s: And blood created out of drops of blood,


s: Conceiving gold compact of grains of gold,


s: And earth concreted out of bits of earth,


s: Fire made of fires, and water out of waters,


s: Feigning the like with all the rest of stuff.


s: Wherefore to me he seems on both accounts


s: To err no less than those we named before.


s: Add too: these germs he feigns are far too frail--


s: If they be germs primordial furnished forth


s: With but same nature as the things themselves,


s: And travail and perish equally with those,


s: And no rein curbs them from annihilation.


s: For which will last against the grip and crush


s: Under the teeth of death? the fire? the moist?


s: Or else the air? which then? the blood? the bones?


s: No one, methinks, when every thing will be


s: To perish by force before our gazing eyes.


s: That things cannot fall back to naught, nor yet


s: From naught increase. And now again, since food


s: 'Tis thine to know our veins and blood and bones


s: And thews are formed of particles unlike


s: To them in kind; or if they say all foods


s: Are of mixed substance having in themselves


s: Small bodies of thews, and bones, and also veins


s: And particles of blood, then every food,


s: As made and mixed of things unlike in kind--


s: Of bones, of thews, of ichor and of blood.


s: From earth, are first within the earth, then earth


s: Which spring and bloom abroad from out the earth.


s: Transfer the argument, and thou may'st use


s: The selfsame words: if flame and smoke and ash


s: Still lurk unseen within the wood, the wood


s: A certain slender means to skulk from truth,


s: Who holds that all things lurk commixed with all


s: While that one only comes to view, of which


s: The bodies exceed in number all the rest,


s: And lie more close to hand and at the fore--


s: For then 'twere meet that kernels of the grains


s: Should oft, when crunched between the might of stones,


s: Give forth a sign of blood, or of aught else


s: Which in our human frame is fed; and that


s: Rock rubbed on rock should yield a gory ooze.


s: Likewise the herbs ought oft to give forth drops


s: Of sweet milk, flavoured like the uddered sheep's;


s: Indeed we ought to find, when crumbling up


s: The earthy clods, there herbs, and grains, and leaves,


s: All sorts dispersed minutely in the soil;


s: Ashes and smoke and bits of fire there hid.


s: But since fact teaches this is not the case,


s: 'Tis thine to know things are not mixed with things


s: Thuswise; but seeds, common to many things,


s: Commixed in many ways, must lurk in things.


s: "But often it happens on skiey hills" thou sayest,


s: "That neighbouring tops of lofty trees are rubbed


s: One against other, smote by the blustering south,


s: Till all ablaze with bursting flower of flame."


s: Good sooth--yet fire is not ingraft in wood,


s: But many are the seeds of heat, and when


s: They start the conflagrations in the forests.


s: Whereas if flame, already fashioned, lay


s: Stored up within the forests, then the fires


s: But would be laying all the wildwood waste


s: And burning all the boscage. Now dost see


s: How mightily it matters with what others,


s: In what positions these same primal germs


s: Are bound together? And what motions, too,


s: They give and get among themselves? how, hence,


s: The same, if altered 'mongst themselves, can body


s: Both igneous and ligneous objects forth--


s: Precisely as these words themselves are made


s: Although we mark with name indeed distinct


s: The igneous from the ligneous. Once again,


s: If thou suppose whatever thou beholdest,


s: Unless thou feign bodies of matter endowed


s: For thee will perish all the germs of things:


s: 'Twill come to pass they'll laugh aloud, like men,


s: Or moisten with salty tear-drops cheeks and chins.


s: Now learn of what remains! More keenly hear!


s: How dark it is: But the large hope of praise


s: Hath strook with pointed thyrsus through my heart;


s: On the same hour hath strook into my breast


s: Sweet love of the Muses, wherewith now instinct,


s: I wander afield, thriving in sturdy thought,


s: Through unpathed haunts of the Pierides,


s: To drain them deep; I joy to pluck new flowers,


s: First, since I teach concerning mighty things,


s: And go right on to loose from round the mind


s: Next, since, concerning themes so dark, I frame


s: Songs so pellucid, touching all throughout


s: Even with the Muses' charm--which, as 'twould seem,


s: But as physicians, when they seek to give


s: Young boys the nauseous wormwood, first do touch


s: The brim around the cup with the sweet juice


s: The thoughtless age of boyhood be cajoled


s: As far as the lips, and meanwhile swallow down


s: The wormwood's bitter draught, and, though befooled,


s: Be yet not merely duped, but rather thus


s: Grow strong again with recreated health:


s: So now I too (since this my doctrine seems


s: Who've had it not in hand, and since the crowd


s: Starts back from it in horror) have desired


s: To expound our doctrine unto thee in song


s: Soft-speaking and Pierian, and, as 'twere,


s: To touch it with sweet honey of the Muse--


s: The mind of thee upon these lines of ours,


s: Till thou see through the nature of all things,


s: But since I've taught that bodies of matter, made


s: Completely solid, hither and thither fly


s: Forevermore unconquered through all time,


s: Now come, and whether to the sum of them


s: Let us unfold; likewise what has been found


s: All and entire, or reach unmeasured round


s: For then 'tmust have forever its beyond.


s: For aught, unless still further on there be


s: A somewhat somewhere that may bound the same--


s: So that the thing be seen still on to where


s: Confess we must there's naught beside the sum,


s: There's no beyond, and so it lacks all end.


s: It matters nothing where thou post thyself,


s: Still leaves about him the unbounded all


s: Outward in all directions; or, supposing


s: If some one farthest traveller runs forth


s: Unto the extreme coasts and throws ahead


s: A flying spear, is't then thy wish to think


s: It goes, hurled off amain, to where 'twas sent


s: And shoots afar, or that some object there


s: Can thwart and stop it? For the one or other


s: Thou must admit and take. Either of which


s: Shuts off escape for thee, and does compel


s: That thou concede the all spreads everywhere,


s: Owning no confines. Since whether there be


s: Aught that may block and check it so it comes


s: Not where 'twas sent, nor lodges in its goal,


s: The extreme coasts, I'll query, "what becomes


s: Thereafter of thy spear?" 'Twill come to pass


s: That nowhere can a world's-end be, and that


s: The chance for further flight prolongs forever


s: The flight itself. Besides, were all the space


s: With fixed coasts, and bounded everywhere,


s: Then would the abundance of world's matter flow


s: Together by solid weight from everywhere


s: Still downward to the bottom of the world,


s: Nor aught could happen under cope of sky,


s: Nor could there be a sky at all or sun--


s: Indeed, where matter all one heap would lie,


s: They might, as 'twere, together flow, and where


s: They might take up their undisturbed abodes.


s: Out of the pit below, from forth the vast,


s: The nature of room, the space of the abyss


s: Is such that even the flashing thunderbolts


s: Can neither speed upon their courses through,


s: Nor, further, bring to pass, as on they run,


s: That they may bate their journeying one whit:


s: Such huge abundance spreads for things around--


s: Thing to bound thing: air hedges hill from hill,


s: And mountain walls hedge air; land ends the sea,


s: And sea in turn all lands; but for the All


s: Truly is nothing which outside may bound.


s: That, too, the sum of things itself may not


s: Great nature guards, she who compels the void


s: To bound all body, as body all the void,


s: Thus rendering by these alternates the whole


s: Nor sea, nor earth, nor shining vaults of sky,


s: Nor breed of mortals, nor holy limbs of gods


s: Could keep their place least portion of an hour:


s: For, driven apart from out its meetings fit,


s: The stock of stuff, dissolved, would be borne


s: Or rather, in fact, would ne'er have once combined


s: And given a birth to aught, since, scattered wide,


s: 'Stablish themselves, as by keen act of mind,


s: Each in its proper place; nor did they make,


s: Forsooth, a compact how each germ should move;


s: But since, being many and changed in many modes


s: Along the All, they're driven abroad and vexed


s: By blow on blow, even from all time of old,


s: The kinds of motion and conjoining, come


s: Into those great arrangements out of which


s: This sum of things established is create,


s: By which, moreover, through the mighty years,


s: It is preserved, when once it has been thrown


s: Into the proper motions, bringing to pass


s: That ever the streams refresh the greedy main


s: With river-waves abounding, and that earth,


s: Renews her broods, and that the lusty race


s: Of breathing creatures bears and blooms, and that


s: What still the primal germs nowise could do,


s: Could come supply of matter, whence in season


s: For as the nature of breathing creatures wastes,


s: So all things have to be dissolved as soon


s: As matter, diverted by what means soever


s: From off its course, shall fail to be on hand.


s: Nor can the blows from outward still conserve,


s: Indeed, by frequent beating, check a part,


s: Till others arriving may fulfil the sum;


s: But meanwhile often are they forced to spring


s: Rebounding back, and, as they spring, to yield,


s: Unto those elements whence a world derives,


s: Room and a time for flight, permitting them


s: Needs must there come a many for supply;


s: And also, that the blows themselves shall be


s: An infinite force of matter all sides round.


s: And in these problems, shrink, my Memmius, far


s: From yielding faith to that notorious talk:


s: That all things inward to the centre press;


s: And thus the nature of the world stands firm


s: With never blows from outward, nor can be


s: Nowhere disparted--since all height and depth


s: Have always inward to the centre pressed


s: (If thou art ready to believe that aught


s: The ponderous bodies which be under earth


s: Do all press upwards and do come to rest


s: Upon the earth, in some way upside down,


s: At present through the waters. They contend,


s: With like procedure, that all breathing things


s: Head downward roam about, and yet cannot


s: Tumble from earth to realms of sky below,


s: That, when those creatures look upon the sun,


s: We view the constellations of the night;


s: But a vain error has given these dreams to fools,


s: Which they've embraced with reasoning perverse


s: For centre none can be where world is still


s: Boundless, nor yet, if now a centre were,


s: Could aught take there a fixed position more


s: Than for some other cause 'tmight be dislodged.


s: For all of room and space we call the void


s: Must both through centre and non-centre yield


s: Alike to weights where'er their motions tend.


s: Nor is there any place, where, when they've come,


s: Bodies can be at standstill in the void,


s: Deprived of force of weight; nor yet may void


s: True to its bent of nature, still give way.


s: Thus in such manner not at all can things


s: Seeing they feign that not all bodies press


s: And the big billows from the mountain slopes,


s: In earthen body), contrariwise, they teach


s: How the thin air, and with it the hot fire,


s: Is borne asunder from the centre, and how,


s: For this all ether quivers with bright stars,


s: And the sun's flame along the blue is fed


s: (Because the heat, from out the centre flying,


s: All gathers there), and how, again, the boughs


s: Upon the tree-tops could not sprout their leaves,


s: Unless, little by little, from out the earth


s: Lest, after the manner of the winged flames,


s: The ramparts of the world should flee away,


s: Dissolved amain throughout the mighty void,


s: And lest all else should likewise follow after,


s: Aye, lest the thundering vaults of heaven should burst


s: And splinter upward, and the earth forthwith


s: Withdraw from under our feet, and all its bulk,


s: Among its mingled wrecks and those of heaven,


s: With slipping asunder of the primal seeds,


s: Should pass, along the immeasurable inane,


s: Of wrack and remnant would be left, beside


s: The desolate space, and germs invisible.


