On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (9 page)

And penetrate all unseen hiding places

And draw the truth from them.

But if you are weary and find the going too hard

410

There’s one thing, Memmius, I can safely promise you:

Such bounteous draughts from springs o’er-flowing drawn

With sweetest tongue my well-stored mind will pour

That first I fear slow-moving age will creep

Over our limbs and loose the bonds of life

415

Before the full store of my arguments

On any single thing has filled your ears.

But now, to pick up the thread of my discourse,

All nature, as it is in itself, consists

Of two things: there are bodies and there is void

420

In which these bodies are and through which they move.

The senses which are common to men declare

That body has a separate existence.

Without faith firmly founded in our senses

There will be no standard to which we can refer

In hidden matters, giving us the power

To establish anything by reasoning.

425

If there were no place and space, which we call void,

Bodies could not be situated anywhere

And they would totally lack the power of movement,

As I explained a little time ago.

Now here’s a further point. Nothing exists

430

Which you could say is wholly distinct from body

And separate from void—a third nature of some kind.

For whatever exists must in itself be something;

If touch affects it however light and small

It will increase the amount of matter by much or little,

435

Provided it does exist, and swell its sum.

But if it is intangible, and cannot prevent

Anything anywhere from passing through it,

Doubtless it will be what we call empty void.

Besides, whatever exists will either act on things

440

Or else react to other things acting on it,

Or it will be such that things can happen in it.

But without body nothing can act or react

And nothing can give place save emptiness and void.

Therefore apart from void and matter no third substance

Can remain to be numbered in the sum of things,

445

Neither one that falls within the range of senses

Nor one that mind can grasp by reasoning.

For you will find that all things that can be named

Are either properties of these two things

Or else you can see that they are accidents of them.

A property is something that cannot be separated

450

Or removed from a thing without destroying it.

As weight to rocks, wetness to water, heat to fire,

Touch to all bodies, intangibility to void.

But slavery, by contrast, poverty and riches

Freedom, war, peace and all such things

455

As may come and go but leave things in their essence

Intact, these, as is right, we call accidents.

Time likewise does not exist by itself,

But a sense follows from things themselves

Of what has been done in the past, what now is present,

460

And what in addition is to follow after.

And no one has a sense of time distinct

From the movement of things or from their quiet rest.

Moreover, when they say that Helen’s rape

And Troy’s defeat in war are facts, we must be careful

To see that they do not drive us to admit

465

That these things have an independent existence,

Arguing that those ancient generations

Of whom these great events were accidents

By time irrevocable have all been borne away.

For whatever is done must be an accident

Either of the whole earth or of some place in it.

470

Moreover, if no matter had existed

Nor room or space for things to operate,

The flame of love would never have been fired

By Helen’s beauty deep in Paris’ heart

Nor kindled blazing battles of savage war.

475

No wooden horse unmarked by sons of Troy

Spawning the midnight Greeks from out its womb

Had set the towers of Ilium aflame.

So you may see that events never at all

Exist by themselves as matter does, nor can

Be said to exist in the same way as void.

480

But rightly you may call them accidents

Of matter and of place in which things happen.

Material objects are of two kinds, partly atoms

And partly also compounds formed from atoms.

The atoms themselves no force can ever quench,

485

For by their solidity in the end they win.

Though it is difficult to believe that anything

That is completely solid can exist.

For lightning passes through the walls of houses,

And likewise sound and voices; iron glows

White hot in fire, and boulders burst apart

490

In the fierce blaze of heat; the solidness

Of gold grows soft and melts, the ice of bronze

Is overcome by fire and liquefied;

And warmth and piercing cold both seep through silver

As when in solemn rite we hold the cup

495

We feel both when dewy water is poured in.

So nothing in the world seems really solid.

But yet, because true reason and nature itself

Compel, be with me, while I demonstrate

In a few verses that there do exist

Bodies that are both solid and everlasting,

500

Which we teach are seeds or primal atoms of things

From which now all creation has been made.

First, since we have found that nature is twofold,

Consisting of two widely different things—

Matter and the space in which things happen—

505

Each must exist by itself unmixed with the other.

For where there is empty space, which we call void,

There matter is not; and where matter takes its stand

There in no way can empty void exist.

Therefore primal atoms are solid and without void.

510

Again, since void exists in things created,

There must be solid matter surrounding it,

Nor could you prove by truthful argument

That anything hides void, and holds it within it,

Unless you accept that that which holds is solid.

And that again can be nothing but an assembly

515

Of matter, able to hold the void inside it.

Matter therefore, which is absolutely solid,

Can last for ever, though all else be dissolved.

Then further, if there were nothing void and empty,

520

The universe would be one solid mass.

On the other hand, unless there were definite bodies

Able to fill the space each occupies,

Then everything would be vacant space and void.

An alternation then of matter and void

Must clearly exist, the two quite separate,

Since the universe is not completely full

525

Nor yet completely empty. So definite bodies

Exist which distinguish empty space from full.

And, as I have just shown, these can neither be broken

By blows struck from outside, nor inwardly

Pierced and unravelled; neither can they be

Attacked and shaken in any other way.

530

For without void it is clear that nothing can

Be crushed or broken or split in two by cutting;

Nor can it let in moisture or seeping cold

Or penetrating fire, all forces of destruction.

535

And the more void a thing contains within it

The deeper strike the blows of those assailants.

Therefore if atoms are solid and without void,

As I have shown, they must be everlasting.

Besides, had matter not been everlasting,

540

All things by now would have returned to nothing,

And the things we see would have been born again from nothing.

But since I have shown that nothing can be created

From nothing, nor things made return to nothing,

The primal atoms must have immortal substance

545

Into which at their last hour all things can be resolved

And furnish matter to renew the world.

So atoms must be solid single wholes;

Nor can they be in any other way

Preserved intact from endless ages past

Throughout eternity to make things new.

550

Consider this also: if nature had set