On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (13 page)

Its flight, so that it cannot reach the boundary,

Or whether it passes straight on unimpeded,

Its starting point is not the boundary.

And I’ll pursue you further, and I’ll ask,

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Wherever you may place the furthest shore,

What happens to the lance? The upshot is

That nowhere in the universe can be

A final edge, and no escape be found

From the endless possibility of flight.

And here’s another thing. If all the space

In the universe stood shut in on all sides

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By fixed and certain boundaries limited,

The store of matter everywhere by now

By its own solid weight borne down, compressed,

Would all have flowed together to the bottom,

And nothing could happen under the vault of heaven,

No sky at all could be, not light of sun,

Since all the sum of matter in a heap

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Would lie, through ages infinite sunk down.

But as it is, no rest for sure is given

To primal atoms, since there is no bottom

No base at all, on which they can as it were

Accumulate and set up their abode.

Always in everlasting motion all things move

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In every part, and from below supplies come in

Of matter, summoned from the infinite.

Our eyes tell us that one thing bounds another.

Air fences in the hills, the mountains air,

And land sets bounds to sea, and sea to lands,

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But nothing outside it bounds the universe.

Therefore there is a vast abyss of space

So wide and deep that flashing thunderbolts

Can neither in their courses traverse it

Though they may fall through endless tracts of time,

Nor by their travel make one whit the less

The distance still to go. So huge extends

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Capacity of space on either side,

No bounds at all, no limit anywhere.

Further, nature prevents the universe

From setting any limit to itself.

Body is bounded by void and void by body,

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Thus in their interchange the universe

Is infinite, or else one of the two,

If the other does not bound it, by itself

Must stretch away alone illimitable.

Since space is infinite, so must matter be.

Else neither sea nor land nor the bright realms of heaven

Nor race of men nor holy forms of gods

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Could stand for one brief fraction of an hour,

For matter, its close union all shattered,

Would rush dissolving through the mighty void

Or rather it could never have grown together

So as to form anything, since thus dispersed

It could never have been brought to form a union.

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For certainly not by design or mind’s keen grasp

Did primal atoms place themselves in order,

Nor did they make contracts, you may be sure,

As to what movements each of them should make.

But many primal atoms in many ways

Throughout the universe from infinity

Have changed positions, clashing among themselves,

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Tried every motion, every combination,

And so at length they fall into that pattern

On which this world of ours has been created.

And this preserved through cycles of the years

When once set going in appropriate movements

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Causes the rivers to refill the sea,

The greedy sea, with lavish waters, and earth

Warmed by the sun’s caress renews its fruits.

And all the race of animals springs up

And grows; the gliding fires of ether live.

And this they could by no means do, unless

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A store of matter from the infinite

Could spring, from which in turn in season due

All that is lost could be made good again.

For just as living creatures lacking food

Lose flesh and waste away, so must all things

Decay, as soon as matter, for some reason

Turned from its course, has ceased to be supplied.

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Whatever world atoms have combined to form

Blows from outside cannot preserve entire.

They can strike it frequently and hold back a part

Till others come and keep the whole filled up;

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Yet sometimes they must needs rebound, and give

The primal atoms space and time for flight

To freedom from the union they have created.

Wherefore again and yet again I say

That atoms in great numbers must come up;

Indeed the blows themselves must fall away

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Unless the supply of matter is infinite.

One thing you must reject from all belief,

Good Memmius, is the theory which some hold,

That all things press towards the centre of the universe,

And that for this reason the world stands fast

Without impacts from outside, and that the top

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And bottom are not free to move in any direction,

Since everything is pressing towards the centre—

If you can believe that anything rests upon itself—

That all the heavy things below the earth

Press upwards and rest upside down upon it,

Like images of things reflected in water.

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And likewise they contend that animals

Wander about head downwards and cannot fall

Off from the earth into the sky below

Any more than our bodies of themselves can fly

Upwards into the regions of the sky;

That when they see the sun, the stars of night

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Are what we see, and that they share the hours

Of the wide heavens alternately with us,

And pass nights corresponding to our days.

But error has given these false ideas to fools,

Embraced by them with reasoning askew.

For since the universe is infinite,

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There can be no middle. And even if there were,

Nothing could stand there, because it is the middle,

Rather than fly apart for some different reason.

For all the place and space which we call void

Through middle, through non-middle, must give way

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To things, wherever their movements take them.

Nor is there any place where bodies can go

And lose their weights, and stand still in the void;

Nor can void make resistance to anything

But as its nature demands it must give way.

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Therefore things cannot by this means be held

In combination, mastered by their longing for the middle.

Besides, they do not claim that all bodies press

Towards the middle, but only those of earth and water,

The liquid of the sea and the great waves

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That pour down from the mountains, and those things

That as it were an earthly frame contains.

They tell us by contrast that air’s thin breaths

And hot fires are all borne away from the middle;

That all the ether twinkles with the stars

And the sun’s flame feeds on the sky’s blue pastures

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Because fire flying upwards from the middle

Gathers together there; and tall trees, they say,

Could never bring high branches into leaf

If food did not rise upward from the earth.

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But if it were the nature of air and fire

To move always upwards, then there is a risk

That suddenly the ramparts of the world

Would burst asunder and like flying flames

Rush headlong scattered through the empty void,

And in like manner all the rest would follow,

The thundering realms of sky rush down from above,

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Earth suddenly withdraw beneath our feet,

And the whole world, its atoms all dissolved,

Amid the confused ruin of heaven and earth

Would vanish through the void of the abyss,

And in a moment not one scrap be left

But desert space and atoms invisible,

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For at whatever point you first allow

Matter to fail, there stands the gate of death.

And through it all the crowding throng of matter

Will make its exit and pass all away.

And so, led firmly on, without great toil

You will understand these matters well and truly.