s: The primal bodies lacking, lo, that side


s: Will be for things the very door of death:


s: Wherethrough the throng of matter all will dash,


s: Then, with but paltry trouble led along...


s: For one thing after other will grow clear,


s: Nor shall the blind night rob thee of the road,


s: To hinder thy gaze on nature's Farthest-forth.


s: Thus things for things shall kindle torches new.


s: 'Tis sweet, when, down the mighty main, the winds


s: Roll up its waste of waters, from the land


s: To watch another's labouring anguish far,


s: Should thus be smitten, but because 'tis sweet


s: To mark what evils we ourselves be spared;


s: 'Tis sweet, again, to view the mighty strife


s: Of armies embattled yonder o'er the plains,


s: Ourselves no sharers in the peril; but naught


s: There is more goodly than to hold the high


s: Serene plateaus, well fortressed by the wise,


s: Whence thou may'st look below on other men


s: And see them ev'rywhere wand'ring, all dispersed


s: In their lone seeking for the road of life;


s: Pressing through days and nights with hugest toil


s: For summits of power and mastery of the world.


s: O wretched minds of men! O blinded hearts!


s: In how great perils, in what darks of life


s: Are spent the human years, however brief!--


s: Barks after nothing, save that pain keep off,


s: Disjoined from the body, and that mind enjoy


s: Delightsome feeling, far from care and fear!


s: Therefore we see that our corporeal life


s: Strew underneath some number of delights.


s: More grateful 'tis at times (for nature craves


s: Along the halls, with right hands holding out


s: The lamps ablaze, the lights for evening feasts,


s: And if the house doth glitter not with gold


s: Nor gleam with silver, and to the lyre resound


s: No fretted and gilded ceilings overhead,


s: Yet still to lounge with friends in the soft grass


s: A big tree's boughs, and merrily to refresh


s: Our frames, with no vast outlay--most of all


s: If the weather is laughing and the times of the year


s: Besprinkle the green of the grass around with flowers.


s: Or purple robe, than if 'tis thine to lie


s: Upon the poor man's bedding. Wherefore, since


s: Treasure, nor rank, nor glory of a reign


s: Reckon them likewise nothing for the mind:


s: Save then perchance, when thou beholdest forth


s: Thy legions swarming round the Field of Mars,


s: Strengthened with large auxiliaries and horse,


s: Alike equipped with arms, alike inspired;


s: Thy fleets to swarm, deploying down the sea:


s: For then, by such bright circumstance abashed,


s: Religion pales and flees thy mind; O then


s: The fears of death leave heart so free of care.


s: But if we note how all this pomp at last


s: And of a truth man's dread, with cares at heels,


s: Dreads not these sounds of arms, these savage swords


s: But among kings and lords of all the world


s: By gleam of gold nor by the splendour bright


s: Of purple robe, canst thou then doubt that this


s: Is aught, but power of thinking?--when, besides


s: The whole of life but labours in the dark.


s: For just as children tremble and fear all


s: In the viewless dark, so even we at times


s: Dread in the light so many things that be


s: No whit more fearsome than what children feign,


s: Shuddering, will be upon them in the dark.


s: This terror then, this darkness of the mind,


s: Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,


s: Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,


s: Now by what motions the begetting bodies


s: Of the world-stuff beget the varied world,


s: And by what force they are constrained to this,


s: Wherewith to travel down the vast inane:


s: Do thou remember to yield thee to my words.


s: For truly matter coheres not, crowds not tight,


s: Since we behold each thing to wane away,


s: And we observe how all flows on and off,


s: As 'twere, with age-old time, and from our eyes


s: How eld withdraws each object at the end,


s: Albeit the sum is seen to bide the same,


s: Unharmed, because these motes that leave each thing


s: With increase those to which in turn they come,


s: Constraining these to wither in old age,


s: And those to flower at the prime (and yet


s: Biding not long among them). Thus the sum


s: And like to runners hand the lamp of life


s: That the primordial germs of things can stop,


s: And in their stopping give new motions birth,


s: Afar thou wanderest from the road of truth.


s: For since they wander through the void inane,


s: All the primordial germs of things must needs


s: Be borne along, either by weight their own,


s: They meet and clash, it comes to pass amain


s: They leap asunder, face to face: not strange--


s: Being most hard, and solid in their weights,


s: And naught opposing motion, from behind.


s: And that more clearly thou perceive how all


s: These mites of matter are darted round about,


s: A realm of rest for primal bodies; since


s: (As amply shown and proved by reason sure)


s: Space has no bound nor measure, and extends


s: Unmetered forth in all directions round.


s: Since this stands certain, thus 'tis out of doubt


s: No rest is rendered to the primal bodies


s: Along the unfathomable inane; but rather,


s: Some, at their jamming, bound aback and leave


s: Huge gaps between, and some from off the blow


s: Are hurried about with spaces small between.


s: And all which, brought together with slight gaps,


s: Linked by their own all inter-tangled shapes,--


s: These form the irrefragable roots of rocks


s: And the brute bulks of iron, and what else


s: Leaving huge gaps between: and these supply


s: For us thin air and splendour-lights of the sun.


s: And many besides wander the mighty void--


s: Cast back from unions of existing things,


s: And nowise linked in motions to the rest.


s: An image, a type goes on before our eyes


s: Present each moment; for behold whenever


s: The sun's light and the rays, let in, pour down


s: Across dark halls of houses: thou wilt see


s: Amid a void in the very light of the rays,


s: And in battalions contending without halt,


s: In meetings, partings, harried up and down.


s: From this thou mayest conjecture of what sort


s: The ceaseless tossing of primordial seeds


s: Of knowledge. For this reason too 'tis fit


s: Thou turn thy mind the more unto these bodies


s: Which here are witnessed tumbling in the light:


s: Namely, because such tumblings are a sign


s: Secret and viewless lurk beneath, behind.


s: For thou wilt mark here many a speck, impelled


s: By viewless blows, to change its little course,


s: Hither and thither in all directions round.


s: Lo, all their shifting movement is of old,


s: Primordial seeds of things first move of self,


s: And then those bodies built of unions small


s: And nearest, as it were, unto the powers


s: By impulse of those atoms' unseen blows,


s: And these thereafter goad the next in size:


s: Thus motion ascends from the primevals on,


s: And stage by stage emerges to our sense,


s: Can mark in sunbeams, though it not appears


s: How 'tis that, while the seeds of things are all


s: Moving forever, the sum yet seems to stand


s: A thing shows motion of its frame as whole.


s: The nature of those ultimates of the world;


s: And so, since those themselves thou canst not see,


s: Their motion also must they veil from men--


s: For mark, indeed, how things we can see, oft


s: Yet hide their motions, when afar from us


s: Along the distant landscape. Often thus,


s: Be cropping their goodly food and creeping about


s: Whither the summons of the grass, begemmed


s: With the fresh dew, is calling, and the lambs,


s: Well filled, are frisking, locking horns in sport:


s: Yet all for us seem blurred and blent afar--


s: A glint of white at rest on a green hill.


s: Again, when mighty legions, marching round,


s: Fill all the quarters of the plains below,


s: Rousing a mimic warfare, there the sheen


s: Shoots up the sky, and all the fields about


s: Glitter with brass, and from beneath, a sound


s: Goes forth from feet of stalwart soldiery,


s: And mountain walls, smote by the shouting, send


s: The voices onward to the stars of heaven,


s: And hither and thither darts the cavalry,


s: The solid earth: and yet some post there is


s: Up the high mountains, viewed from which they seem


s: To stand--a gleam at rest along the plains.


s: Now what the speed to matter's atoms given


s: Thou mayest in few, my Memmius, learn from this:


s: When first the dawn is sprinkling with new light


s: The lands, and all the breed of birds abroad


s: Flit round the trackless forests, with liquid notes


s: Filling the regions along the mellow air,


s: At such an hour to overspread and clothe


s: The whole with its own splendour; but the sun's


s: They are compelled more slowly to advance,


s: Whilst, as it were, they cleave the waves of air;


s: Each is restrained by each, and from without


s: Checked, till compelled more slowly to advance.


s: By aught outside them there, and they, each one


s: Being one unit from nature of its parts,


s: Are borne to that one place on which they strive


s: Still to lay hold, must then, beyond a doubt,


s: Outstrip in speed, and be more swiftly borne


s: Than light of sun, and over regions rush,


s: Of space much vaster, in the self-same time


s: The sun's effulgence widens round the sky.


s: To see the law whereby each thing goes on.


s: But some men, ignorant of matter, think,


s: Opposing this, that not without the gods,


s: Can nature change the seasons of the years,


s: And bring to birth the grains and all of else


s: To which divine Delight, the guide of life,


s: That, through her artful blandishments of love,


s: Lest humankind should perish. When they feign


s: That gods have stablished all things but for man,


s: From reason's truth: for ev'n if ne'er I knew


s: What seeds primordial are, yet would I dare


s: This to affirm, ev'n from deep judgment based


s: Upon the ways and conduct of the skies--


s: This to maintain by many a fact besides--


s: So great the faults it stands encumbered with:


s: The which, my Memmius, later on, for thee


s: We will clear up. Now as to what remains


s: Concerning motions we'll unfold our thought.


s: Now is the place, meseems, in these affairs


s: To prove for thee this too: nothing corporeal


s: Of its own force can e'er be upward borne,


s: Or upward go--nor let the bodies of flames


s: Deceive thee here: for they engendered are


s: With urge to upwards, taking thus increase,


s: Whereby grow upwards shining grains and trees,


s: Though all the weight within them downward bears.


s: Nor, when the fires will leap from under round


s: The roofs of houses, and swift flame laps up


s: Timber and beam, 'tis then to be supposed


s: They act of own accord, no force beneath


s: To urge them up. 'Tis thus that blood, discharged


s: From out our bodies, spurts its jets aloft


s: And spatters gore. And hast thou never marked


s: With what a force the water will disgorge


s: Timber and beam? The deeper, straight and down,


s: We push them in, and, many though we be,


s: The more we press with main and toil, the more


s: The water vomits up and flings them back,


s: That, more than half their length, they there emerge,


s: Rebounding. Yet we never doubt, meseems,


s: That all the weight within them downward bears


s: Through empty void. Well, in like manner, flames


s: Ought also to be able, when pressed out,


s: Through winds of air to rise aloft, even though


s: The weight within them strive to draw them down.


s: Hast thou not seen, sweeping so far and high,


s: The meteors, midnight flambeaus of the sky,


s: How after them they draw long trails of flame


s: How stars and constellations drop to earth,


s: Seest not? Nay, too, the sun from peak of heaven


s: Sheds round to every quarter its large heat,


s: And sows the new-ploughed intervales with light:


s: Thus also sun's heat downward tends to earth.


