De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. First, stream there must from off the lode-stone seeds
  2. Innumerable, a very tide, which smites
  3. By blows that air asunder lying betwixt
  4. The stone and iron. And when is emptied out
  5. This space, and a large place between the two
  6. Is made a void, forthwith the primal germs
  7. Of iron, headlong slipping, fall conjoined
  8. Into the vacuum, and the ring itself
  9. By reason thereof doth follow after and go
  10. Thuswise with all its body. And naught there is
  11. That of its own primordial elements
  12. More thoroughly knit or tighter linked coheres
  13. Than nature and cold roughness of stout iron.
  14. Wherefore, 'tis less a marvel what I said,
  15. That from such elements no bodies can
  16. From out the iron collect in larger throng
  17. And be into the vacuum borne along,
  18. Without the ring itself do follow after.
  19. And this it does, and followeth on until
  20. 'Thath reached the stone itself and cleaved to it
  21. By links invisible. Moreover, likewise,
  22. The motion's assisted by a thing of aid
  23. (Whereby the process easier becomes),-
  24. Namely, by this: as soon as rarer grows
  25. That air in front of the ring, and space between
  26. Is emptied more and made a void, forthwith
  27. It happens all the air that lies behind
  28. Conveys it onward, pushing from the rear.
  29. For ever doth the circumambient air
  30. Drub things unmoved, but here it pushes forth
  31. The iron, because upon one side the space
  32. Lies void and thus receives the iron in.
  33. This air, whereof I am reminding thee,
  34. Winding athrough the iron's abundant pores
  35. So subtly into the tiny parts thereof,
  36. Shoves it and pushes, as wind the ship and sails.
  37. The same doth happen in all directions forth:
  38. From whatso side a space is made a void,
  39. Whether from crosswise or above, forthwith
  40. The neighbour particles are borne along
  41. Into the vacuum; for of verity,
  42. They're set a-going by poundings from elsewhere,
  43. Nor by themselves of own accord can they
  44. Rise upwards into the air. Again, all things
  45. Must in their framework hold some air, because
  46. They are of framework porous, and the air
  47. Encompasses and borders on all things.
  48. Thus, then, this air in iron so deeply stored
  49. Is tossed evermore in vexed motion,
  50. And therefore drubs upon the ring sans doubt
  51. And shakes it up inside....
  52. . . . . . .
  53. In sooth, that ring is thither borne along
  54. To where 'thas once plunged headlong- thither, lo,
  55. Unto the void whereto it took its start.
  1. It happens, too, at times that nature of iron
  2. Shrinks from this stone away, accustomed
  3. By turns to flee and follow. Yea, I've seen
  4. Those Samothracian iron rings leap up,
  5. And iron filings in the brazen bowls
  6. Seethe furiously, when underneath was set
  7. The magnet stone. So strongly iron seems
  8. To crave to flee that rock. Such discord great
  9. Is gendered by the interposed brass,
  10. Because, forsooth, when first the tide of brass
  11. Hath seized upon and held possession of
  12. The iron's open passage-ways, thereafter
  13. Cometh the tide of the stone, and in that iron
  14. Findeth all spaces full, nor now hath holes
  15. To swim through, as before. 'Tis thus constrained
  16. With its own current 'gainst the iron's fabric
  17. To dash and beat; by means whereof it spues
  18. Forth from itself- and through the brass stirs up-
  19. The things which otherwise without the brass
  20. It sucks into itself. In these affairs
  21. Marvel thou not that from this stone the tide
  22. Prevails not likewise other things to move
  23. With its own blows: for some stand firm by weight,
  24. As gold; and some cannot be moved forever,
  25. Because so porous in their framework they
  26. That there the tide streams through without a break,
  27. Of which sort stuff of wood is seen to be.
  28. Therefore, when iron (which lies between the two)
  29. Hath taken in some atoms of the brass,
  30. Then do the streams of that Magnesian rock
  31. Move iron by their smitings.
  1. Yet these things
  2. Are not so alien from others, that I
  3. Of this same sort am ill prepared to name
  4. Ensamples still of things exclusively
  5. To one another adapt. Thou seest, first,
  6. How lime alone cementeth stones: how wood
  7. Only by glue-of-bull with wood is joined-
  8. So firmly too that oftener the boards
  9. Crack open along the weakness of the grain
  10. Ere ever those taurine bonds will lax their hold.
  11. The vine-born juices with the water-springs
  12. Are bold to mix, though not the heavy pitch
  13. With the light oil-of-olive. And purple dye
  14. Of shell-fish so uniteth with the wool's
  15. Body alone that it cannot be ta'en
  16. Away forever- nay, though thou gavest toil
  17. To restore the same with the Neptunian flood,
  18. Nay, though all ocean willed to wash it out
  19. With all its waves. Again, gold unto gold
  20. Doth not one substance bind, and only one?
  21. And is not brass by tin joined unto brass?
  22. And other ensamples how many might one find!
  23. What then? Nor is there unto thee a need
  24. Of such long ways and roundabout, nor boots it
  25. For me much toil on this to spend. More fit
  26. It is in few words briefly to embrace
  27. Things many: things whose textures fall together
  28. So mutually adapt, that cavities
  29. To solids correspond, these cavities
  30. Of this thing to the solid parts of that,
  31. And those of that to solid parts of this-
  32. Such joinings are the best. Again, some things
  33. Can be the one with other coupled and held,
  34. Linked by hooks and eyes, as 'twere; and this
  35. Seems more the fact with iron and this stone.