De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916.

  1. In these affairs
  2. We wish thee also well aware of this:
  3. The atoms, as their own weight bears them down
  4. Plumb through the void, at scarce determined times,
  5. In scarce determined places, from their course
  6. Decline a little- call it, so to speak,
  7. Mere changed trend. For were it not their wont
  8. Thuswise to swerve, down would they fall, each one,
  9. Like drops of rain, through the unbottomed void;
  10. And then collisions ne'er could be nor blows
  11. Among the primal elements; and thus
  12. Nature would never have created aught.
  13. But, if perchance be any that believe
  14. The heavier bodies, as more swiftly borne
  15. Plumb down the void, are able from above
  16. To strike the lighter, thus engendering blows
  17. Able to cause those procreant motions, far
  18. From highways of true reason they retire.
  19. For whatsoever through the waters fall,
  20. Or through thin air, must quicken their descent,
  21. Each after its weight- on this account, because
  22. Both bulk of water and the subtle air
  23. By no means can retard each thing alike,
  24. But give more quick before the heavier weight;
  25. But contrariwise the empty void cannot,
  26. On any side, at any time, to aught
  27. Oppose resistance, but will ever yield,
  28. True to its bent of nature. Wherefore all,
  29. With equal speed, though equal not in weight,
  30. Must rush, borne downward through the still inane.
  31. Thus ne'er at all have heavier from above
  32. Been swift to strike the lighter, gendering strokes
  33. Which cause those divers motions, by whose means
  34. Nature transacts her work. And so I say,
  35. The atoms must a little swerve at times-
  36. But only the least, lest we should seem to feign
  37. Motions oblique, and fact refute us there.
  38. For this we see forthwith is manifest:
  39. Whatever the weight, it can't obliquely go,
  40. Down on its headlong journey from above,
  41. At least so far as thou canst mark; but who
  42. Is there can mark by sense that naught can swerve
  43. At all aside from off its road's straight line?
  44. Again, if ev'r all motions are co-linked,
  45. And from the old ever arise the new
  46. In fixed order, and primordial seeds
  47. Produce not by their swerving some new start
  48. Of motion to sunder the covenants of fate,
  49. That cause succeed not cause from everlasting,
  50. Whence this free will for creatures o'er the lands,
  51. Whence is it wrested from the fates,- this will
  52. Whereby we step right forward where desire
  53. Leads each man on, whereby the same we swerve
  54. In motions, not as at some fixed time,
  55. Nor at some fixed line of space, but where
  56. The mind itself has urged? For out of doubt
  57. In these affairs 'tis each man's will itself
  58. That gives the start, and hence throughout our limbs
  59. Incipient motions are diffused. Again,
  60. Dost thou not see, when, at a point of time,
  61. The bars are opened, how the eager strength
  62. Of horses cannot forward break as soon
  63. As pants their mind to do? For it behooves
  64. That all the stock of matter, through the frame,
  65. Be roused, in order that, through every joint,
  66. Aroused, it press and follow mind's desire;
  67. So thus thou seest initial motion's gendered
  68. From out the heart, aye, verily, proceeds
  69. First from the spirit's will, whence at the last
  70. 'Tis given forth through joints and body entire.
  71. Quite otherwise it is, when forth we move,
  72. Impelled by a blow of another's mighty powers
  73. And mighty urge; for then 'tis clear enough
  74. All matter of our total body goes,
  75. Hurried along, against our own desire-
  76. Until the will has pulled upon the reins
  77. And checked it back, throughout our members all;
  78. At whose arbitrament indeed sometimes
  79. The stock of matter's forced to change its path,
  80. Throughout our members and throughout our joints,
  81. And, after being forward cast, to be
  82. Reined up, whereat it settles back again.
  83. So seest thou not, how, though external force
  84. Drive men before, and often make them move,
  85. Onward against desire, and headlong snatched,
  86. Yet is there something in these breasts of ours
  87. Strong to combat, strong to withstand the same?-
  88. Wherefore no less within the primal seeds
  89. Thou must admit, besides all blows and weight,
  90. Some other cause of motion, whence derives
  91. This power in us inborn, of some free act.-
  92. Since naught from nothing can become, we see.
  93. For weight prevents all things should come to pass
  94. Through blows, as 'twere, by some external force;
  95. But that man's mind itself in all it does
  96. Hath not a fixed necessity within,
  97. Nor is not, like a conquered thing, compelled
  98. To bear and suffer,- this state comes to man
  99. From that slight swervement of the elements
  100. In no fixed line of space, in no fixed time.
  1. Nor ever was the stock of stuff more crammed,
  2. Nor ever, again, sundered by bigger gaps:
  3. For naught gives increase and naught takes away;
  4. On which account, just as they move to-day,
  5. The elemental bodies moved of old
  6. And shall the same hereafter evermore.
  7. And what was wont to be begot of old
  8. Shall be begotten under selfsame terms
  9. And grow and thrive in power, so far as given
  10. To each by Nature's changeless, old decrees.
  11. The sum of things there is no power can change,
  12. For naught exists outside, to which can flee
  13. Out of the world matter of any kind,
  14. Nor forth from which a fresh supply can spring,
  15. Break in upon the founded world, and change
  16. Whole nature of things, and turn their motions about.