s: Athwart the rain thou seest the lightning fly;


s: Now here, now there, bursting from out the clouds,


s: The fires dash zig-zag--and that flaming power


s: The atoms, as their own weight bears them down


s: Plumb through the void, at scarce determined times,


s: In scarce determined places, from their course


s: Mere changed trend. For were it not their wont


s: Thuswise to swerve, down would they fall, each one,


s: Like drops of rain, through the unbottomed void;


s: And then collisions ne'er could be nor blows


s: The heavier bodies, as more swiftly borne


s: Plumb down the void, are able from above


s: To strike the lighter, thus engendering blows


s: Able to cause those procreant motions, far


s: From highways of true reason they retire.


s: Or through thin air, must quicken their descent,


s: Each after its weight--on this account, because


s: But give more quick before the heavier weight;


s: True to its bent of nature. Wherefore all,


s: With equal speed, though equal not in weight,


s: Must rush, borne downward through the still inane.


s: Thus ne'er at all have heavier from above


s: Been swift to strike the lighter, gendering strokes


s: Which cause those divers motions, by whose means


s: Nature transacts her work. And so I say,


s: The atoms must a little swerve at times--


s: But only the least, lest we should seem to feign


s: Motions oblique, and fact refute us there.


s: Whatever the weight, it can't obliquely go,


s: Down on its headlong journey from above,


s: At least so far as thou canst mark; but who


s: Is there can mark by sense that naught can swerve


s: At all aside from off its road's straight line?


s: Again, if ev'r all motions are co-linked,


s: Produce not by their swerving some new start


s: Of motion to sunder the covenants of fate,


s: That cause succeed not cause from everlasting,


s: Whence this free will for creatures o'er the lands,


s: Whence is it wrested from the fates,--this will


s: Whereby we step right forward where desire


s: Leads each man on, whereby the same we swerve


s: Nor at some fixed line of space, but where


s: The mind itself has urged? For out of doubt


s: In these affairs 'tis each man's will itself


s: That gives the start, and hence throughout our limbs


s: Dost thou not see, when, at a point of time,


s: The bars are opened, how the eager strength


s: As pants their mind to do? For it behooves


s: That all the stock of matter, through the frame,


s: Be roused, in order that, through every joint,


s: Aroused, it press and follow mind's desire;


s: So thus thou seest initial motion's gendered


s: From out the heart, aye, verily, proceeds


s: First from the spirit's will, whence at the last


s: 'Tis given forth through joints and body entire.


s: Quite otherwise it is, when forth we move,


s: Impelled by a blow of another's mighty powers


s: And mighty urge; for then 'tis clear enough


s: Until the will has pulled upon the reins


s: And checked it back, throughout our members all;


s: The stock of matter's forced to change its path,


s: Throughout our members and throughout our joints,


s: Reined up, whereat it settles back again.


s: So seest thou not, how, though external force


s: Drive men before, and often make them move,


s: Onward against desire, and headlong snatched,


s: Yet is there something in these breasts of ours


s: Strong to combat, strong to withstand the same?--


s: Wherefore no less within the primal seeds


s: Thou must admit, besides all blows and weight,


s: Some other cause of motion, whence derives


s: This power in us inborn, of some free act.--


s: Since naught from nothing can become, we see.


s: For weight prevents all things should come to pass


s: Through blows, as 'twere, by some external force;


s: But that man's mind itself in all it does


s: Nor is not, like a conquered thing, compelled


s: To bear and suffer,--this state comes to man


s: From that slight swervement of the elements


s: In no fixed line of space, in no fixed time.


s: Nor ever was the stock of stuff more crammed,


s: Nor ever, again, sundered by bigger gaps:


s: For naught gives increase and naught takes away;


s: On which account, just as they move to-day,


s: And grow and thrive in power, so far as given


s: To each by Nature's changeless, old decrees.


s: The sum of things there is no power can change,


s: For naught exists outside, to which can flee


s: Nor forth from which a fresh supply can spring,


s: Break in upon the founded world, and change


s: Whole nature of things, and turn their motions about.


s: What sorts, how vastly different in form,


s: How varied in multitudinous shapes they are--


s: Not in the sense that only few are furnished


s: With one like form, but rather not at all


s: In general have they likeness each with each,


s: No marvel: since the stock of them's so great


s: That there's no end (as I have taught) nor sum,


s: They must indeed not one and all be marked


s: Moreover, humankind, and the mute flocks


s: Of scaly creatures swimming in the streams,


s: And joyous herds around, and all the wild,


s: And all the breeds of birds--both those that teem


s: In gladsome regions of the water-haunts,


s: About the river-banks and springs and pools,


s: And those that throng, flitting from tree to tree,


s: Through trackless woods--Go, take which one thou wilt,


s: Each from the other still unlike in shape.


s: Nor in no other wise could offspring know


s: Mother, nor mother offspring--which we see


s: They yet can do, distinguished one from other,


s: No less than human beings, by clear signs.


s: Thus oft before fair temples of the gods,


s: Beside the incense-burning altars slain,


s: Drops down the yearling calf, from out its breast


s: Breathing warm streams of blood; the orphaned mother,


s: Ranging meanwhile green woodland pastures round,


s: Knows well the footprints, pressed by cloven hoofs,


s: For sight somewhere of youngling gone from her;


s: And, stopping short, filleth the leafy lanes


s: With her complaints; and oft she seeks again


s: Within the stall, pierced by her yearning still.


s: Nor tender willows, nor dew-quickened grass,


s: Nor the loved streams that glide along low banks,


s: Can lure her mind and turn the sudden pain;


s: Nor other shapes of calves that graze thereby


s: Distract her mind or lighten pain the least--


s: So keen her search for something known and hers.


s: Moreover, tender kids with bleating throats


s: Do know their horned dams, and butting lambs


s: The flocks of sheep, and thus they patter on,


s: As nature intends. Lastly, with any grain,


s: Thou'lt see that no one kernel in one kind


s: Is so far like another, that there still


s: Is not in shapes some difference running through.


s: With shells and conchs, where, with soft waves, the sea


s: Beats on the thirsty sands of curving shores.


s: Wherefore again, again, since seeds of things


s: Exist by nature, nor were wrought with hands


s: They needs must flitter to and fro with shapes


s: Why fires of lightning more can penetrate


s: Than these of ours from pitch-pine born on earth.


s: For thou canst say lightning's celestial fire,


s: So subtle, is formed of figures finer far,


s: And passes thus through holes which this our fire,


s: Born from the wood, created from the pine,


s: Cannot. Again, light passes through the horn


s: On the lantern's side, while rain is dashed away.


s: And why?--unless those bodies of light should be


s: Finer than those of water's genial showers.


s: The wines will flow; how, on the other hand,


s: The sluggish olive-oil delays: no doubt,


s: Because 'tis wrought of elements more large,


s: Or else more crook'd and intertangled. Thus


s: So suddenly sundered one from other, and seep,


s: One through each several hole of anything.


s: And note, besides, that liquor of honey or milk


s: Yields in the mouth agreeable taste to tongue,


s: Whilst nauseous wormwood, pungent centaury,


s: With their foul flavour set the lips awry;


s: Can touch the senses pleasingly are made


s: Of smooth and rounded elements, whilst those


s: Which seem the bitter and the sharp, are held


s: Entwined by elements more crook'd, and so


s: Are wont to tear their ways into our senses,


s: In short all good to sense, all bad to touch,


s: Are mutually at strife--lest thou suppose


s: That the shrill rasping of a squeaking saw


s: Which, waked by nimble fingers, on the strings


s: That same-shaped atoms through men's nostrils pierce


s: When foul cadavers burn, as when the stage


s: Is with Cilician saffron sprinkled fresh,


s: And the altar near exhales Panchaean scent;


s: Of things which feast our eyes, as those which sting


s: Against the smarting pupil and draw tears,


s: Or show, with gruesome aspect, grim and vile.


s: For never a shape which charms our sense was made


s: Without some elemental smoothness; whilst


s: Whate'er is harsh and irksome has been framed


s: Still with some roughness in its elements.


s: Some, too, there are which justly are supposed


s: With bended barbs, but slightly angled-out,


s: To tickle rather than to wound the sense--


s: And of which sort is the salt tartar of wine


s: Are fanged with teeth unlike whereby to sting


s: Our body's sense, the touch of each gives proof.


s: For touch--by sacred majesties of Gods!--


s: Be't that something in-from-outward works,


s: Or be't the seeds by some collision whirl


s: As thou mayst find, if haply with the hand


s: Thyself thou strike thy body's any part.


s: What seems to us the hardened and condensed


s: Must be of atoms among themselves more hooked,


s: Be held compacted deep within, as 'twere


s: By branch-like atoms--of which sort the chief


s: Are diamond stones, despisers of all blows,


s: And stalwart flint and strength of solid iron,


s: And brazen bars, which, budging hard in locks,


s: Do grate and scream. But what are liquid, formed


s: Of elements more smooth and round--because


s: Their globules severally will not cohere:


s: To suck the poppy-seeds from palm of hand


s: Is quite as easy as drinking water down,


s: And they, once struck, roll like unto the same.


s: But that thou seest among the things that flow


s: For since 'tis fluid, smooth its atoms are


s: And round, with painful rough ones mixed therein;


s: Yet need not these be held together hooked:


s: In fact, though rough, they're globular besides,


s: Able at once to roll, and rasp the sense.


s: And that the more thou mayst believe me here,


s: That with smooth elements are mixed the rough


s: (Whence Neptune's salt astringent body comes),


s: How the sweet water, after filtering through


s: So often underground, flows freshened forth


s: Since cling the rough more readily in earth.


s: Upon the instant--smoke, and cloud, and flame--


s: Must not (even though not all of smooth and round)


s: Be yet co-linked with atoms intertwined,


s: That thus they can, without together cleaving,


s: So pierce our body and so bore the rocks.


s: Given to senses, that thou must perceive


s: They're not from linked but pointed elements.


s: The which now having taught, I will go on


s: And drawing from this its proof: these primal germs


s: Vary, yet only with finite tale of shapes.


s: For were these shapes quite infinite, some seeds


s: For in one seed, in one small frame of any,


s: The shapes can't vary from one another much.


s: Assume, we'll say, that of three minim parts


s: Consist the primal bodies, or add a few:


s: When, now, by placing all these parts of one


s: At top and bottom, changing lefts and rights,


s: Thou hast with every kind of shift found out


s: What the aspect of shape of its whole body


s: Each new arrangement gives, for what remains,


s: If thou percase wouldst vary its old shapes,


s: New parts must then be added; follows next,


s: If thou percase wouldst vary still its shapes,


s: That by like logic each arrangement still


s: Wherefore, it cannot be thou'lt undertake


s: That seeds have infinite differences in form,


s: Lest thus thou forcest some indeed to be


s: Which I have taught above cannot be proved.


