciem natura creandi? 5.187. namque ita multa modis multis primordia rerum 5.188. ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis 5.189. ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri 5.190. omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertemptare 5.191. quae cumque inter se possint congressa creare 5.192. ut non sit mirum, si in talis disposituras 5.193. deciderunt quoque et in talis venere meatus 5.195. Quod si iam rerum ignorem primordia quae sint 5.196. hoc tamen ex ipsis caeli rationibus ausim 5.197. confirmare aliisque ex rebus reddere multis 5.198. nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam 5.199. naturam rerum: tanta stat praedita culpa. 5.200. principio quantum caeli tegit impetus ingens 5.201. inde avidam partem montes silvaeque ferarum 5.202. possedere, tenent rupes vastaeque paludes 5.203. et mare, quod late terrarum distinet oras. 5.204. inde duas porro prope partis fervidus ardor 5.205. adsiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert. 5.206. quod super est arvi, tamen id natura sua vi 5.207. sentibus obducat, ni vis humana resistat 5.208. vitai causa valido consueta bidenti 5.209. ingemere et terram pressis proscindere aratris. 5.210. si non fecundas vertentes vomere glebas 5.211. terraique solum subigentes cimus ad ortus. 5.212. sponte sua nequeant liquidas existere in auras. 5.213. et tamen inter dum magno quaesita labore 5.214. cum iam per terras frondent atque omnia florent 5.215. aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol 5.216. aut subiti peremunt imbris gelidaeque pruinae 5.217. flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant. 5.218. praeterea genus horriferum natura ferarum 5.219. humanae genti infestum terraque marique 5.220. cur alit atque auget? cur anni tempora morbos 5.221. adportant? quare mors inmatura vagatur? 5.222. tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis 5.223. navita, nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni 5.224. vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras 5.225. nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit 5.226. vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequumst 5.227. cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum. 5.228. at variae crescunt pecudes armenta feraeque 5.229. nec crepitacillis opus est nec cuiquam adhibendast 5.230. almae nutricis blanda atque infracta loquella 5.231. nec varias quaerunt vestes pro tempore caeli 5.232. denique non armis opus est, non moenibus altis 5.233. qui sua tutentur, quando omnibus omnia large 5.234. tellus ipsa parit naturaque daedala rerum. 5.306. Denique non lapides quoque vinci cernis ab aevo 5.310. posse neque adversus naturae foedera niti? 5.343. tanto quique magis victus fateare necessest 5.727. ut Babylonica Chaldaeum doctrina refutans 5.728. astrologorum artem contra convincere tendit 5.729. proinde quasi id fieri nequeat quod pugnat uterque 5.730. aut minus hoc illo sit cur amplectier ausis. 5.735. difficilest ratione docere et vincere verbis 5.1104. verberibus radiorum atque aestu victa per agros. 5.1271. ne quiquam, quoniam cedebat victa potestas 5.1321. deplexaeque dabant in terram volnere victos 5.1439. et certa ratione geri rem atque ordine certo. 5.1444. carminibus cum res gestas coepere poetae poëtae 6.32. et quibus e portis occurri cuique deceret 6.60. quorum operum causas nulla ratione videre 6.379. Hoc est igniferi naturam fulminis ipsam 6.380. perspicere et qua vi faciat rem quamque videre 6.381. non Tyrrhena retro volventem carmina frustra 6.382. indicia occultae divum perquirere mentis 6.383. unde volans ignis pervenerit aut in utram se 6.384. verterit hinc partim, quo pacto per loca saepta 6.385. insinuarit, et hinc dominatus ut extulerit se 6.386. quidve nocere queat de caelo fulminis ictus. 6.387. quod si Iuppiter atque alii fulgentia divi 6.388. terrifico quatiunt sonitu caelestia templa 6.389. et iaciunt ignem quo cuiquest cumque voluntas 6.390. cur quibus incautum scelus aversabile cumquest 6.391. non faciunt icti flammas ut fulguris halent 6.392. pectore perfixo, documen mortalibus acre 6.393. et potius nulla sibi turpi conscius in re 6.394. volvitur in flammis innoxius inque peditur 6.395. turbine caelesti subito correptus et igni? 6.396. cur etiam loca sola petunt frustraque laborant? 6.397. an tum bracchia consuescunt firmantque lacertos? 6.398. in terraque patris cur telum perpetiuntur 6.399. optundi? cur ipse sinit neque parcit in hostis? 6.400. denique cur numquam caelo iacit undique puro 6.401. Iuppiter in terras fulmen sonitusque profundit? 6.402. an simul ac nubes successere, ipse in eas tum 6.403. descendit, prope ut hinc teli determinet ictus? 6.404. in mare qua porro mittit ratione? quid undas 6.405. arguit et liquidam molem camposque natantis? 6.406. praeterea si vult caveamus fulminis ictum 6.407. cur dubitat facere ut possimus cernere missum? 6.408. si nec opitis autem volt opprimere igni 6.409. cur tonat ex illa parte, ut vitare queamus 6.410. cur tenebras ante et fremitus et murmura concit? 6.411. et simul in multas partis qui credere possis 6.412. mittere? an hoc ausis numquam contendere factum 6.413. ut fierent ictus uno sub tempore plures? 