De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Again, if one suppose
  2. That naught is known, he knows not whether this
  3. Itself is able to be known, since he
  4. Confesses naught to know. Therefore with him
  5. I waive discussion- who has set his head
  6. Even where his feet should be. But let me grant
  7. That this he knows,- I question: whence he knows
  8. What 'tis to know and not-to-know in turn,
  9. And what created concept of the truth,
  10. And what device has proved the dubious
  11. To differ from the certain?- since in things
  12. He's heretofore seen naught of true. Thou'lt find
  13. That from the senses first hath been create
  14. Concept of truth, nor can the senses be
  15. Rebutted. For criterion must be found
  16. Worthy of greater trust, which shall defeat
  17. Through own authority the false by true;
  18. What, then, than these our senses must there be
  19. Worthy a greater trust? Shall reason, sprung
  20. From some false sense, prevail to contradict
  21. Those senses, sprung as reason wholly is
  22. From out the senses?- For lest these be true,
  23. All reason also then is falsified.
  24. Or shall the ears have power to blame the eyes,
  25. Or yet the touch the ears? Again, shall taste
  26. Accuse this touch or shall the nose confute
  27. Or eyes defeat it? Methinks not so it is:
  28. For unto each has been divided off
  29. Its function quite apart, its power to each;
  30. And thus we're still constrained to perceive
  31. The soft, the cold, the hot apart, apart
  32. All divers hues and whatso things there be
  33. Conjoined with hues. Likewise the tasting tongue
  34. Has its own power apart, and smells apart
  35. And sounds apart are known. And thus it is
  36. That no one sense can e'er convict another.
  37. Nor shall one sense have power to blame itself,
  38. Because it always must be deemed the same,
  39. Worthy of equal trust. And therefore what
  40. At any time unto these senses showed,
  41. The same is true.
  1. And if the reason be
  2. Unable to unravel us the cause
  3. Why objects, which at hand were square, afar
  4. Seemed rounded, yet it more availeth us,
  5. Lacking the reason, to pretend a cause
  6. For each configuration, than to let
  7. From out our hands escape the obvious things
  8. And injure primal faith in sense, and wreck
  9. All those foundations upon which do rest
  10. Our life and safety. For not only reason
  11. Would topple down; but even our very life
  12. Would straightaway collapse, unless we dared
  13. To trust our senses and to keep away
  14. From headlong heights and places to be shunned
  15. Of a like peril, and to seek with speed
  16. Their opposites! Again, as in a building,
  17. If the first plumb-line be askew, and if
  18. The square deceiving swerve from lines exact,
  19. And if the level waver but the least
  20. In any part, the whole construction then
  21. Must turn out faulty- shelving and askew,
  22. Leaning to back and front, incongruous,
  23. That now some portions seem about to fall,
  24. And falls the whole ere long- betrayed indeed
  25. By first deceiving estimates: so too
  26. Thy calculations in affairs of life
  27. Must be askew and false, if sprung for thee
  28. From senses false. So all that troop of words
  29. Marshalled against the senses is quite vain.