s: And now for thee barbaric robes, and gleam


s: The peacock's golden generations, stained


s: With spotted gaieties, would lie o'erthrown


s: By some new colour of new things more bright;


s: The odour of myrrh and savours of honey despised;


s: The swan's old lyric, and Apollo's hymns,


s: Would likewise sink o'ermastered and be mute:


s: For, lo, a somewhat, finer than the rest,


s: Even as we said to better might they come:


s: For, lo, a somewhat, loathlier than the rest


s: To nostrils, ears, and eyes, and taste of tongue,


s: Would then, by reasoning reversed, be there.


s: Since 'tis not so, but unto things are given


s: Their sum on either side, 'tmust be confessed


s: That matter, too, by finite tale of shapes


s: Does differ. Again, from earth's midsummer heats


s: The forward path is fixed, and by like law


s: O'ertravelled backwards at the dawn of spring.


s: For each degree of hot, and each of cold,


s: And the half-warm, all filling up the sum


s: In due progression, lie, my Memmius, there


s: Betwixt the two extremes: the things create


s: Must differ, therefore, by a finite change,


s: Since at each end marked off they ever are


s: By fixed point--on one side plagued by flames


s: The which now having taught, I will go on


s: And drawing from this its proof: those primal germs


s: Which have been fashioned all of one like shape


s: Are infinite in tale; for, since the forms


s: Then those which are alike will have to be


s: A finite--what I've proved is not the fact,


s: Showing in verse how corpuscles of stuff,


s: Uphold the sum of things, all sides around


s: For though thou view'st some beasts to be more rare,


s: And mark'st in them a less prolific stock,


s: That kind abounding may make up the count;


s: Even as we mark among the four-foot kind


s: Snake-handed elephants, whose thousands wall


s: So big her count of brutes of which we see


s: We feign some thing, one of its kind and sole


s: With body born, to which is nothing like


s: In all the lands: yet now unless shall be


s: An infinite count of matter out of which


s: Thus to conceive and bring it forth to life,


s: It cannot take its food and get increase.


s: Yea, if through all the world in finite tale


s: Be tossed the procreant bodies of one thing,


s: Whence, then, and where in what mode, by what power,


s: Shall they to meeting come together there,


s: In such vast ocean of matter and tumult strange?--


s: But, just as, after mighty ship-wrecks piled,


s: The rowers' banks, the ribs, the yards, the prow,


s: The masts and swimming oars, so that afar


s: Along all shores of lands are seen afloat


s: The carven fragments of the rended poop,


s: To shun the ambush of the faithless main,


s: The violence and the guile, and trust it not


s: The crafty enticements of the placid deep:


s: That certain seeds are finite in their tale,


s: The various tides of matter, then, must needs


s: Scatter them flung throughout the ages all,


s: So that not ever can they join, as driven


s: But facts in proof are manifest for each:


s: Things can be both begotten and increase.


s: 'Tis therefore manifest that primal germs,


s: From whence is furnished matter for all things.


s: Nor can those motions that bring death prevail


s: The welfare of the world; nor, further, can


s: Those motions that give birth to things and growth


s: Thus the long war, from everlasting waged,


s: Goes on and on. Now here, now there, prevail


s: Mixed with the funeral is the wildered wail


s: Of infants coming to the shores of light:


s: No night a day, no dawn a night hath followed


s: That heard not, mingling with the small birth-cries,


s: The wild laments, companions old of death


s: 'Tis fit thou hold well sealed, and keep consigned


s: With no forgetting brain: nothing there is


s: Nothing there is that's not of mixed seed.


s: Shows thus that here within itself there are


s: The largest number of kinds and differing shapes


s: Of elements. And, chief of all, the earth


s: Hath in herself first bodies whence the springs,


s: The unmeasured main; hath whence the fires arise--


s: For burns in many a spot her flamed crust,


s: From more profounder fires--and she, again,


s: Hath in herself the seed whence she can raise


s: The shining grains and gladsome trees for men;


s: Whence, also, rivers, fronds, and gladsome pastures


s: Can she supply for mountain-roaming beasts.


s: Wherefore great mother of gods, and mother of beasts,


s: And parent of man hath she alone been named.


s: Her hymned the old and learned bards of Greece


s: Seated in chariot o'er the realms of air


s: To drive her team of lions, teaching thus


s: That the great earth hangs poised and cannot lie


s: They've yoked the wild beasts, since a progeny,


s: By care of parents. They have girt about


s: With turret-crown the summit of her head,


s: Since, fortressed in her goodly strongholds high,


s: 'Tis she sustains the cities; now, adorned


s: With that same token, to-day is carried forth,


s: With solemn awe through many a mighty land,


s: Her the wide nations, after antique rite,


s: Escort of Phrygian bands, since first, they say,


s: From out those regions 'twas that grain began


s: Through all the world. To her do they assign


s: The majesty of the mother and have proved


s: And hollow cymbals, tight-skinned tambourines


s: Resound around to bangings of their hands;


s: The fierce horns threaten with a raucous bray;


s: The tubed pipe excites their maddened minds


s: In Phrygian measures; they bear before them knives,


s: Wild emblems of their frenzy, which have power


s: The rabble's ingrate heads and impious hearts


s: To panic with terror of the goddess' might.


s: And so, when through the mighty cities borne,


s: They strew the highway of her journeyings


s: With coin of brass and silver, gifting her


s: With alms and largesse, and shower her and shade


s: With flowers of roses falling like the snow


s: Upon the Mother and her companion-bands.


s: Here is an armed troop, the which by Greeks


s: In games of arms and leap in measure round


s: With bloody mirth and by their nodding shake


s: The terrorizing crests upon their heads,


s: The arm'd Dictaean Curetes, who, in Crete,


s: That infant cry of Zeus, what time their band,


s: Young boys, in a swift dance around the boy,


s: To measured step beat with the brass on brass,


s: That Saturn might not get him for his jaws,


s: Along her heart. And 'tis on this account


s: That armed they escort the mighty Mother,


s: That she, the goddess, teaches men to be


s: Their motherland, and ready to stand forth,


s: The guard and glory of their parents' years.


s: For all the gods must of themselves enjoy


s: Withdrawn from our affairs, detached, afar:


s: Themselves abounding in riches of their own,


s: Needing not us, they are not touched by wrath


s: They are not taken by service or by gift.


s: The grain-crop Ceres, and prefers to abuse


s: The name of Bacchus rather than pronounce


s: So, too, the wooly flocks, and horned kine,


s: And brood of battle-eager horses, grazing


s: Under the cope of one blue sky, and slaking


s: From out one stream of water each its thirst,


s: All live their lives with face and form unlike,


s: Keeping the parents' nature, parents' habits,


s: Which, kind by kind, through ages they repeat.


s: From out them all--compounded is the same


s: Of bones, blood, veins, heat, moisture, flesh, and thews--


s: All differing vastly in their forms, and built


s: Again, all things by fire consumed ablaze,


s: Within their frame lay up, if naught besides,


s: At least those atoms whence derives their power


s: To throw forth fire and send out light from under,


s: To shoot the sparks and scatter embers wide.


s: If, with like reasoning of mind, all else


s: Thou traverse through, thou wilt discover thus


s: That in their frame the seeds of many things


s: They hide, and divers shapes of seeds contain.


s: Further, thou markest much, to which are given


s: Along together colour and flavour and smell,


s: Among which, chief, are most burnt offerings.


s: Thus must they be of divers shapes composed.


s: A smell of scorching enters in our frame


s: Where the bright colour from the dye goes not;


s: And colour in one way, flavour in quite another


s: Works inward to our senses--so mayst see


s: Thus unlike forms into one mass combine,


s: But still 'tmust not be thought that in all ways


s: All things can be conjoined; for then wouldst view


s: Hulks of mankind half brute astarting up,


s: At times big branches sprouting from man's trunk,


s: Limbs of a sea-beast to a land-beast knit,


s: And nature along the all-producing earth


s: Feeding those dire Chimaeras breathing flame


s: From hideous jaws--Of which 'tis simple fact


s: That none have been begot; because we see


s: Throughout their growth their own ancestral type.


s: For from all food-stuff, when once eaten down,


s: Go sundered atoms, suited to each creature,


s: Throughout their bodies, and, conjoining there,


s: How, contrariwise, nature upon the ground


s: Throws off those foreign to their frame; and many


s: With viewless bodies from their bodies fly,


s: By blows impelled--those impotent to join


s: But think not, haply, living forms alone


s: Are bound by these laws: they distinguished all.


s: In their whole nature, each to each unlike,


s: So must their atoms be in shape unlike--


s: Not since few only are fashioned of like form,


s: But since they all, as general rule, are not


s: The same as all. Nay, here in these our verses,


s: Thou seest, though yet 'tis needful to confess


s: The words and verses differ, each from each,


s: Not since few only, as common letters, run


s: Through all the words, or no two words are made,


s: One and the other, from all like elements,


s: The same as all. Thus, too, in other things,


s: There are, yet they, combined among themselves,


s: Can form new wholes to others quite unlike.


s: The grains, the gladsome trees, are all made up


s: Of different atoms. Further, since the seeds


s: Are different, difference must there also be


s: Connections, weights, blows, clashings, motions, all


s: Which not alone distinguish living forms,


s: But sunder earth's whole ocean from the lands,


s: And hold all heaven from the lands away.


s: Now come, this wisdom by my sweet toil sought


s: Look thou perceive, lest haply thou shouldst guess


s: That the white objects shining to thine eyes


s: Are gendered of white atoms, or the black


s: Of a black seed; or yet believe that aught


s: That's steeped in any hue should take its dye


s: From bits of matter tinct with hue the same.


s: For matter's bodies own no hue the least--


s: But, if percase it seem to thee that mind


s: Into these bodies, wide thou wand'rest off.


s: For since the blind-born, who have ne'er surveyed


s: The light of sun, yet recognise by touch


s: Things that from birth had ne'er a hue for them,


s: 'Tis thine to know that bodies can be brought


s: Though yet those bodies with no dye be smeared.


s: Which the primordials ought nowise to do.


s: Since an immutable somewhat must remain,


s: Lest all things utterly be brought to naught.


s: For change of anything from out its bounds


s: Means instant death of that which was before.


s: Wherefore be mindful not to stain with colour


s: The seeds of things, lest things return for thee


s: From which all kinds of colours they beget


s: And vary (by reason that ever it matters much


s: With what seeds, and in what positions joined,


s: And what the motions that they give and get),


s: Can of a sudden like the marble gleam,--


s: As ocean, when the high winds have upheaved


s: Its level plains, is changed to hoary waves


s: Of marble whiteness: for, thou mayst declare,


s: That, when the thing we often see as black


s: Some atoms rearranged, and some withdrawn,


s: And added some, 'tis seen forthwith to turn


s: Glowing and white. But if of azure seeds


s: They could in nowise whiten: for however


s: Thou shakest azure seeds, the same can never


s: Pass into marble hue. But, if the seeds--


s: Which thus produce the ocean's one pure sheen--


s: As oft from alien forms and divers shapes


s: 'Twould be but natural, even as in the cube


s: That thus we'd see in brightness of the deep


s: (Or in whatever one pure sheen thou wilt)


s: Besides, the unlike shapes don't thwart the least


s: But differing hues of things do block and keep


s: The whole from being of one resultant hue.


