On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (40 page)

For the first flash of light that comes is lost,

Wherever it falls. As you may learn from this:

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As soon as clouds begin to front the sun

And as it were break in between its rays,

The lower part of them at once is lost,

And the earth is in shadow, wherever the clouds move;

So you may see things always need new light,

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That every burst of radiance perishes,

That in no other way could things be seen

In sunlight, did the fount of light itself

Cease ever to maintain a fresh supply.

And lights that shine at night on earth, these too—

Your hanging lamps and torches flaming bright,

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Flaring and flashing through the pitchy smoke—

In the same way, fed by the fire, they haste

To bring up new supplies of light, and on

And on they press, alive with flickering flames,

Seeming to pour an unbroken stream of light;

So speedily is its extinction hid

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By the swift birth of flame from all the fires.

So you must think that sun and moon and stars

Send out quick bursts of light one after another,

And always the first flash of flame is lost;

And none of these is indestructible.

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And stones—these too you see that time subdues,

And lofty towers fall, their masonry

All crumbling, and the shrines and images

Of gods, wearied by time, are cracked and fall.

Nor can their holy power extend the bounds

Of fate, nor struggle against nature’s laws.

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The monuments of men collapsed we see,

Should we look there for immortality;

And rocks roll down, from lofty mountains torn,

Unable to endure the strong force of time,

Of finite time. For certainly no shock

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Could make them suddenly break off and fall,

If from time infinite they had withstood

Intact the assault and torment of the years.

Look last at that which above and all around

Holds the whole earth in its embrace.

If it is this, as some declare, that makes

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All things from itself and takes them back again

When their time is finished, it must all consist

Of matter subject to both birth and death.

For that which from itself feeds other things

And nourishes them, must be diminished,

And made anew when it receives them back.

Now here’s another point. If earth and sky

Had no beginning or no time of birth

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But have been always everlasting, why

Before the Theban war and doom of Troy

Have other poets not sung other things?

Where have so many deeds of men so many times

Fallen from sight and mind, and nowhere flower

Implanted on eternal monuments?

In truth I think the world is young and new

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And in quite recent time its life began.

See even now some arts are being refined

And others springing up and growing; in ships

Many new things have now been done, and lately

Musicians found out tuneful harmonies.

Yes, and the nature and order of this world

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In recent time has been discovered, and this

I now myself the very first am found

Able to tell it in our native tongue.

But if perchance it may be your belief

That all these things existed once before,

But that mankind perished in burning fire

Or cities fell in some great upheaval of the world,

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Or tearing rivers fed by endless rains

Flooding the country overwhelmed the towns,

Why, all the more then you must be convinced

That earth and sky themselves will be destroyed.

For when such great afflictions, such great perils,

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Once shook the world, then if some more potent cause

More terrible had come upon it, there must have followed

Widespread destruction and a mighty fall.

And there’s no surer proof of our mortality

Than this, that we sicken of the same diseases

As those whom nature has recalled from life.

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Few things there are that last eternally.

First, solid bodies that repel assaults,

And allow nothing to penetrate them

And break apart the close-knit parts within,

Such as the atomic particles of matter

The nature of which we have described before;

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Next, things which last through all the length of time

Because no blow can hit them; such is the void,

Which stays untouched and nothing can ever strike it;

Next, things which have no space around them

Into which they can dissolve and be dispersed;

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Such is the eternal sum of the sum of things.

Outside it nowhere any place exists

Into which its elements can spring away,

And nothing exists to impact it or destroy it.

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But, as I have shown, the world is not composed

Of solid body, since void is mixed with things.

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Nor is it like the void. Nor are there lacking

Bodies which from the infinite spring forth

And rack this world with violent hurricanes

Or bring some other danger and disaster;

Nor is there lacking in the depths of space

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Room for the world’s walls fallen to fly apart;

Or they may perish struck by other force.

Therefore the door of death is never closed

To sky and sun and earth and sea’s deep waters.

No. It stands open, and with vast gaping mouth

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It waits for them.

Wherefore you must confess that these same things

Have had their birth; for nothing of mortal build

Could ever through infinite ages until now

Have scorned the mighty power of endless time.

Again, since the mighty members of the world

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So furiously fight among themselves

In most unrighteous war, do you not see

Some end to their long struggles may be given?

Perhaps the sun and universal heat

Will overcome, and drink the waters dry,

Which is their aim, though not so far achieved,

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So much the rivers supply and threaten in turn

To flood the world from ocean’s deep abyss.

In vain. Since winds that sweep across its surface

Diminish it, and the sun’s high rays unravel it,

Confident that they can dry up everything

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Before the waters can achieve their end.

Such war they breathe in equal combat locked

Seeking decision in a mighty cause.

Though once meanwhile fire won the victory,

And once, so legend tells, water reigned in the fields.

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For fire was lord, and burnt up all around,

When far from his course the Sun’s fierce horses hurled

Phaethon through the heavens and o’er the earth.

But the almighty sire to anger moved

With sudden thunderbolt the aspiring youth

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Struck from his chariot down to earth. The Sun

Meeting his fall, caught up the eternal lamp

That lights the world, brought back the scattered horses,

Reined them in, trembling, then to their proper courses

Guiding them back restored the world again.

At least that’s what the old Greek poets sang,

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And that is very far removed from truth.

For fire can triumph when from the infinite

The atoms of its matter issue forth

In greater mass than usual. And then

Either subdued somehow its force declines,

Or the world dies, burnt up by scorching blasts.

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Water likewise began once to prevail,

Massing its floods, so legend tells, and many

Races of men were overwhelmed; but then

That which had massed from out the infinite

Turned back, by some compelling force withdrawn,

The rains stopped, and the rivers checked their flow.

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Next in due order I’ll set out the ways

In which by assembly of matter were established

The earth, the sky, and the vast depths profound

Of sea, and courses of the sun and moon.

For sure, not by design or intelligence

Did primal atoms place themselves in order,

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