6.414. at saepest numero factum fierique necessest 6.415. ut pluere in multis regionibus et cadere imbris 6.416. fulmina sic uno fieri sub tempore multa. 6.417. postremo cur sancta deum delubra suasque 6.418. discutit infesto praeclaras fulmine sedes 6.419. et bene facta deum frangit simulacra suisque 6.420. demit imaginibus violento volnere honorem? 6.421. altaque cur plerumque petit loca plurimaque eius 6.422. montibus in summis vestigia cernimus ignis? 6.708. nam ne que eum ferro nec frigore vincere possis 6.906. Quod super est, agere incipiam quo foedere fiat 6.907. naturae, lapis hic ut ferrum ducere possit 1.62. Whilst human kind Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed Before all eyes beneath Religion- who Would show her head along the region skies, Glowering on mortals with her hideous face- A Greek it was who first opposing dared Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand, Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest His dauntless heart to be the first to rend The crossbars at the gates of Nature old. And thus his will and hardy wisdom won; And forward thus he fared afar, beyond The flaming ramparts of the world, until He wandered the unmeasurable All. Whence he to us, a conqueror, reports What things can rise to being, what cannot, And by what law to each its scope prescribed, Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time. Wherefore Religion now is under foot, And us his victory now exalts to heaven. 1.370. Right here I am compelled a question to expound, Forestalling something certain folk suppose, Lest it avail to lead thee off from truth: Waters (they say) before the shining breed of the swift scaly creatures somehow give, And straightway open sudden liquid paths, Because the fishes leave behind them room To which at once the yielding billows stream. Thus things among themselves can yet be moved, And change their place, however full the Sum- Received opinion, wholly false forsooth. For where can scaly creatures forward dart, Save where the waters give them room? Again, Where can the billows yield a way, so long As ever the fish are powerless to go? Thus either all bodies of motion are deprived, Or things contain admixture of a void Where each thing gets its start in moving on. Lastly, where after impact two broad bodies Suddenly spring apart, the air must crowd The whole new void between those bodies formed; But air, however it stream with hastening gusts, Can yet not fill the gap at once- for first It makes for one place, ere diffused through all. And then, if haply any think this comes, When bodies spring apart, because the air Somehow condenses, wander they from truth: For then a void is formed, where none before; And, too, a void is filled which was before. Nor can air be condensed in such a wise; Nor, granting it could, without a void, I hold, It still could not contract upon itself And draw its parts together into one. Wherefore, despite demur and counter-speech, Confess thou must there is a void in things. And still I might by many an argument Here scrape together credence for my words. But for the keen eye these mere footprints serve, Whereby thou mayest know the rest thyself. As dogs full oft with noses on the ground, Find out the silent lairs, though hid in brush, of beasts, the mountain-rangers, when but once They scent the certain footsteps of the way, Thus thou thyself in themes like these alone Can hunt from thought to thought, and keenly wind Along even onward to the secret places And drag out truth. But, if thou loiter loth Or veer, however little, from the point, This I can promise, Memmius, for a fact: Such copious drafts my singing tongue shall pour From the large well-springs of my plenished breast That much I dread slow age will steal and coil Along our members, and unloose the gates of life within us, ere for thee my verse Hath put within thine ears the stores of proofs At hand for one soever question broached. NOTHING EXISTS per se EXCEPT ATOMS AND THE VOID But, now again to weave the tale begun, All nature, then, as self-sustained, consists of twain of things: of bodies and of void In which they're set, and where they're moved around. For common instinct of our race declares That body of itself exists: unless This primal faith, deep-founded, fail us not, Naught will there be whereunto to appeal On things occult when seeking aught to prove By reasonings of mind. Again, without That place and room, which we do call the ie, Nowhere could bodies then be set, nor go Hither or thither at all- as shown before. Besides, there's naught of which thou canst declare It lives disjoined from body, shut from void- A kind of third in nature. For whatever Exists must be a somewhat; and the same, If tangible, however fight and slight, Will yet increase the count of body's sum, With its own augmentation big or small; But, if intangible and powerless ever To keep a thing from passing through itself On any side, 'twill be naught else but that Which we do call the empty, the ie. Again, whate'er exists, as of itself, Must