s: At times to attribute colours to the seeds


s: Falls quite to pieces, since white things are not


s: Create from white things, nor are black from black,


s: But evermore they are create from things


s: Out of no colour, than of black or aught


s: Which stands in hostile opposition thus.


s: Besides, since colours cannot be, sans light,


s: And the primordials come not forth to light,


s: 'Tis thine to know they are not clothed with colour--


s: Truly, what kind of colour could there be


s: In the viewless dark? Nay, in the light itself


s: Thus in the sunlight shows the down of doves


s: That circles, garlanding, the nape and throat:


s: Now it is ruddy with a bright gold-bronze,


s: Green-emerald blended with the coral-red.


s: The peacock's tail, filled with the copious light,


s: Changes its colours likewise, when it turns.


s: Wherefore, since by some blow of light begot,


s: Without such blow these colours can't become.


s: Within itself one kind of blow, when said


s: And since it matters nothing with what hue


s: The things thou touchest be perchance endowed,


s: But rather with what sort of shape equipped,


s: 'Tis thine to know the atoms need not colour,


s: But render forth sensations, as of touch,


s: Since special shapes have not a special colour,


s: Can be of any sheen thou wilt, why, then,


s: Are not those objects which are of them made


s: Suffused, each kind with colours of every kind?


s: For then 'twere meet that ravens, as they fly,


s: Should dartle from white pinions a white sheen,


s: Or swans turn black from seed of black, or be


s: Again, the more an object's rent to bits,


s: Little by little till 'tis quite extinct;


s: As happens when the gaudy linen's picked


s: Shred after shred away: the purple there,


s: Phoenician red, most brilliant of all dyes,


s: Is lost asunder, ravelled thread by thread;


s: Hence canst perceive the fragments die away


s: From out their colour, long ere they depart


s: And, last, since thou concedest not all bodies


s: Send out a voice or smell, it happens thus


s: That not to all thou givest sounds and smells.


s: So, too, since we behold not all with eyes,


s: 'Tis thine to know some things there are as much


s: Orphaned of colour, as others without smell,


s: And reft of sound; and those the mind alert


s: The things that lack some other qualities.


s: But think not haply that the primal bodies


s: Are they from warmth dissevered and from cold


s: And from hot exhalations; and they move,


s: Both sterile of sound and dry of juice; and throw


s: And flower of nard, which to our nostrils breathes


s: Thou seek, as far as find thou may and can,


s: The inodorous olive-oil (which never sends


s: One whiff of scent to nostrils), that it may


s: The least debauch and ruin with sharp tang


s: And in it seethed. And on the same account


s: The primal germs of things must not be thought


s: Nor sound, since pow'rless they to send forth aught


s: From out themselves, nor any flavour, too,


s: The rest; yet since these things are mortal all--


s: The brittle mortal, with a crumbling frame;


s: Immortal ground-works, whereupon may rest


s: The sum of weal and safety, lest for thee


s: Now, too: whate'er we see possessing sense


s: From elements insensate. And those signs,


s: So clear to all and witnessed out of hand,


s: But rather themselves do lead us by the hand,


s: Compelling belief that living things are born


s: Sooth, we may see from out the stinking dung


s: Live worms spring up, when, after soaking rains,


s: The drenched earth rots; and all things change the same:


s: Lo, change the rivers, the fronds, the gladsome pastures


s: Into the cattle, the cattle their nature change


s: Grow strong the powers and bodies of wild beasts


s: And mighty-winged birds. Thus nature changes


s: All foods to living frames, and procreates


s: From them the senses of live creatures all,


s: In manner about as she uncoils in flames


s: Dry logs of wood and turns them all to fire.


s: And seest not, therefore, how it matters much


s: After what order are set the primal germs,


s: And with what other germs they all are mixed,


s: And what the motions that they give and get?


s: But now, what is't that strikes thy sceptic mind,


s: Against belief that from insensate germs


s: 'Tis this: that liquids, earth, and wood, though mixed,


s: And, therefore, 'twill be well in these affairs


s: Objects that feel; but much it matters here


s: Firstly, how small the seeds which thus compose


s: The feeling thing, then, with what shapes endowed,


s: In motions, in arrangements. Of which facts


s: Naught we perceive in logs of wood and clods;


s: And yet even these, when sodden by the rains,


s: Give birth to wormy grubs, because the bodies


s: Of matter, from their old arrangements stirred


s: Next, they who deem that feeling objects can


s: From feeling objects be create, and these,


s: In turn, from others that are wont to feel


s: When soft they make them; for all sense is linked


s: With flesh, and thews, and veins--and such, we see,


s: Are fashioned soft and of a mortal frame.


s: Yet be't that these can last forever on:


s: They'll have the sense that's proper to a part,


s: Or else be judged to have a sense the same


s: As that within live creatures as a whole.


s: But of themselves those parts can never feel,


s: To something else refers--a severed hand,


s: It thus remains they must resemble, then,


s: Live creatures as a whole, to have the power


s: Of feeling sensation concordant in each part


s: With the vital sense; and so they're bound to feel


s: If such the case, how, then, can they be named


s: The primal germs of things, and how avoid


s: The highways of destruction?--since they be


s: Mere living things and living things be all


s: One and the same with mortal. Grant they could,


s: Yet by their meetings and their unions all,


s: Naught would result, indeed, besides a throng


s: Precisely as men, and cattle, and wild beasts,


s: But if by chance they lose, inside a body,


s: Their own sense and another sense take on,


s: What, then, avails it to assign them that


s: Which is withdrawn thereafter? And besides,


s: To touch on proof that we pronounced before,


s: Just as we see the eggs of feathered fowls


s: To change to living chicks, and swarming worms


s: To bubble forth when from the soaking rains


s: The earth is sodden, sure, sensations all


s: But if one say that sense can so far rise


s: Brought forth as by a certain sort of birth,


s: 'Twill serve to render plain to him and prove


s: There is no birth, unless there be before


s: Before its living nature's been begot,--


s: Since all its stuff, in faith, is held dispersed


s: About through rivers, air, and earth, and all


s: Conjoined into those vital motions which


s: That keep and guard each living thing soever.


s: Again, a blow beyond its nature's strength


s: Shatters forthwith each living thing soe'er,


s: And on it goes confounding all the sense


s: Of body and mind. For of the primal germs


s: Are loosed their old arrangements, and, throughout,


s: The vital motions blocked,--until the stuff,


s: Shaken profoundly through the frame entire,


s: Undoes the vital knots of soul from body


s: And throws that soul, to outward wide-dispersed,


s: Through all the pores. For what may we surmise


s: Shaking asunder and loosening all apart?


s: It happens also, when less sharp the blow,


s: The vital motions which are left are wont


s: Oft to win out--win out, and stop and still


s: The uncouth tumults gendered by the blow,


s: And call each part to its own courses back,


s: And shake away the motion of death which now


s: For by what other means could they the more


s: Collect their powers of thought and turn again


s: Back unto life, rather than pass whereto


s: Where bodies of matter, by some force stirred up,


s: Through vitals and through joints, within their seats


s: Quiver and quake inside, but soft delight,


s: When they remove unto their place again:


s: 'Tis thine to know the primal germs can be


s: Assaulted by no pain, nor from themselves


s: Take no delight; because indeed they are


s: Under whose strange new motions they might ache


s: Or pluck the fruit of any dear new sweet.


s: And so they must be furnished with no sense.


s: Once more, if thus, that every living thing


s: May have sensation, needful 'tis to assign


s: Of those fixed elements from which mankind


s: Hath been, by their peculiar virtue, formed?


s: Of verity, they'll laugh aloud, like men,


s: Or sprinkle with dewy tear-drops cheeks and chins,


s: They have themselves,--since, thus the same in kind


s: And then those others from others evermore--


s: So that thou darest nowhere make a stop.


s: The seed (which here thou say'st speaks, laughs, and


s: Which in their turn are doing just the same.


s: But if we see what raving nonsense this,


s: And that a man may laugh, though not, forsooth,


s: And think and utter reason with learn'd speech,


s: Though not himself compounded, for a fact,


s: Of sapient seeds and eloquent, why, then,


s: Cannot those things which we perceive to have


s: Of intermixed seeds quite void of sense?


s: Once more, we all from seed celestial spring,


s: To all is that same father, from whom earth,


s: The fostering mother, as she takes the drops


s: Of liquid moisture, pregnant bears her broods--


s: The shining grains, and gladsome shrubs and trees,


s: And bears the human race and of the wild


s: The generations all, the while she yields


s: The foods wherewith all feed their frames and lead


s: The genial life and propagate their kind;


s: Wherefore she owneth that maternal name,


s: By old desert. What was before from earth,


s: The same in earth sinks back, and what was sent


s: From shores of ether, that, returning home,


s: The vaults of sky receive. Nor thus doth death


s: So far annihilate things that she destroys


s: The bodies of matter; but she dissipates


s: That all things vary forms and change their colours


s: And get sensations and straight give them o'er.


s: And thus may'st know it matters with what others


s: And in what structure the primordial germs


s: Are held together, and what motions they


s: Among themselves do give and get; nor think


s: That aught we see hither and thither afloat


s: Upon the crest of things, and now a birth


s: And straightway now a ruin, inheres at rest


s: It matters much with what and in what order


s: Sky, and the ocean, lands, and streams, and sun;


s: The same, the grains, and trees, and living things.


s: And if not all alike, at least the most--


s: But what distinctions by positions wrought!


s: And thus no less in things themselves, when once


s: Around are changed the intervals between,


s: The paths of matter, its connections, weights,


s: Blows, clashings, motions, order, structure, shapes,


s: The things themselves must likewise changed be.


s: Now to true reason give thy mind for us.


s: Since here strange truth is putting forth its might


s: Of things to show its front. Yet naught there is


s: And naught soe'er that's great to such degree,


s: Little by little abandon their surprise.


s: Look upward yonder at the bright clear sky


s: And what it holds--the stars that wander o'er,


s: The moon, the radiance of the splendour-sun:


s: Yet all, if now they first for mortals were,


s: What might there be more wonderful to tell,


s: What that the nations would before have dared


s: Less to believe might be?--I fancy, naught--


s: So strange had been the marvel of that sight.


s: None deigns look upward to those lucent realms.


