De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. But in what modes that conflux of first-stuff
  2. Did found the multitudinous universe
  3. Of earth, and sky, and the unfathomed deeps
  4. Of ocean, and courses of the sun and moon,
  5. I'll now in order tell. For of a truth
  6. Neither by counsel did the primal germs
  7. 'Stablish themselves, as by keen act of mind,
  8. Each in its proper place; nor did they make,
  9. Forsooth, a compact how each germ should move;
  10. But, lo, because primordials of things,
  11. Many in many modes, astir by blows
  12. From immemorial aeons, in motion too
  13. By their own weights, have evermore been wont
  14. To be so borne along and in all modes
  15. To meet together and to try all sorts
  16. Which, by combining one with other, they
  17. Are powerful to create: because of this
  18. It comes to pass that those primordials,
  19. Diffused far and wide through mighty aeons,
  20. The while they unions try, and motions too,
  21. Of every kind, meet at the last amain,
  22. And so become oft the commencements fit
  23. Of mighty things- earth, sea, and sky, and race
  24. Of living creatures.