either act or suffer action on it, Or else be that wherein things move and be: Naught, saving body, acts, is acted on; Naught but the ie can furnish room. And thus, Beside the ie and bodies, is no third Nature amid the number of all things- Remainder none to fall at any time Under our senses, nor be seized and seen By any man through reasonings of mind. Name o'er creation with what names thou wilt, Thou'lt find but properties of those first twain, Or see but accidents those twain produce. A property is that which not at all Can be disjoined and severed from a thing Without a fatal dissolution: such, Weight to the rocks, heat to the fire, and flow To the wide waters, touch to corporal things, Intangibility to the viewless void. But state of slavery, pauperhood, and wealth, Freedom, and war, and concord, and all else Which come and go whilst nature stands the same, We're wont, and rightly, to call accidents. Even time exists not of itself; but sense Reads out of things what happened long ago, What presses now, and what shall follow after: No man, we must admit, feels time itself, Disjoined from motion and repose of things. Thus, when they say there "is" the ravishment of Princess Helen, "is" the siege and sack of Trojan Town, look out, they force us not To admit these acts existent by themselves, Merely because those races of mankind (of whom these acts were accidents) long since Irrevocable age has borne away: For all past actions may be said to be But accidents, in one way, of mankind,- In other, of some region of the world. Add, too, had been no matter, and no room Wherein all things go on, the fire of love Upblown by that fair form, the glowing coal Under the Phrygian Alexander's breast, Had ne'er enkindled that renowned strife of savage war, nor had the Wooden HorseInvolved in flames old Pergama, by a birth At midnight of a brood of the Hellenes. And thus thou canst remark that every act At bottom exists not of itself, nor is As body is, nor has like name with void; But rather of sort more fitly to be called An accident of body, and of place Wherein all things go on. CHARACTER OF THE ATOMS Bodies, again, Are partly primal germs of things, and partly Unions deriving from the primal germs. And those which are the primal germs of things No power can quench; for in the end they conquer By their own solidness; though hard it be To think that aught in things has solid frame; For lightnings pass, no less than voice and shout, Through hedging walls of houses, and the iron White-dazzles in the fire, and rocks will burn With exhalations fierce and burst asunder. Totters the rigid gold dissolved in heat; The ice of bronze melts conquered in the flame; Warmth and the piercing cold through silver seep, Since, with the cups held rightly in the hand, We oft feel both, as from above is poured The dew of waters between their shining sides: So true it is no solid form is found. But yet because true reason and nature of things Constrain us, come, whilst in few verses now I disentangle how there still exist Bodies of solid, everlasting frame- The seeds of things, the primal germs we teach, Whence all creation around us came to be. First since we know a twofold nature exists, of things, both twain and utterly unlike- Body, and place in which an things go on- Then each must be both for and through itself, And all unmixed: where'er be empty space, There body's not; and so where body bides, There not at all exists the void ie. Thus primal bodies are solid, without a void. But since there's void in all begotten things, All solid matter must be round the same; Nor, by true reason canst thou prove aught hides And holds a void within its body, unless Thou grant what holds it be a solid. Know, That which can hold a void of things within Can be naught else than matter in union knit. Thus matter, consisting of a solid frame, Hath power to be eternal, though all else, Though all creation, be dissolved away. Again, were naught of empty and ie, The world were then a solid; as, without Some certain bodies to fill the places held, The world that is were but a vacant void. And so, infallibly, alternate-wise Body and void are still distinguished, Since nature knows no wholly full nor void. There are, then, certain bodies, possessed of power To vary forever the empty and the full; And these can nor be sundered from without By beats and blows, nor from within be torn By penetration, nor be overthrown By any assault soever through the world- For without void, naught can be crushed, it seems, Nor broken, nor severed by a cut in twain, Nor can it take the damp, or seeping cold Or piercing fire, those old destroyers three; But the more void within a thing, the more Entirely it totters at their sure assault. Thus if first bodies be, as I have taught, Solid, without a void, they must be then Eternal; and, if matter ne'er had been Eternal, long ere now had all things gone Back into nothing utterly, and all We see around from nothing had been born- But since I taught above that naught can be From naught created, nor the once begotten To naught be summoned back, these primal germs Must have an