Severed from cares, attend to a true philosophical system;
Lest it should hap that my gifts which I zealously set forth before you,
Scorned, you abandon untouched before they can be comprehended.
For ’tis high lore of heaven and of gods that I shall endeavour
Clearly to speak as I tell of the primary atoms of matter
Out of which Nature forms things: ’tis “things” she increases and fosters;
Then back to atoms again she resolves them and makes them to vanish.
“Things,” for argument’s sake, my wont is to speak of as “matter”;
Also the “seeds” of those things to name the small parts which beget them:
Further, those infinitesimal parts, (an alternative figure)
Primary “atoms” to call, whereof matter was all first created.
When in full view on the earth man’s life lay rotting and loathsome,
Crushed ’neath the ponderous load of Religion’s cruel burdensome shackles,
Who out of heaven displayed her forehead of withering aspect,
Lowering over the heads of mortals with hideous menace,
Upraising mortal eyes ’twas a Greek who first, daring, defied her;
’Gainst man’s relentless foe ’twas Man first framed to do battle.
Him could nor tales of the gods nor heaven’s fierce thunderbolts’ crashes
Curb; nay rather they inflamed his spirit’s keen courage to covet.
His it should first be to shiver the close-bolted portals of Nature.
Therefore his soul’s live energy triumphed, and far and wide compassed
World’s walls’ blazing lights, and the boundless Universe traversed
Thought-winged; from realms of space he comes back victorious and tells us
What we may, what we must not perceive; what law universal
Limits the ken of each, what deep-set boundary landmark:
Then how in turn underfoot Religion is hurled down and trampled,
Then how that victory lifts mankind to high level of heaven.
One apprehension assails me here, that haply you reckon
Godless the pathway you tread which leads to the Science of Nature
As to the highroad of sin. But rather how much more often
Has that same vaunted Religion brought forth deeds sinful and godless.
Thus the chosen Greek chiefs, the first of their heroes, at Aulis,
Trivia’s altar befouled with the blood of Iphianassa.
For when the equal-trimmed ribbons, her virgin tresses encircling,
Unfurled from each fair cheek so bravely, so gallantly fluttered;
Soon as she saw her sorrowing sire in front of the altar
Standing, with serving-men near, their gleaming knives vainly concealing,
And, at the sight of her plight, her countrymen bitter tears shedding;
Dumb with fear, her knees giving way, to earth she fell sinking.
Nor in her woe could it be of avail to the hapless maiden
That it was she first gave to the king the title of father.
For, by men’s hands upborne, she was, quivering, led to the altar;
Not, forsooth, to the end that, sacred rites duly completed,
With ringing clarion song of marriage she might be escorted;
But, pure maid foully slain in wedlock’s appropriate season,
That she a victim might fall ’neath the slaughter stroke of her father,
So that a happy and lucky dispatch to the fleet might be granted!
Such are the darksome deeds brought to pass by Religion’s fell promptings!
Now this terror and darkness of mind must surely be scattered,
Not by rays of the sun, nor by gleaming arrows of daylight,
But by the outward display and unseen workings of Nature.
And her first rule for us from this premiss shall take its beginning;
“Never did will of gods bring anything forth out of nothing.”
For, in good sooth, it is thus that fear restraineth all mortals,
Since both in earth and sky they see that many things happen
Whereof they cannot by any known law determine the causes;
So their occurrence they ascribe to supernatural power.
Therefore when we have seen that naught can be made out of nothing,
Afterwards we shall more rightly discern the thing which we search for:
—Both out of what it is that everything can be created,
And in what way all came, without help of gods, into being.
If out of nothing things sprang into life, then every species
From all alike could be born, and none would need any seed-germ.
First, mature men might rise from the sea, and scale-bearing fishes
Out of the earth; or again, fledged birds burst full-grown from heaven.
Cattle and other beasts, and the whole tribe of wild herds, ungoverned
By any fixed law of birth, would of desert and tilth take possession.
Nor would each fruit be wont to remain to its own tree peculiar,
But all would change about, so that all could bear all kinds of produce.
How, if for each distinct kind there were no producing corpuscles,
Could any matrix for matter exist that is fixed and unchanging?
But, as it is, since all from definite seeds are created,
Therefore each is born and comes into regions of daylight
From out the place where dwells its substance, the primary atoms.
Thus each cannot spring from all in promiscuous fashion,
Since a peculiar power indwells each fixed kind of matter.
Secondly, why do we see spring flowers, see golden grain waving
Ripe in the sun, see grape clusters swell at the urge of the autumn,
If not because when, in their own time, the fixed seeds of matter
Have coalesced, then each creation comes forth into full view
When the recurrent seasons for each are propitious, and safely
Quickening Earth brings forth to the light her delicate offspring?
But if from nothing they came, then each would spring up unexpected
At undetermined times and in unfavouring seasons,
Seeing that there would then not be any primary atoms
Which from untimely creative conjunction could be kept asunder.
Nor, again, thirdly, would time be needed for growing of matter
When the seeds unite, if things can grow out of nothing;
For in a trice little children would reach the fulness of manhood:
Trees, again, would spring up by surprise, from earth sheer outleaping.
But ’tis apparent that none of this happens, since all things grow slowly,
As is but normal when each from a fixed seed in a fixed season
Grows, and growing, preserves its kind: thus telling us clearly
That from appropriate atoms each creature grows great and is nourished.
But do not think that the gods condescend to consider such matters,
Or that they mark the careers of individual atoms
So as to study the laws of Nature whereunto they conform.
Nevertheless there are some, unaware of the fixed laws of matter,
Who think that Nature cannot, without supernatural power,
Thus nicely fit to manners of men the sequence of seasons,
Bringing forth corn, yea, all earth’s fruits, which heavenly Pleasure,
Pilot of life, prompts men to approach, herself them escorting,
As by Venus’ wiles she beguiles them their race to continue
So that humanity may not fail. When therefore they settle
That for the sake of man the gods designed all things, most widely
In all respects do they seem to have strayed from the path of true reason.
For even if I knew nothing concerning the nature of atoms,
Yet from heaven’s very lore and legend’s diversified story