s: Then, spew not reason from thy mind away,


s: Beside thyself because the matter's new,


s: But rather with keen judgment nicely weigh;


s: Render thy hands, or, if 'tis false at last,


s: There on the other side, that boundless sum


s: Which lies without the ramparts of the world,


s: Toward which the spirit longs to peer afar,


s: Toward which indeed the swift elan of thought


s: Off to all regions round, on either side,


s: End is there none--as I have taught, as too


s: The very thing of itself declares aloud,


s: And as from nature of the unbottomed deep


s: Shines clearly forth. Nor can we once suppose


s: In any way 'tis likely, (seeing that space


s: To all sides stretches infinite and free,


s: And seeds, innumerable in number, in sum


s: That only this one earth and sky of ours


s: Hath been create and that those bodies of stuff,


s: So many, perform no work outside the same;


s: Seeing, moreover, this world too hath been


s: By nature fashioned, even as seeds of things


s: By innate motion chanced to clash and cling--


s: After they'd been in many a manner driven


s: Together at random, without design, in vain--


s: And as at last those seeds together dwelt,


s: Which, when together of a sudden thrown,


s: Should alway furnish the commencements fit


s: Of mighty things--the earth, the sea, the sky,


s: And race of living creatures. Thus, I say,


s: Again, again, 'tmust be confessed there are


s: Such congregations of matter otherwhere,


s: Like this our world which vasty ether holds


s: Is ready there, when space on hand, nor object


s: That things are carried on and made complete,


s: Perforce. And now, if store of seeds there is


s: So great that not whole life-times of the living


s: And if their force and nature abide the same,


s: Able to throw the seeds of things together


s: Into their places, even as here are thrown


s: The seeds together in this world of ours,


s: 'Tmust be confessed in other realms there are


s: Still other worlds, still other breeds of men,


s: Hence too it happens in the sum there is


s: No one thing single of its kind in birth,


s: And single and sole in growth, but rather it is


s: First, cast thy mind abroad upon the living:


s: Thou'lt find the race of mountain-ranging wild


s: Even thus to be, and thus the scions of men


s: Of scaled fish, and winged frames of birds.


s: Wherefore confess we must on grounds the same


s: That earth, sun, moon, and ocean, and all else,


s: Exist not sole and single--rather in number


s: Old boundary stone of life remains for them


s: No less, and theirs a body of mortal birth


s: No less, than every kind which here on earth


s: Which well perceived if thou hold in mind,


s: Then Nature, delivered from every haughty lord,


s: And forthwith free, is seen to do all things


s: Herself and through herself of own accord,


s: Rid of all gods. For--by their holy hearts


s: Which pass in long tranquillity of peace


s: Who hath the power (I ask), who hath the power


s: To hold with steady hand the giant reins


s: Of the unfathomed deep? Who hath the power


s: The fruitful lands of multitudes of worlds,


s: To stablish darkness by his clouds, to shake


s: The serene spaces of the sky with sound,


s: And hurl his lightnings,--ha, and whelm how oft


s: At practice with that thunderbolt of his,


s: Which yet how often shoots the guilty by,


s: And slays the honourable blameless ones!


s: Ere since the birth-time of the world, ere since


s: The risen first-born day of sea, earth, sun,


s: Have many germs been added from outside,


s: Which the great All, the while it flung them on,


s: Brought hither, that from them the sea and lands


s: Could grow more big, and that the house of heaven


s: Might get more room and raise its lofty roofs


s: For bodies all, from out all regions, are


s: Divided by blows, each to its proper thing,


s: And all retire to their own proper kinds:


s: The moist to moist retires; earth gets increase


s: From earthy body; and fires, as on a forge,


s: Beat out new fire; and ether forges ether;


s: Till nature, author and ender of the world,


s: Hath led all things to extreme bound of growth:


s: As haps when that which hath been poured inside


s: Than that which ebbs within them and runs off.


s: This is the point where life for each thing ends;


s: This is the point where nature with her powers


s: Curbs all increase. For whatsoe'er thou seest


s: Grow big with glad increase, and step by step


s: Climb upward to ripe age, these to themselves


s: Take in more bodies than they send from selves,


s: Through all the veins, and whilst the things are not


s: Greater than nutriment whereby they wax.


s: For 'tmust be granted, truly, that from things


s: But yet still more must come, until the things


s: Have touched development's top pinnacle;


s: Then old age breaks their powers and ripe strength


s: For ever the ampler and more wide a thing,


s: It scatters abroad forthwith to all sides round


s: More bodies, sending them from out itself.


s: Through all its veins; nor is that food enough


s: Those plenteous exhalations it gives off.


s: Thus, fairly, all things perish, when with ebbing


s: They're made less dense and when from blows without


s: They are laid low; since food at last will fail


s: Thus, too, the ramparts of the mighty world


s: On all sides round shall taken be by storm,


s: And tumble to wrack and shivered fragments down.


s: For food it is must keep things whole, renewing;


s: 'Tis food must prop and give support to all,--


s: But to no purpose, since nor veins suffice


s: As much as needful. And even now 'tis thus:


s: Its age is broken and the earth, outworn


s: Nor sea, nor breakers pounding on the rocks


s: Created them; but earth it was who bore--


s: The same to-day who feeds them from herself.


s: Besides, herself of own accord, she first


s: The shining grains and vineyards of all joy


s: Gave the sweet fruitage and the pastures glad,


s: Which now to-day yet scarcely wax in size,


s: We break the ox, and wear away the strength


s: The aged ploughman, shaking of his head,


s: Sighs o'er and o'er that labours of his hands


s: Have fallen out in vain, and, as he thinks


s: How present times are not as times of old,


s: Often he praises the fortunes of his sire,


s: And crackles, prating, how the ancient race,


s: Since, man for man, the measure of each field


s: Was smaller far i' the old days. And, again,


s: Rails at the season's change and wearies heaven,


s: Nor grasps that all of things by sure degrees


s: So clear a torch aloft, who first shed light


s: And set my footsteps squarely planted now


s: Even in the impress and the marks of thine--


s: Less like one eager to dispute the palm,


s: That I may copy thee!--for how should swallow


s: Contend with swans or what compare could be


s: In a race between young kids with tumbling legs


s: And the strong might of the horse? Our father thou,


s: Suppliest a father's precepts; and from out


s: Those scriven leaves of thine, renowned soul


s: (Like bees that sip of all in flowery wolds),


s: Golden, and ever worthiest endless life.


s: For soon as ever thy planning thought that sprang


s: From god-like mind begins its loud proclaim


s: Of nature's courses, terrors of the brain


s: Dispart away, and through the void entire


s: Which neither wind may shake nor rain-cloud splash,


s: Nor snow, congealed by sharp frosts, may harm


s: With its white downfall: ever, unclouded sky


s: O'er roofs, and laughs with far-diffused light.


s: And nature gives to them their all, nor aught


s: May ever pluck their peace of mind away.


s: The vaults of Acheron, though the broad earth


s: Bars me no more from gazing down o'er all


s: Along the void. O, here in these affairs


s: Some new divine delight and trembling awe


s: Takes hold through me, that thus by power of thine


s: Hath been on every side laid bare to man!


s: And since I've taught already of what sort


s: The seeds of all things are, and how, distinct


s: In divers forms, they flit of own accord,


s: And in what mode things be from them create,


s: Now, after such matters, should my verse, meseems,


s: Make clear the nature of the mind and soul,


s: And drive that dread of Acheron without,


s: Headlong, which so confounds our human life


s: Unto its deeps, pouring o'er all that is


s: The black of death, nor leaves not anything


s: For as to what men sometimes will affirm:


s: That more than Tartarus (the realm of death)


s: And know the substance of the soul is blood,


s: Or rather wind (if haply thus their whim),


s: And so need naught of this our science, then


s: Thou well may'st note from what's to follow now


s: That more for glory do they braggart forth


s: Than for belief. For mark these very same:


s: From sight of men, with charges foul attaint,


s: Abased with every wretchedness, they yet


s: Live, and where'er the wretches come, they yet


s: Butcher the black sheep, and to gods below


s: Are the true voices conjured from his breast,


s: And greed, again, and the blind lust of honours


s: Which force poor wretches past the bounds of law,


s: To push through nights and days with hugest toil


s: To rise untrammelled to the peaks of power--


s: These wounds of life in no mean part are kept


s: Festering and open by this fright of death.


s: For ever we see fierce Want and foul Disgrace


s: Dislodged afar from secure life and sweet,


s: Like huddling Shapes before the doors of death.


s: And whilst, from these, men wish to scape afar,


s: Driven by false terror, and afar remove,


s: They double their riches, greedy, heapers-up


s: Of corpse on corpse they have a cruel laugh


s: And hatred and fear of tables of their kin.


s: Likewise, through this same terror, envy oft


s: Makes them to peak because before their eyes


s: Whilst they in filth and darkness roll around;


s: Some perish away for statues and a name,


s: And oft to that degree, from fright of death,


s: Take hold on humankind that they inflict


s: Their own destruction with a gloomy heart--


s: Forgetful that this fear is font of cares,


s: This fear the plague upon their sense of shame,


s: And this that breaks the ties of comradry


s: Mid direst slaughter. For long ere to-day


s: Often were traitors to country and dear parents


s: Through quest to shun the realms of Acheron.


s: For just as children tremble and fear all


s: In the viewless dark, so even we at times


s: Dread in the light so many things that be


s: No whit more fearsome than what children feign,


s: Shuddering, will be upon them in the dark.


s: This terror, then, this darkness of the mind,


s: Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,


s: Nor glittering arrows of morning sun disperse,


s: First, then, I say, the mind which oft we call


s: Of man than hand and foot and eyes are parts


s: Of one whole breathing creature. [But some hold]


s: That sense of mind is in no fixed part seated,


s: Named "harmony" by Greeks, because thereby


s: We live with sense, though intellect be not


s: To have good health (when health, however, 's not


s: One part of him who has it), so they place


s: The sense of mind in no fixed part of man.


s: Sickens, while yet in some invisible part


s: A miserable in mind feels pleasure still


s: Throughout his body--quite the same as when


s: Besides, when these our limbs are given o'er


s: To gentle sleep and lies the burdened frame


s: At random void of sense, a something else


s: Bestirs itself in many a wise, receiving


s: All motions of joy and phantom cares of heart.


s: Now, for to see that in man's members dwells


s: Take this in chief: the fact that life remains


s: Oft in our limbs, when much of body's gone;


s: Yet that same life, when particles of heat,


s: Though few, have scattered been, and through the mouth


s: Air has been given forth abroad, forthwith


s: Forever deserts the veins, and leaves the bones.


s: Thus mayst thou know that not all particles


s: Perform like parts, nor in like manner all


s: Are props of weal and safety: rather those--


s: The seeds of wind and exhalations warm--


s: Take care that in our members life remains.


s: Therefore a vital heat and wind there is


s: Deserts our frames. And so, since nature of mind


s: And even of soul is found to be, as 'twere,


s: Name to musicians brought from Helicon,--


s: Unless themselves they filched it otherwise,


s: To serve for what was lacking name till then.


s: Whate'er it be, they're welcome to it--thou,


s: I say, are held conjoined one with other,


s: And form one single nature of themselves;


s: But chief and regnant through the frame entire


s: Is still that counsel which we call the mind,


s: And that cleaves seated in the midmost breast.


s: Here leap dismay and terror; round these haunts


s: Be blandishments of joys; and therefore here


s: The intellect, the mind. The rest of soul,


s: Throughout the body scattered, but obeys--


s: Moved by the nod and motion of the mind.


s: This, for itself, sole through itself, hath thought;


s: This for itself hath mirth, even when the thing


s: That moves it, moves nor soul nor body at all.