immortality of frame. And into these must each thing be resolved, When comes its supreme hour, that thus there be At hand the stuff for plenishing the world. . . . . . . So primal germs have solid singleness Nor otherwise could they have been conserved Through aeons and infinity of time For the replenishment of wasted worlds. Once more, if nature had given a scope for things To be forever broken more and more, By now the bodies of matter would have been So far reduced by breakings in old days That from them nothing could, at season fixed, Be born, and arrive its prime and top of life. For, lo, each thing is quicker marred than made; And so whate'er the long infinitude of days and all fore-passed time would now By this have broken and ruined and dissolved, That same could ne'er in all remaining time Be builded up for plenishing the world. But mark: infallibly a fixed bound Remaineth stablished 'gainst their breaking down; Since we behold each thing soever renewed, And unto all, their seasons, after their kind, Wherein they arrive the flower of their age. 5.110. But ere on this I take a step to utter Oracles holier and soundlier based Than ever the Pythian pronounced for men From out the tripod and the Delphian laurel, I will unfold for thee with learned words Many a consolation, lest perchance, Still bridled by religion, thou suppose Lands, sun, and sky, sea, constellations, moon, Must dure forever, as of frame divine- And so conclude that it is just that those, (After the manner of the Giants), should all Pay the huge penalties for monstrous crime, Who by their reasonings do overshake The ramparts of the universe and wish There to put out the splendid sun of heaven, Branding with mortal talk immortal things- Though these same things are even so far removed From any touch of deity and seem So far unworthy of numbering with the gods, That well they may be thought to furnish rather A goodly instance of the sort of things That lack the living motion, living sense. For sure 'tis quite beside the mark to think That judgment and the nature of the mind In any kind of body can exist- Just as in ether can't exist a tree, Nor clouds in the salt sea, nor in the fields Can fishes live, nor blood in timber be, Nor sap in boulders: fixed and arranged Where everything may grow and have its place. Thus nature of mind cannot arise alone Without the body, nor have its being far From thews and blood. Yet if 'twere possible?- Much rather might this very power of mind Be in the head, the shoulders, or the heels, And, born in any part soever, yet In the same man, in the same vessel abide But since within this body even of ours Stands fixed and appears arranged sure Where soul and mind can each exist and grow, Deny we must the more that they can dure Outside the body and the breathing form In rotting clods of earth, in the sun's fire, In water, or in ether's skiey coasts. Therefore these things no whit are furnished With sense divine, since never can they be With life-force quickened. 5.146. Likewise, thou canst ne'er Believe the sacred seats of gods are here In any regions of this mundane world; Indeed, the nature of the gods, so subtle, So far removed from these our senses, scarce Is seen even by intelligence of mind. And since they've ever eluded touch and thrust of human hands, they cannot reach to grasp Aught tangible to us. For what may not Itself be touched in turn can never touch. Wherefore, besides, also their seats must be Unlike these seats of ours,- even subtle too, As meet for subtle essence- as I'll prove Hereafter unto thee with large discourse. Further, to say that for the sake of men They willed to prepare this world's magnificence, And that 'tis therefore duty and behoof To praise the work of gods as worthy praise, And that 'tis sacrilege for men to shake Ever by any force from out their seats What hath been stablished by the Forethought old To everlasting for races of mankind, And that 'tis sacrilege to assault by words And overtopple all from base to beam,- Memmius, such notions to concoct and pile, Is verily- to dote. Our gratefulness, O what emoluments could it confer Upon Immortals and upon the Blessed That they should take a step to manage aught For sake of us? Or what new factor could, After so long a time, inveigle them- The hitherto reposeful- to desire To change their former life? For rather he Whom old things chafe seems likely to rejoice At new; but one that in fore-passed time Hath chanced upon no ill, through goodly years, O what could ever enkindle in such an one Passion for strange experiment? Or what The evil for us, if we had ne'er been born?