On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (52 page)

Full of windy caves; and many lakes and pools

She bears in her bosom, and rocks and beetling cliffs,

And many hidden rivers beneath earth’s back

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Roll their rough currents over sunken rocks.

For the facts themselves require that everywhere

Earth should be like herself, above and below.

With these things therefore joined to it below

And placed beneath it, earth trembles with the shock

Of vast collapse and ruin when age and time

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Have undermined the mighty caves below.

Whole mountains fall, and from the mighty shock

Tremors spread abroad in an instant far and wide;

Quite naturally, since buildings by the roadside

Tremble with the shock of waggons passing by

Of no great weight, and jump when the iron-shod wheels

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On either side jolt over stones or potholes.

And sometimes also when some enormous lump

Weakened by time rolls forward from the earth

Into some huge wide pool, the earth itself

Sways shaken by the wave of water, as a jar

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Sometimes cannot stand still unless the water

Inside has stopped from moving to and fro.

Besides, when through the hollows below the earth

A wind collects, and thrusting in one direction

Bears down and drives into the lofty caverns,

The earth leans under the impact of the wind.

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The houses that are built up on the earth,

And all the more the more they tower to heaven,

Lean dangerously, bulging and pushing forward

In the same direction, and the beams askew

Hang in the air projecting, ready to go.

And yet men fear to believe that the great world

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Has waiting for it some disastrous hour

Of ruin and destruction, though they see

So great and mighty a mass of earth lean over!

And yet unless the winds abate, no power

Could curb the world’s rush to ruin and hold it back.

But since in fact the winds alternately

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Abate and gather strength, and as it were

Collect their forces and rally, and then retreat

Repulsed again, more often for this reason

Earth threatens to fall than it actually does fall.

For it leans forward and then again springs back,

And after falling forward it recovers

Its proper place and stands in balance again.

This is how all buildings totter, the top

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More than the middle, the middle more than the base;

The base itself is hardly moved at all.

These mighty tremors have another cause.

When wind and some great sudden force of air

Either from outside or within the earth itself

Has hurled itself into earth’s hollow places

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And there, inside the mighty caverns, first it roars

Tumultuously and rushes whirling round,

Then with its violence intensified

And agitated, out it bursts, and cleaves

Earth to its depths and makes a mighty chasm.

This is what happened at Sidon in Syria

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And Aegeum in the Peloponnese. Both cities

Were rocked and torn by such an issue of air,

And demolished by the earthquake that took place.

And many another city wall has fallen

By mighty movements of the earth, and many

Cities of men with all their citizens

Have sunk down to the bottom of the sea.

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But if no burst occurs, yet the strong wind

And violent force of air is disturbed

Through all the many passages of the earth,

Like a shudder, and this creates the tremor,

Just as when cold comes deep into our limbs

It shakes them and makes them tremble against their will.

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So in their cities men are disquieted

By twofold terror: they fear the houses above,

They dread the caverns beneath, lest suddenly

Earth fling them open, or splitting wide apart

With gaping jaws create a mighty chasm

And fill it with the ruins it has made.

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Therefore let them believe, however they please,

That earth and sky are incorruptible

And stand destined to everlasting life,

Yet sometimes comes a very present danger

To stab them with the fear that suddenly

Earth may withdraw beneath their feet and fall

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Into the abyss, and all the sum of things

Follow in total collapse, and then may come

The ruin and confusion of the world.

Some people wonder that nature does not cause

The sea to increase in size, since into it

Runs down so great a flow of water, and since the rivers

All flow into it from every part of the globe.

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And add the wandering showers and flying storms

That spatter and water every land and sea;

Add too the sea’s own springs; yet all of these

Compared to the sea’s great mass will scarcely equal

The addition to it of a single drop.

This makes it then the less a matter for wonder

That the great sea does not grow greater still.

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The sun’s heat also draws a great part off.

For certainly we see clothes dripping with water

Dried by the strong rays of the burning sun.

But seas are many, and spread wide below;

Therefore, however small a part the sun

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May sip from off the surface of the sea

In any single place, yet from that vast expanse

Abundant store of water is drawn off.

Also much water may be taken up

By winds that sweep the surface of the sea,

Since very often in a single night

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We see the roads dry out and the soft mud

Form into hard crusts all along the way.

Besides, I have shown that clouds also lift off

A mass of moisture from the ocean’s surface

Which on the whole world everywhere they sprinkle

When rains fall on the earth and wind drives the clouds.

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Last, since the earth is of a porous texture,

And everywhere, joined closely to the sea,

Encompasses its shores on every side,

Then, just as water comes from land to sea,

So it must ooze from the salt sea into the earth.

The brine is filtered off, and the mass of water

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Oozes back and joins the rivers at their source,

And thence in a column of sweet water

Over the ground it flows, along the path

Once cut by liquid foot to guide the waters.

And now the fires that from Mount Etna’s throat

Breathe out at times in such a furious storm

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I shall explain. No ordinary disaster

The flaming tempest wrought that reigned supreme

Over the fields of Sicily, and neighbouring nations

Looked on it with amaze, as all the heavens

Filled with black smoke and flashing flames of fire

They saw, and trembled, wondering in fear

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What new things nature might be forging for the world.

These things, my friend, with vision wide and deep

Must be surveyed, and in every part descried.

You must remember that the sum of things

Is deep beyond all telling. You must see

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How small a part, how infinitesimal,

Our world is of the total universe,

A part less large than just one single man

Is of the whole great earth on which he lives.

If you will keep this firmly in your mind,

And clearly comprehend and clearly see it,

There are many things at which you’ll cease to wonder.

For is there anyone that feels surprise

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If fever rising with its burning fire

Attacks the limbs, or if some other pain

Afflicts the body, caused by some disease?

The foot swells suddenly; sometimes a stab of pain

Shoots into the teeth or even into the eyes.

The fiery rash breaks out, creeping over the body,

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And burns whatever part it seizes on,

Crawling relentlessly across the limbs.

All this is caused by the multitude of atoms;

For sure this earth and sky of ours contain

Sufficient store of noxious disease

To spawn a growth of ills immeasurable.