De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. And now what cause
  2. Hath spread divinities of gods abroad
  3. Through mighty nations, and filled the cities full
  4. Of the high altars, and led to practices
  5. Of solemn rites in season- rites which still
  6. Flourish in midst of great affairs of state
  7. And midst great centres of man's civic life,
  8. The rites whence still a poor mortality
  9. Is grafted that quaking awe which rears aloft
  10. Still the new temples of gods from land to land
  11. And drives mankind to visit them in throngs
  12. On holy days- 'tis not so hard to give
  13. Reason thereof in speech. Because, in sooth,
  14. Even in those days would the race of man
  15. Be seeing excelling visages of gods
  16. With mind awake; and in his sleeps, yet more-
  17. Bodies of wondrous growth. And, thus, to these
  18. Would men attribute sense, because they seemed
  19. To move their limbs and speak pronouncements high,
  20. Befitting glorious visage and vast powers.
  21. And men would give them an eternal life,
  22. Because their visages forevermore
  23. Were there before them, and their shapes remained,
  24. And chiefly, however, because men would not think
  25. Beings augmented with such mighty powers
  26. Could well by any force o'ermastered be.
  27. And men would think them in their happiness
  28. Excelling far, because the fear of death
  29. Vexed no one of them at all, and since
  30. At same time in men's sleeps men saw them do
  31. So many wonders, and yet feel therefrom
  32. Themselves no weariness. Besides, men marked
  33. How in a fixed order rolled around
  34. The systems of the sky, and changed times
  35. Of annual seasons, nor were able then
  36. To know thereof the causes. Therefore 'twas
  37. Men would take refuge in consigning all
  38. Unto divinities, and in feigning all
  39. Was guided by their nod. And in the sky
  40. They set the seats and vaults of gods, because
  41. Across the sky night and the moon are seen
  42. To roll along- moon, day, and night, and night's
  43. Old awesome constellations evermore,
  44. And the night-wandering fireballs of the sky,
  45. And flying flames, clouds, and the sun, the rains,
  46. Snow and the winds, the lightnings, and the hail,
  47. And the swift rumblings, and the hollow roar
  48. Of mighty menacings forevermore.