s: By assailing pain, we are not tortured then


s: Is sometimes smitten, or livens with a joy,


s: Whilst yet the soul's remainder through the limbs


s: And through the frame is stirred by nothing new.


s: But when the mind is moved by shock more fierce,


s: We mark the whole soul suffering all at once


s: Along man's members: sweats and pallors spread


s: Over the body, and the tongue is broken,


s: And fails the voice away, and ring the ears,


s: Mists blind the eyeballs, and the joints collapse,--


s: Aye, men drop dead from terror of the mind.


s: That soul conjoined is with mind, and, when


s: 'Tis strook by influence of the mind, forthwith


s: In turn it hits and drives the body too.


s: That nature of mind and soul corporeal is:


s: For when 'tis seen to drive the members on,


s: To snatch from sleep the body, and to change


s: The countenance, and the whole state of man


s: To rule and turn,--what yet could never be


s: Sans contact, and sans body contact fails--


s: Must we not grant that mind and soul consist


s: Thou markst that likewise with this body of ours


s: Suffers the mind and with our body feels.


s: If the dire speed of spear that cleaves the bones


s: And bares the inner thews hits not the life,


s: Yet follows a fainting and a foul collapse,


s: And, on the ground, dazed tumult in the mind,


s: And whiles a wavering will to rise afoot.


s: So nature of mind must be corporeal, since


s: From stroke and spear corporeal 'tis in throes.


s: Now, of what body, what components formed


s: Of tiniest particles--that such the fact


s: Thou canst perceive, if thou attend, from this:


s: Nothing is seen to happen with such speed


s: Therefore the same bestirs itself more swiftly


s: Than aught whose nature's palpable to eyes.


s: But what's so agile must of seeds consist


s: Most round, most tiny, that they may be moved,


s: When hit by impulse slight. So water moves,


s: In waves along, at impulse just the least--


s: Being create of little shapes that roll;


s: Cleaves more together, since, indeed, 'tis made


s: Of atoms not so smooth, so fine, and round.


s: For the light breeze that hovers yet can blow


s: Downward from off the top; but, contrariwise,


s: It can't at all. Thus, in so far as bodies


s: Are small and smooth, is their mobility;


s: But, contrariwise, the heavier and more rough,


s: The more immovable they prove. Now, then,


s: Since nature of mind is movable so much,


s: Consist it must of seeds exceeding small


s: And smooth and round. Which fact once known to thee,


s: Good friend, will serve thee opportune in else.


s: How nice its texture, in how small a space


s: 'Twould go, if once compacted as a pellet:


s: When death's unvexed repose gets hold on man


s: And mind and soul retire, thou markest there


s: From the whole body nothing ta'en in form,


s: Nothing in weight. Death grants ye everything,


s: Thus soul entire must be of smallmost seeds,


s: Twined through the veins, the vitals, and the thews,


s: Seeing that, when 'tis from whole body gone,


s: Is unimpaired and weight fails not a whit.


s: Just so, when vanished the bouquet of wine,


s: The thing itself seems minished naught to eyes,


s: Thereby, nor aught abstracted from its weight--


s: No marvel, because seeds many and minute


s: In the whole body of the things. And so,


s: For an impalpable aura, mixed with heat,


s: Deserts the dying, and heat draws off the air;


s: And heat there's none, unless commixed with air:


s: For, since the nature of all heat is rare,


s: Athrough it many seeds of air must move.


s: Thus nature of mind is triple; yet those all


s: Suffice not for creating sense--since mind


s: Accepteth not that aught of these can cause


s: Sense-bearing motions, and much less the thoughts


s: That somewhat's altogether void of name;


s: Than which existeth naught more mobile, naught


s: More small and smooth and round. That first transmits


s: Sense-bearing motions through the frame, for that


s: Is roused the first, composed of little shapes;


s: Thence heat and viewless force of wind take up


s: The motions, and thence air, and thence all things


s: Are put in motion; the blood is strook, and then


s: To bones and marrow the sensation comes--


s: Pleasure or torment. Nor will pain for naught


s: Enter so far, nor a sharp ill seep through,


s: But all things be perturbed to that degree


s: That room for life will fail, and parts of soul


s: Will scatter through the body's every pore.


s: These motion aIl are stopped, and this is why


s: They are commixed, through what unions fit


s: They function so, my country's pauper-speech


s: I'll touch some points and pass. In such a wise


s: Course these primordials 'mongst one another


s: Is odour and savour and a certain warmth,


s: And yet from all of these one bulk of body


s: Is made complete, so, viewless force of wind


s: And warmth and air, commingled, do create


s: Sense-bearing motion along the vitals springs.


s: For lurks this essence far and deep and under,


s: Nor in our body is aught more shut from view,


s: And as within our members and whole frame


s: Of bodies small and few, so lurks this fourth,


s: This essence void of name, composed of small,


s: And seems the very soul of all the soul,


s: And by like reason wind and air and heat


s: Must function so, commingled through the frame,


s: From all of them one nature be produced,


s: Lest heat and wind apart, and air apart,


s: There is indeed in mind that heat it gets


s: When seething in rage, and flashes from the eyes


s: More swiftly fire; there is, again, that wind,


s: Much, and so cold, companion of all dread,


s: Which rouses the shudder in the shaken frame;


s: There is no less that state of air composed,


s: Making the tranquil breast, the serene face.


s: But more of hot have they whose restive hearts,


s: Whose minds of passion quickly seethe in rage--


s: Of which kind chief are fierce abounding lions,


s: Who often with roaring burst the breast o'erwrought,


s: Unable to hold the surging wrath within;


s: But the cold mind of stags has more of wind,


s: And speedier through their inwards rouses up


s: The icy currents which make their members quake.


s: Nor e'er doth smoky torch of wrath applied,


s: O'erspreading with shadows of a darkling murk,


s: Rouse them too far; nor will they stiffen stark,


s: Pierced through by icy javelins of fear;


s: But have their place half-way between the two--


s: Stags and fierce lions. Thus the race of men:


s: Though training make them equally refined,


s: It leaves those pristine vestiges behind


s: Of each mind's nature. Nor may we suppose


s: That one man's not more given to fits of wrath,


s: Another's not more quickly touched by fear,


s: A third not more long-suffering than he should.


s: And needs must differ in many things besides


s: Expound the hidden causes, nor find names


s: Enough for all the divers shapes of those


s: Primordials whence this variation springs.


s: Are still so slight that naught prevents a man


s: From living a life even worthy of the gods.


s: So then this soul is kept by all the body,


s: Itself the body's guard, and source of weal:


s: For they with common roots cleave each to each,


s: Not easy 'tis from lumps of frankincense


s: To tear their fragrance forth, without its nature


s: From all the body nature of mind and soul


s: To draw away, without the whole dissolved.


s: With seeds so intertwined even from birth,


s: They're dowered conjointly with a partner-life;


s: Each of itself without the other's power,


s: Can have sensation; but our sense, enkindled


s: Along the vitals, to flame is blown by both


s: With mutual motions. Besides the body alone


s: Seen to endure. For not as water at times


s: Gives off the alien heat, nor is thereby


s: Itself destroyed, but unimpaired remains--


s: Bear the dissevering of its joined soul,


s: But, rent and ruined, moulders all away.


s: Thus the joint contact of the body and soul


s: Learns from their earliest age the vital motions,


s: Even when still buried in the mother's womb;


s: Without their bane and ill. And thence mayst see


s: That, as conjoined is their source of weal,


s: If one, moreover, denies that body feel,


s: And holds that soul, through all the body mixed,


s: Takes on this motion which we title "sense,"


s: For who'll explain what body's feeling is,


s: Has given and taught us?"But when soul is parted,


s: Body's without all sense." True!--loses what


s: And much beside it loses, when soul's driven


s: Forth from that life-time. Or, to say that eyes


s: Themselves can see no thing, but through the same


s: The mind looks forth, as out of opened doors,


s: Is--a hard saying; since the feel in eyes


s: Says the reverse. For this itself draws on


s: Our consciousness. And note the case when often


s: We lack the power to see refulgent things,


s: Because our eyes are hampered by their light--


s: With a mere doorway this would happen not;


s: For, since it is our very selves that see,


s: Besides, if eyes of ours but act as doors,


s: Methinks that, were our sight removed, the mind


s: Ought then still better to behold a thing--


s: When even the door-posts have been cleared away.


s: What honoured sage, Democritus, lays down--


s: Of body and mind, each super-posed on each,


s: Are the soul-elements smaller far than those


s: Which this our body and inward parts compose,


s: And scattered sparsely through our frame. And thus


s: This canst thou guarantee: soul's primal germs


s: Maintain between them intervals as large


s: At least as are the smallest bodies, which,


s: When thrown against us, in our body rouse


s: Sense-bearing motions. Hence it comes that we


s: Sometimes don't feel alighting on our frames


s: The clinging dust, or chalk that settles soft;


s: Nor mists of night, nor spider's gossamer


s: We feel against us, when, upon our road,


s: The dropping of its withered garmentings;


s: Flying about, so light they barely fall;


s: Nor feel the steps of every crawling thing,


s: Nor each of all those footprints on our skin


s: Ere once the seeds of soul that through our frame


s: Are intermingled 'gin to feel that those


s: Primordials of the body have been strook,


s: And ere, in pounding with such gaps between,


s: They clash, combine and leap apart in turn.


s: But mind is more the keeper of the gates,


s: For without intellect and mind there's not


s: One part of soul can rest within our frame


s: Least part of time; companioning, it goes


s: With mind into the winds away, and leaves


s: The trunk be mangled, with the limbs lopped off,


s: The soul withdrawn and taken from the limbs,


s: Still lives the trunk and draws the vital air.


s: Even when deprived of all but all the soul,


s: Yet will it linger on and cleave to life,--


s: Just as the power of vision still is strong,


s: Even when the eye around it's sorely rent--


s: Wholly the ball, but, cutting round the pupil,


s: For more would ruin sight. But if that centre,


s: That tiny part of eye, be eaten through,


s: Forthwith the vision fails and darkness comes,


s: Though in all else the unblemished ball be clear.


s: 'Tis by like compact that the soul and mind


s: Now come: that thou mayst able be to know


s: That minds and the light souls of all that live


s: Have mortal birth and death, I will go on


s: Verses to build meet for thy rule of life,


s: Sought after long, discovered with sweet toil.


s: But under one name I'd have thee yoke them both;


s: And when, for instance, I shall speak of soul,


s: Teaching the same to be but mortal, think


s: Since both are one, a substance inter-joined.


s: First, then, since I have taught how soul exists


s: Made up from atoms smaller much than those


s: Of water's liquid damp, or fog, or smoke,


s: More prone to move, though strook by lighter cause


s: As where we view, when in our sleeps we're lulled,


s: The altars exhaling steam and smoke aloft--


s: For, beyond doubt, these apparitions come


s: To us from outward. Now, then, since thou seest,


s: Their liquids depart, their waters flow away,


s: When jars are shivered, and since fog and smoke


s: The soul no less is shed abroad and dies


s: More quickly far, more quickly is dissolved


s: Back to its primal bodies, when withdrawn


s: From out man's members it has gone away.


