On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (35 page)

These things which men found out from life and need

Were doubtless fashioned for the sake of use.

Quite different are those things which came into being

Before any conception of their usefulness;

And first in this class are the senses and the limbs.

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Wherefore again and yet again I say

Banish from your mind the possibility

That they could have been made for the sake of usefulness.

Nor is there any reason to be surprised

That by the very nature of its body

Every animal seeks food. I have shown you that

Many atoms in many ways are thrown off from things,

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But most must come from animals. Always these are

In motion, and many atoms are pressed out

From deep down in sweat and many through the mouth

As they pant in exhaustion, so the body is rarefied

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And its nature undermined; and pain results.

So food is taken, to prop up the body,

And working inside renews the strength and stops

Through veins and limbs the gaping desire to eat.

And fluid also goes into all those parts

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That need it, and the massed particles of heat

That set our stomach in a blaze are scattered

By the fluid entering, and quenched like fire,

So the parching heat no longer burns our frame.

Thus then your panting thirst is swilled away

Out of the body, thus your famished craving

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Is satisfied, the body’s needs fulfilled.

Now I will tell you how it is that we walk

And can stride forward when we wish, and how

We are able to move our limbs in various ways,

And what it is that is wont to push along

Our body’s heavy weight. Please mark my words.

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I say that in the first place images

Of walking come in contact with the mind

And strike the mind, as I have said before.

Hence follows will: for no one ever begins

Anything unless the mind has first foreseen

What it wills to do (and what the mind foresees

Is the image of the thing). Therefore the mind

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When it conceives the wish of walking forward

Immediately strikes the mass of spirit

Dispersed through all the body and the limbs

(And this is easy for it, since it lives

In such close combination with the spirit).

The spirit then strikes the body, and so the whole mass

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Is gradually pushed forward into movement.

The body then also expands its pores, and air,

As is natural with something always mobile,

Pours into the opened passages and penetrates them,

Thus reaching the very smallest parts of the body.

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So thus by two things acting in two ways

The body is moved, like a ship by sails and wind.

Nor is there anything surprising here

That elements so small can turn so large

A body and twist our whole weight around.

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The wind, that is so subtle and so fine,

Drives on a mighty ship with mighty power,

And one hand rules it whatever its speed may be,

One rudder steers it whither you may will;

And many a heavy weight by blocks and pulleys

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A derrick can move and lift with little effort.

Next, in what way sleep floods the limbs with peace

And from the heart lets free the mind’s disquiet

I shall declare in verses sweet though few.

Better the swan’s brief song than that cry of cranes

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Spread by the south wind through the clouds on high.

Give me keen ears and understanding mind

Lest you deny that what I say can be,

And shrink back, your heart repelling words of truth

Though you are in fault yourself and cannot see it.

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In the first place, sleep comes when the power of the spirit

Is drawn apart through the body, and part of it

Cast forth has gone away, and part retreats

Into the depths compacted and compressed.

For only then the limbs relax and lie.

For there is no doubt that by the work of the spirit

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Sensation comes, and when sleep deadens it

We must suppose that the spirit has been disordered

And quite cast out; not all of it; for then the body

Would lie steeped in the eternal chill of death.

Since if no part of the spirit remained hidden

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In our body, as fire lies covered deep in ashes,

Whence could our feeling suddenly through the limbs

Rekindle, as flame leaps from hidden fire?

But by what cause this new state comes to pass

And whence the spirit can be disordered, and how

The body made to languish, I will explain.

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Please see that my words are not wasted on the winds.

First it must be that since the body is touched

By the motions of the air surrounding it

Its outer part by frequent blows of air

Is thumped and buffeted; and that is why

Nearly all things that live and grow are covered

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By skin or even shells or rind or bark.

The body’s inside also when we breathe

This same air strikes, drawn in and out. And so

Since the body is beaten outside and in, and since

The blows through tiny channels penetrate

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The primary parts and primal elements,

Slowly, collapse (as it were) occurs in the limbs.

The atoms of mind and body are dislodged

From their positions. Next part of the spirit

Is ejected out, and part withdraws within,

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And part also is scattered through the body

And so cannot unite and combine in motion.

For nature blocks the paths and meeting places,

So feeling sinks down deep when the motions are changed.

And since there is nothing to prop up the limbs,

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The body becomes weak, the limbs grow faint,

Arms and eyelids fall, and as we lie down

The knees give way and all their strength is gone.

Again sleep follows food, since it acts like air

When it has dissolved through all the veins.

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And much the deepest sleep is that which comes

From satiety or weariness, for then

The greatest number of atoms is disordered,

Bruised by much labour. Of the spirit too

In the same way a part is thrown together

At a greater depth, and the part ejected is greater,

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And the separations and divisions magnified.

And those pursuits which most we love to follow,

The things in which just now we have been engaged,

The mind being thus the more intent upon them,

These are most oft the substance of our dreams.

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Lawyers argue their cases and make laws,

Generals fight battles, leading troops to war,

Sailors pursue their struggles with the wind,

And I ply my own task and seek the nature of things

Always, and tell them in our native tongue.

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All other pursuits and arts seem thus in dreams

To hold the minds of men with their illusions.

When men have been to games and theatres

For many days, we usually see,

When they have ceased to observe these with their senses,

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That paths are left still open in the mind

By which the images of these things can enter.

For many days then these same things are moving

Before their eyes, so that even while awake

They seem to see dancers swaying supple limbs,

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And the lyre’s liquid notes and speaking strings

Enter their ears, and the same audience

They see and the varied glories of the stage.

So great is the effect of interest and pleasure

And of things which form the habits of men’s lives,

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Not only of men, but of all animals.

You will see horses, when they lie in sleep,

Break out in sweat and panting hard and fast

As if straining every nerve to win a race,

Or plunging from the opened starting gates.

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And often hounds lying in gentle sleep

Suddenly throw up their legs and all at once

Give tongue and keenly sniff the air, as if

They have found and held the scent of some wild beast.

And even when awake they often chase

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