- As though, forsooth, in darkling realms and woe Our life were lying till should dawn at last The day-spring of creation! Whosoever Hath been begotten wills perforce to stay In life, so long as fond delight detains; But whoso ne'er hath tasted love of life, And ne'er was in the count of living things, What hurts it him that he was never born? Whence, further, first was planted in the gods The archetype for gendering the world And the fore-notion of what man is like, So that they knew and pre-conceived with mind Just what they wished to make? Or how were known Ever the energies of primal germs, And what those germs, by interchange of place, Could thus produce, if nature's self had not Given example for creating all? For in such wise primordials of things, Many in many modes, astir by blows From immemorial aeons, in motion too By their own weights, have evermore been wont To be so borne along and in all modes To meet together and to try all sorts Which, by combining one with other, they Are powerful to create, that thus it is No marvel now, if they have also fallen Into arrangements such, and if they've passed Into vibrations such, as those whereby This sum of things is carried on to-day By fixed renewal. 5.195. But knew I never what The seeds primordial were, yet would I dare This to affirm, even from deep judgments based Upon the ways and conduct of the skies- This to maintain by many a fact besides- That in no wise the nature of all things For us was fashioned by a power divine- So great the faults it stands encumbered with. First, mark all regions which are overarched By the prodigious reaches of the sky: One yawning part thereof the mountain-chains And forests of the beasts do have and hold; And cliffs, and desert fens, and wastes of sea (Which sunder afar the beaches of the lands) Possess it merely; and, again, thereof Well-nigh two-thirds intolerable heat And a perpetual fall of frost doth rob From mortal kind. And what is left to till, Even that the force of nature would o'errun With brambles, did not human force oppose,- Long wont for livelihood to groan and sweat Over the two-pronged mattock and to cleave The soil in twain by pressing on the plough. . . . . . . Unless, by the ploughshare turning the fruitful clods And kneading the mould, we quicken into birth, [The crops] spontaneously could not come up Into the free bright air. Even then sometimes, When things acquired by the sternest toil Are now in leaf, are now in blossom all, Either the skiey sun with baneful heats Parches, or sudden rains or chilling rime Destroys, or flaws of winds with furious whirl Torment and twist. Beside these matters, why Doth nature feed and foster on land and sea The dreadful breed of savage beasts, the foes of the human clan? Why do the seasons bring Distempers with them? Wherefore stalks at large Death, so untimely? Then, again, the babe, Like to the castaway of the raging surf, Lies naked on the ground, speechless, in want of every help for life, when nature first Hath poured him forth upon the shores of light With birth-pangs from within the mother's womb, And with a plaintive wail he fills the place,- As well befitting one for whom remains In life a journey through so many ills. But all the flocks and herds and all wild beasts Come forth and grow, nor need the little rattles, Nor must be treated to the humouring nurse's Dear, broken chatter; nor seek they divers clothes To suit the changing skies; nor need, in fine, Nor arms, nor lofty ramparts, wherewithal Their own to guard- because the earth herself And nature, artificer of the world, bring forth Aboundingly all things for all. THE WORLD IS NOT ETERNAL And first, Since body of earth and water, air's light breath, And fiery exhalations (of which four This sum of things is seen to be compact) So all have birth and perishable frame, Thus the whole nature of the world itself Must be conceived as perishable too. For, verily, those things of which we see The parts and members to have birth in time And perishable shapes, those same we mark To be invariably born in time And born to die. And therefore when I see The mightiest members and the parts of this Our world consumed and begot again, 'Tis mine to know that also sky above And earth beneath began of old in time And shall in time go under to disaster. And lest in these affairs thou deemest me To have seized upon this point by sleight to serve My own caprice- because I have assumed That earth and fire are mortal things indeed, And have not doubted water and the air Both perish too and have affirmed the same To be again begotten and wax big- Mark well the argument: in first place, lo, Some certain parts of earth, grievously parched By unremitting suns, and trampled on By a vast throng of feet, exhale abroad A powdery haze and flying clouds of dust, Which the stout winds disperse in the whole air. A part, moreover, of her sod and soil Is summoned to inundation by the rains; And rivers graze and gouge the banks away. Besides, whatever takes a part its own In fostering and increasing [aught]... . . . . . . Is rendered back; and since, beyond a doubt, Earth, the all-mother, is beheld to be Likewise the common sepulchre of things, Therefore thou seest her minished of her plenty, And then again augmented with new growth. 5.306. Again, perceivest not How stones are also conquered by Time?- Not how the lofty towers ruin down, And boulders crumble?- Not how shrines of gods And idols crack outworn?