s: For, sure, if body (container of the same


s: Like as a jar), when shivered from some cause,


s: And rarefied by loss of blood from veins,


s: Cannot for longer hold the soul, how then


s: Thinkst thou it can be held by any air--


s: Besides we feel that mind to being comes


s: Along with body, with body grows and ages.


s: With frames infirm and tender, so there follows


s: A weakling wisdom in their minds; and then,


s: Where years have ripened into robust powers,


s: The power of mind; thereafter, where already


s: The body's shattered by master-powers of eld,


s: And fallen the frame with its enfeebled powers,


s: Thought hobbles, tongue wanders, and the mind gives way;


s: All fails, all's lacking at the selfsame time.


s: Therefore it suits that even the soul's dissolved,


s: Like smoke, into the lofty winds of air;


s: Along with body and grow, and, as I've taught,


s: Crumble and crack, therewith outworn by eld.


s: Then, too, we see, that, just as body takes


s: Monstrous diseases and the dreadful pain,


s: So mind its bitter cares, the grief, the fear;


s: Wherefore it tallies that the mind no less


s: Partaker is of death; for pain and disease


s: We've learned by the passing of many a man ere now.


s: Nay, too, in diseases of body, often the mind


s: And crazed it speaks, or many a time it sinks,


s: With eyelids closing and a drooping nod,


s: From whence nor hears it any voices more,


s: Of those about him standing with wet cheeks


s: Who vainly call him back to light and life.


s: Wherefore mind too, confess we must, dissolves,


s: When the strong wine has entered into man,


s: And its diffused fire gone round the veins,


s: A stuttering tongue, an intellect besoaked,


s: Eyes all aswim, and hiccups, shouts, and brawls,


s: And whatso else is of that ilk?--Why this?--


s: Is wont to confound the soul within the body?


s: But whatso can confounded be and balked,


s: Gives proof, that if a hardier cause got in,


s: 'Twould hap that it would perish then, bereaved


s: As if by stroke of lightning, tumble down


s: Before our eyes, and sputter foam, and grunt,


s: Blither, and twist about with sinews taut,


s: Gasp up in starts, and weary out his limbs


s: With tossing round. No marvel, since distract


s: Confounds, he foams, as if to vomit soul,


s: As on the salt sea boil the billows round


s: Under the master might of winds. And now


s: A groan's forced out, because his limbs are griped,


s: But, in the main, because the seeds of voice


s: Outwards by mouth, where they are wont to go,


s: Mere fool, since energy of mind and soul


s: Confounded is, and, as I've shown, to-riven,


s: By the same venom. But, again, where cause


s: Of that disease has faced about, and back


s: Retreats sharp poison of corrupted frame


s: Into its shadowy lairs, the man at first


s: Arises reeling, and gradually comes back


s: Thus, since within the body itself of man


s: The mind and soul are by such great diseases


s: Shaken, so miserably in labour distraught,


s: Why, then, believe that in the open air,


s: Without a body, they can pass their life,


s: Immortal, battling with the master winds?


s: And, since we mark the mind itself is cured,


s: That mortal lives the mind. For proper it is


s: To alter the mind, or meditates to change


s: Its parts be nor increased, nor rearranged,


s: For change of anything from out its bounds


s: Means instant death of that which was before.


s: Ergo, the mind, whether in sickness fallen,


s: Or by the medicine restored, gives signs,


s: So surely will a fact of truth make head


s: 'Gainst errors' theories all, and so shut off


s: And since the mind is of a man one part,


s: Which in one fixed place remains, like ears,


s: And eyes, and every sense which pilots life;


s: And just as hand, or eye, or nose, apart,


s: Severed from us, can neither feel nor be,


s: But in the least of time is left to rot,


s: The body and the man himself, which seems,


s: As 'twere the vessel of the same--or aught


s: Whate'er thou'lt feign as yet more closely joined:


s: Since body cleaves to mind by surest bonds.


s: Again, the body's and the mind's live powers


s: For neither can nature of mind, alone of self


s: Sans body, give the vital motions forth;


s: Nor, then, can body, wanting soul, endure


s: From all the body, can peer about at naught,


s: So soul and mind it seems are nothing able,


s: When by themselves. No marvel, because, commixed


s: Through veins and inwards, and through bones and thews,


s: To bound around through interspaces big,


s: Thus, shut within these confines, they take on


s: Motions of sense, which, after death, thrown out


s: Take on they cannot--and on this account,


s: If in that air the soul can keep itself,


s: And in that air enclose those motions all


s: Which in the thews and in the body itself


s: That, when the body's wrappings are unwound,


s: And when the vital breath is forced without,


s: The soul, the senses of the mind dissolve,--


s: Since for the twain the cause and ground of life


s: Is in the fact of their conjoined estate.


s: Once more, since body's unable to sustain


s: And obscene stench, how canst thou doubt but that


s: The soul, uprisen from the body's deeps,


s: Has filtered away, wide-drifted like a smoke,


s: Its deep foundations have been moved from place,


s: The soul out-filtering even through the frame,


s: And through the body's every winding way


s: Thou'rt free to learn that nature of the soul


s: Hath passed in fragments out along the frame,


s: And that 'twas shivered in the very body


s: Ere ever it slipped abroad and swam away


s: As one sure whole from all his body at once,


s: Nor first come up the throat and into mouth;


s: Even as he knows the senses too dissolve


s: But were this mind of ours immortal mind,


s: Dying 'twould scarce bewail a dissolution,


s: But rather the going, the leaving of its coat,


s: Like to a snake. Wherefore, when once the body


s: Hath passed away, admit we must that soul,


s: Shivered in all that body, perished too.


s: Nay, even when moving in the bounds of life,


s: Often the soul, now tottering from some cause,


s: Craves to go out, and from the frame entire


s: Flaccid, as if the supreme hour were there;


s: Against the bloodless trunk--the kind of case


s: "That man's quite gone," or "fainted dead away";


s: And where there's now a bustle of alarm,


s: The man's last link of life. For then the mind


s: And all the power of soul are shook so sore,


s: And these so totter along with all the frame,


s: Dissolve them altogether.--Why, then, doubt


s: That soul, when once without the body thrust,


s: Its wrappings stripped away, cannot endure


s: But even, indeed, through not the least of time?


s: The counselling mind, begotten in the head,


s: The feet, the hands, instead of cleaving still


s: To one sole seat, to one fixed haunt, the breast,


s: For each thing's birth, where each, when 'tis create,


s: Have such complex adjustments that no shift


s: To that degree effect succeeds to cause,


s: In flowing streams, nor cold begot in fire.


s: And able to feel, when from our frame disjoined,


s: The same, I fancy, must be thought to be


s: Endowed with senses five,--nor is there way


s: Thus painters and the elder race of bards


s: Have pictured souls with senses so endowed.


s: But neither eyes, nor nose, nor hand, alone


s: Nor tongue nor ears apart. And hence indeed


s: In the whole body, all one living thing,


s: If of a sudden a force with rapid stroke


s: Should slice it down the middle and cleave in twain,


s: Beyond a doubt likewise the soul itself,


s: Divided, dissevered, asunder will be flung


s: With hurly slaughter, lop with flashing scythes


s: Fallen from the trunk, they quiver on the earth,


s: The while the mind and powers of the man


s: Can feel no pain, for swiftness of his hurt,


s: And sheer abandon in the zest of battle:


s: With the remainder of his frame he seeks


s: Anew the battle and the slaughter, nor marks


s: How the swift wheels and scythes of ravin have dragged


s: Off with the horses his left arm and shield;


s: Nor other how his right has dropped away,


s: With leg dismembered to arise and stand,


s: Whilst, on the ground hard by, the dying foot


s: Twitches its spreading toes. And even the head,


s: When from the warm and living trunk lopped off,


s: Keeps on the ground the vital countenance


s: All remnants of the soul. Nay, once again:


s: If, when a serpent's darting forth its tongue,


s: And lashing its tail, thou gettest chance to hew


s: With axe its length of trunk to many parts,


s: Thou'lt see each severed fragment writhing round


s: With its fresh wound, and spattering up the sod,


s: And there the fore-part seeking with the jaws


s: After the hinder, with bite to stop the pain.


s: So shall we say that these be souls entire


s: In all those fractions?--but from that 'twould follow


s: Therefore, the soul, which was indeed but one,


s: And losing limb by limb the vital sense;


s: First nails and fingers of the feet turn blue,


s: Next die the feet and legs, then o'er the rest


s: Slow crawl the certain footsteps of cold death.


s: And since this nature of the soul is torn,


s: Nor mounts away, as at one time, entire,


s: We needs must hold it mortal. But perchance


s: Can inward draw along the frame, and bring


s: From all the members draw the sense away,


s: Why, then, that place in which such stock of soul


s: Collected is, should greater seem in sense.


s: But since such place is nowhere, for a fact,


s: As said before, 'tis rent and scattered forth,


s: I please to grant the false, and say that soul


s: Can thus be lumped within the frames of those


s: Who leave the sunshine, dying bit by bit,


s: Still must the soul as mortal be confessed;


s: Nor aught it matters whether to wrack it go,


s: Dispersed in the winds, or, gathered in a mass


s: From all its parts, sink down to brutish death,


s: Since more and more in every region sense


s: Fails the whole man, and less and less of life


s: Why can we not remember something, then,


s: Of life-time spent before? why keep we not


s: Some footprints of the things we did of, old?


s: But if so changed hath been the power of mind,


s: Is that, I trow, from what we mean by death.


s: Wherefore 'tis sure that what hath been before


s: Hath died, and what now is is now create.


s: Moreover, if after the body hath been built


s: Our mind's live powers are wont to be put in,


s: Just at the moment that we come to birth,


s: And cross the sills of life, 'twould scarcely fit


s: For them to live as if they seemed to grow


s: Along with limbs and frame, even in the blood,


s: (Yet all the body duly throngs with sense.)


s: But public fact declares against all this:


s: For soul is so entwined through the veins,


s: The flesh, the thews, the bones, that even the teeth


s: Share in sensation, as proven by dull ache,


s: By twinge from icy water, or grating crunch


s: Upon a stone that got in mouth with bread.


s: Wherefore, again, again, souls must be thought


s: Nor void of birth, nor free from law of death;


s: Nor, if, from outward, in they wound their way,


s: Could they be thought as able so to cleave


s: To these our frames, nor, since so interwove,


s: Appears it that they're able to go forth


s: Unhurt and whole and loose themselves unscathed


s: From all the thews, articulations, bones.


s: But, if perchance thou thinkest that the soul,


s: From outward winding in its way, is wont


s: To seep and soak along these members ours,


s: Then all the more 'twill perish, being thus


s: With body fused--for what will seep and soak


s: Will be dissolved and will therefore die.


s: For just as food, dispersed through all the pores


s: Of body, and passed through limbs and all the frame,


s: Perishes, supplying from itself the stuff