On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (54 page)

To fits and foaming, at once it stupefies him.

The heavy scent of beaver musk brings sleep

To a woman; she falls back, the dainty work

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Drops from her tender hands, if she has smelt it

During the period of her monthly courses.

And many other things there are that melt

And loosen languid limbs throughout the body,

And shake the spirit in its seat within.

Again, if you stay too long in a hot bath

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After a heavy meal, how easily

You collapse on the seat amidst the steaming water!

How easily the heavy fumes of charcoal

Pass into the brain, unless we have taken water before!

When burning fever has possessed the limbs,

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The scent of wine is like a deadly blow.

You can see that earth itself produces sulphur

And lumps of asphalt, with its filthy smell.

And when men follow veins of gold and silver

Searching with picks the secrets of the earth,

What smells Scaptensula breathes out from under!

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What evil noxious fumes come up from gold mines!

What do they make men look like, and what colours!

Have you not seen or heard how speedily

Men die and how their vital forces fail

Whom the strong power of necessity

Forces to labour at such work as this?

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And so we see earth throws out all these vapours

And breathes them into the open and ready sky.

In this way also must Avernian places

Send up to birds a deadly effluence

Which rises from the earth into the air

And poisons some part of the space of heaven;

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At once then, when a bird has winged its way there,

The unseen poison seizes it and checks it,

And it falls straight down to the place that sends up vapours.

And when it has fallen, the power of this same vapour

Takes from its body what remains of life.

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The vapour seems in fact to produce at first

Some form of giddiness, then later when they have fallen

Into the very fountain of the poison

They must needs spew out life itself, enveloped

All round about them by a mass of evil.

Sometimes also this vapour of Avernus

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Dispels the air between the birds and earth

So that an almost empty space is left there.

And when the birds come flying into this

At once the thrust of pinions all is lamed

And voided, and the effort of their wings

On either side undone. When they can find

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Nothing for wings to press on or support them

Nature for sure compels them by their weight

To drop, and through the almost empty space

Lying, their souls breathe out through all the body’s pores.

Water in wells grows colder in the summer

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Because the earth is rarefied by heat

And sends out into the air such seeds of heat

As it itself contains. The more therefore

The earth is drained of heat, the colder grows

The water which lies hidden in the earth.

And when in turn earth pressed by cold congeals

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And grows together as it were, then by congealing

It presses out of course into the walls

Such heat as it may have within itself.

Near to the shrine of Ammon there’s a spring

That’s cold by day and hot at night, they say.

Men wonder at this spring too much. Some think

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It boils because the sun goes underground,

When night has shrouded earth in dreadful dark,

But this is very far removed from truth.

Though the sun beat on water’s naked body,

It cannot even heat the surface of it,

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Hot though its blazing light above may burn;

How then from under so much solid earth

Could it boil water, fill it with its heat?

Why, even through a house’s shuttered walls

It scarce can pass, for all its burning rays.

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What is the reason then? No doubt because

The ground around the spring remains more porous

Than the rest of the earth, and there are many seeds

Of fire adjacent to the body of water;

And when night’s dewy shades have covered the earth,

At once the soil grows cold all through and contracts;

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And in this way, as if squeezed in the hand,

It presses out whatever seeds of fire

It may possess into the spring, and these

Make the water warm to the touch and steaming.

Next when the risen sun has loosened the earth

And made it porous as the heat penetrates it,

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Back to their ancient seats the seeds of fire

Return, and all the warmth that’s in the water

Goes back into the earth; and for this reason

The spring is cold during the light of day.

Besides, the sun’s rays work upon the water,

And when the light comes with the quivering heat

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They make it porous, therefore it throws off

The seeds of fire inside it, as often water

Throws off the frost contained within itself

And melts the ice and loosens all its knots.

There is also a cold spring over which

If tow be placed it often throws out flame

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And catches fire at once. Likewise a torch

Is kindled and shines out amidst its waters

Wherever as it floats the breezes blow it.

No doubt because there are present in the water

A great many atoms of heat, and from deep down

In the earth itself bodies of fire must rise

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All through the spring, and breathing out abroad

Come up into the air; though not so many

As to heat the water of the spring itself.

Besides, dispersed as they are, some force impels them

To burst out suddenly through the water, and then

Unite and gather together on the surface.

We may compare the spring at Aradus

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Which wells up with sweet water through the sea

And cleaves a passage through the briny waves.

In many other regions does the sea

Give thirsty mariners a timely service,

Gushing sweet waters out amid the salt.

In this way therefore through that other spring

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The seeds of fire break out and swarm abroad.

And when they come together on the tow

Or cling fast to the body of the torch,

At once they ignite, since tow and floating torch

Also contain many seeds of hidden fire.

And if you bring a newly extinguished wick

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To a lamp that burns at night, have you not seen

It catches fire before it touches the flame,

And that the same thing happens with a torch?

And many other things blaze up at a distance

By mere contact with heat, before the fire

Comes close and swallows them. So this we must

Believe to happen also in this spring.

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Now I propose to discuss what law of nature

Makes iron to be attracted by that stone

Which the Greeks call magnet, naming it from its home,

Since it is found within the Magnetes’ land.

Men find this stone amazing, since it can make

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A chain of little rings that hang from it.

Five you may see sometimes or more hanging down

In succession, swayed by a gentle breeze,

Where one hangs from another, clinging beneath,

And each from each learns the stone’s binding power;

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So deep the penetrating force prevails.

In matters of this kind you cannot grasp

The real explanation unless first

Much is established; the approach must be

Extremely lengthy, winding, roundabout.

So all the more I crave attentive ears and mind.

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In the first place, from all things that we see

A constant stream of particles must flow

And be discharged and scattered through the air

That strike upon the eyes and provoke vision.

Odours flow constantly from certain things,

As cold from rivers, heat from the sun, and spray

From waves that eat away the strong sea walls.

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And always different sounds fly through the air.

And a damp taste of salt enters our mouths