- Nor how indeed The holy Influence hath yet no power There to postpone the Terminals of Fate, Or headway make 'gainst Nature's fixed decrees? Again, behold we not the monuments of heroes, now in ruins, asking us, In their turn likewise, if we don't believe They also age with eld? Behold we not The rended basalt ruining amain Down from the lofty mountains, powerless To dure and dree the mighty forces there of finite time?- for they would never fall Rended asudden, if from infinite Past They had prevailed against all engin'ries of the assaulting aeons, with no crash. 6.379. This, this it is, O Memmius, to see through The very nature of fire-fraught thunderbolt; O this it is to mark by what blind force It maketh each effect, and not, O not To unwind Etrurian scrolls oracular, Inquiring tokens of occult will of gods, Even as to whence the flying flame hath come, Or to which half of heaven it turns, or how Through walled places it hath wound its way, Or, after proving its dominion there, How it hath speeded forth from thence amain, Or what the thunderstroke portends of ill From out high heaven. But if JupiterAnd other gods shake those refulgent vaults With dread reverberations and hurl fire Whither it pleases each, why smite they not Mortals of reckless and revolting crimes, That such may pant from a transpierced breast Forth flames of the red levin- unto men A drastic lesson?- why is rather he- O he self-conscious of no foul offence- Involved in flames, though innocent, and clasped Up-caught in skiey whirlwind and in fire? Nay, why, then, aim they at eternal wastes, And spend themselves in vain?- perchance, even so To exercise their arms and strengthen shoulders? Why suffer they the Father's javelin To be so blunted on the earth? And why Doth he himself allow it, nor spare the same Even for his enemies? O why most oft Aims he at lofty places? Why behold we Marks of his lightnings most on mountain tops? Then for what reason shoots he at the sea?- What sacrilege have waves and bulk of brine And floating fields of foam been guilty of? Besides, if 'tis his will that we beware Against the lightning-stroke, why feareth he To grant us power for to behold the shot? And, contrariwise, if wills he to o'erwhelm us, Quite off our guard, with fire, why thunders he off in yon quarter, so that we may shun? Why rouseth he beforehand darkling air And the far din and rumblings? And O how Canst thou believe he shoots at one same time Into diverse directions? Or darest thou Contend that never hath it come to pass That divers strokes have happened at one time? But oft and often hath it come to pass, And often still it must, that, even as showers And rains o'er many regions fall, so too Dart many thunderbolts at one same time. Again, why never hurtles JupiterA bolt upon the lands nor pours abroad Clap upon clap, when skies are cloudless all? Or, say, doth he, so soon as ever the clouds Have come thereunder, then into the same Descend in person, that from thence he may Near-by decide upon the stroke of shaft? And, lastly, why, with devastating bolt Shakes he asunder holy shrines of gods And his own thrones of splendour, and to-breaks The well-wrought idols of divinities, And robs of glory his own images By wound of violence? 6.906. Now to other things! And I'll begin to treat by what decree of nature it came to pass that iron can be By that stone drawn which Greeks the magnet call After the country's name (its origin Being in country of Magnesian folk). This stone men marvel at; and sure it oft Maketh a chain of rings, depending, lo, From off itself! Nay, thou mayest see at times Five or yet more in order dangling down And swaying in the delicate winds, whilst one Depends from other, cleaving to under-side, And ilk one feels the stone's own power and bonds- So over-masteringly its power flows down. In things of this sort, much must be made sure Ere thou account of the thing itself canst give, And the approaches roundabout must be; Wherefore the more do I exact of thee A mind and ears attent. First, from all things We see soever, evermore must flow, Must be discharged and strewn about, about, Bodies that strike the eyes, awaking sight. From certain things flow odours evermore, As cold from rivers, heat from sun, and spray From waves of ocean, eater-out of walls Along the coasts. Nor ever cease to seep The varied echoings athrough the air. Then, too, there comes into the mouth at times The wet of a salt taste, when by the sea We roam about; and so, whene'er we watch The wormwood being mixed, its bitter stings. To such degree from all things is each thing Borne streamingly along, and sent about To every region round; and nature grants Nor rest nor respite of the onward flow, Since 'tis incessantly we feeling have, And all the time are suffered to descry And smell all things at hand, and hear them sound.
2. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 10.139 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) 10.139. [A blessed and eternal being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; hence he is exempt from movements of anger and partiality, for every such movement implies weakness [Elsewhere he says that the gods are discernible by reason alone, some being numerically distinct, while others result uniformly from the continuous influx of similar images directed to the same spot and in human form.]Death is nothing to us; for the body, when it has been resolved into its elements, has no feeling, and that which has no feeling is nothing to us.The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together.
