De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. And in the ages after monsters died,
  2. Perforce there perished many a stock, unable
  3. By propagation to forge a progeny.
  4. For whatsoever creatures thou beholdest
  5. Breathing the breath of life, the same have been
  6. Even from their earliest age preserved alive
  7. By cunning, or by valour, or at least
  8. By speed of foot or wing. And many a stock
  9. Remaineth yet, because of use to man,
  10. And so committed to man's guardianship.
  11. Valour hath saved alive fierce lion-breeds
  12. And many another terrorizing race,
  13. Cunning the foxes, flight the antlered stags.
  14. Light-sleeping dogs with faithful heart in breast,
  15. However, and every kind begot from seed
  16. Of beasts of draft, as, too, the woolly flocks
  17. And horned cattle, all, my Memmius,
  18. Have been committed to guardianship of men.
  19. For anxiously they fled the savage beasts,
  20. And peace they sought and their abundant foods,
  21. Obtained with never labours of their own,
  22. Which we secure to them as fit rewards
  23. For their good service. But those beasts to whom
  24. Nature has granted naught of these same things-
  25. Beasts quite unfit by own free will to thrive
  26. And vain for any service unto us
  27. In thanks for which we should permit their kind
  28. To feed and be in our protection safe-
  29. Those, of a truth, were wont to be exposed,
  30. Enshackled in the gruesome bonds of doom,
  31. As prey and booty for the rest, until
  32. Nature reduced that stock to utter death.