De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  1. Likewise, it lightens, when the clouds have struck,
  2. By their collision, forth the seeds of fire:
  3. As if a stone should smite a stone or steel,
  4. For light then too leaps forth and fire then scatters
  5. The shining sparks. But with our ears we get
  6. The thunder after eyes behold the flash,
  7. Because forever things arrive the ears
  8. More tardily than the eyes- as thou mayst see
  9. From this example too: when markest thou
  10. Some man far yonder felling a great tree
  11. With double-edged ax, it comes to pass
  12. Thine eye beholds the swinging stroke before
  13. The blow gives forth a sound athrough thine ears:
  14. Thus also we behold the flashing ere
  15. We hear the thunder, which discharged is
  16. At same time with the fire and by same cause,
  17. Born of the same collision.