3. Porphyry, Letter To Marcella, 24 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) 24. No god is responsible for a man's evils, for he has chosen his lot himself. The prayer which is accompanied by base actions is impure, and |45 therefore not acceptable to God; but that which is accompanied by noble actions is pure, and at the same time acceptable. There are four first principles that must be upheld concerning God—faith, truth, love, hope. We must have faith that our only salvation is in turning to God. And having faith, we must strive with all our might to know the truth about God. And when we know this, we must love Him we do know. And when we love Him we must nourish our souls on good hopes for our life, for it is by their good hopes good men are superior to bad ones. Let then these four principles be firmly held.

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
academy	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 48, 69
anger	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
animals, origin and growth of	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
anthropocentrism	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
antiochus	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 48
chance	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
cicero	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
cosmology	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70, 102
cosmos/universe	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
creationism	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
des places, e.	Simmons, Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian (1995) 139
design/purpose	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
diogenes laertius	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
diogenes of oenoanda	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
ennius	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
epicureanism, theology of	Simmons, Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian (1995) 139
epicurus, on divine kindness	Simmons, Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian (1995) 139
epicurus	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 69; Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
fear	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
gods, divine control (lack of)	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
gods	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
good	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 48
grantor	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 48
hecate	Simmons, Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian (1995) 139
homer	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
imagery, military	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
law, natural/physical	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
law	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
le bonniec	Simmons, Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian (1995) 139
lucretius, natura in	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
lucretius, religion in	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
lucretius, war in	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
materialism	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
matter, divisibility	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 69
matter	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 69
meteorology	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
natura	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
paradox	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
peripatetics/peripatos	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 48
plants	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
plato	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 48, 69
poetry and poetics	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
politics	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
principles/ archai	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 48, 69
proclus	Simmons, Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian (1995) 139
religion, in lucretius	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
theophrastus	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
varro	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 48
velleius, epicurean philosopher'	Simmons, Arnobius of Sicca: Religious Conflict and Competition in the Age of Diocletian (1995) 139
war, and poetry	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
war, in lucretius	Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
xenocrates	Frede and Laks, Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath (2001) 69; Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 102
xenophanes	Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70