On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (41 page)

Nor did they make contracts, you may be certain,

As to what movements each of them should make.

But many primal atoms in many ways

Moving through infinite time up to the present,

Clashing among themselves and carried by their own weight,

Have come together in every possible way,

Tried every combination that could be made;

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And so advancing through vast lengths of time,

Exploring every union and motion,

At length those of them came together

Which by a sudden conjunction interfused

Often become the beginnings of great things—

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Of earth and sea and sky and living creatures.

Then not the sun’s great wheel with bounteous light

Soaring aloft was seen, nor stars of heaven,

Nor sea nor sky nor earth at all nor air

Nor aught like things that in our world we know,

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But a strange storm and surging mighty mass

Of atoms of all kinds in conflict locked

Created turmoil, in their intervals

Connections, courses, weights, blows, meetings, motions,

Because by reason of their different shapes and patterns

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They could not all when joined together remain so,

Nor make the movements needed for their union.

Then parts began to separate, like things

Joining with like, and parcel out the world,

Fashion its limbs, set out its mighty parts—

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That is, to set apart high heaven from earth,

And the sea apart, spreading its separate waters,

And apart too the pure and separate fires of ether.

In the first place, all the particles of earth,

Being heavy and entangled, came together

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In the middle, and took the lowest positions.

And the more closely mixed they came together

The more they pressed out elements that could make

Sea, stars, sun, and moon, and the world’s great walls.

For all of these consist of elements

More round and smooth and smaller far than those

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Of earth. First therefore through its porous crust

Ether broke out and raised itself aloft,

Ether the fire-bringer, and many fires

It lightly drew with it. As oft we see

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With blush of morn the golden sun’s new beams

Colour the meadow grasses pearled with dew,

And lakes and living streams breathe out a mist,

And earth itself appears sometimes to smoke;

And then the vapours forming high above

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Thicken, and weave a web across the sky,

So in this way then ether light and thin

Thickened, and bent round curving everywhere

Expanding everywhere in all directions,

And thus fenced in the rest with keen embrace.

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Next the beginnings came of sun and moon,

Whose globes revolve in middle course on high.

Them neither earth nor mighty ether claimed,

Being not so heavy as to sink and lie

Nor light enough to rise through highest heaven,

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But in between they turn as living bodies

And take their place as parts of all the world;

As in our bodies too some limbs may stay

At rest, while others yet are moving.

And now, when these two orbs had been drawn off,

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Earth suddenly into the wide blue sea

Sank down, and filled the ditches with salt floods;

And day by day the more the tides of ether

And sun’s rays all around beat on the earth,

And to its farthest bounds with many blows

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Compressed it, so that forced towards its centre

It became solid, so much then the more

The salt sweat pressed out oozing from its body

Increased the sea, increased the swimming plains,

So much the more slipped out and flew away

Those many bodies of heat and air, and far from earth

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Uplifted filled the shining vault of heaven.

The plains subsided and the mountains grew,

High mountains, since the rocks could not sink down,

Nor all things everywhere sink equally.

So in this way earth with its solid weight

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Stood, and the mud as it were of all the world

Flowing down together in a heavy mass

Sank to the bottom like the lees of wine.

Then sea, then air, then ether fire-bearer

All were left pure, of liquid atoms made,

Some lighter than others. Liquidest of all,

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And lightest, ether flows above the air,

Nor is its liquid essence e’er disturbed

By whirling winds. It lets all things below

Be tossed by violent tempests, racked by storms;

Itself with motion undisturbed and sure

Bearing its own fires keeps its onward way.

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For that a gentle flow in one direction

Is possible for ether, Pontus shows, a sea

That flows with an unchanging current, keeping

One tide forever moving in its waters.

The causes of the motions of the stars

Let us now sing. First, if the great orb of heaven

Turns round, we must say that air presses on each pole,

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And holds it from outside and shuts it in;

Then, that another air flows above and moves

On the same course as roll the signs of heaven

And shining stars of the everlasting world;

Or else some other air flowing beneath

In the opposite direction drives it from below,

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As we see rivers turning wheels and buckets.

It may be also that the whole of heaven

Remains at rest, and yet the bright stars move;

Whether because swift tides of ether shut in

Seeking escape whirl round in circles, and roll

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Their fires through all the thundering realms of heaven;

Or some air flowing from some place outside

Turns and drives fires; or perhaps of their own accord

They wind where food invites them, fiery bodies

Grazing the starry pastures of the sky.

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Which of these causes operates in this world

It is difficult to say beyond all doubt;

But what can and does happen in the universe

In various worlds created in various ways

That do I teach, and set out several causes

That may apply to the movements of the stars

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Throughout the universe; and one of these

Must certainly within this world of ours

Excite the movements of the constellations;

But to lay down which it is, is not for one

With stumbling footsteps moving slowly forward.

Now earth rests in the centre of the world.

This is because its mass slowly reduces

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And vanishes, and underneath is joined

Another substance, joined when its life began,

Fitted and grafted into the regions of air

In which it lives, and for that very reason

It is no burden and does not depress the air.

A man’s limbs have no weight that he can feel,

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The head’s no burden to the neck, nor body

For all its size weighs heavy on our feet.

But heavy things striking us from outside

Cause injury, though they be very much smaller.

So much it matters what each thing can do.

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In the same way, earth was not suddenly

Imposed on air as something alien,

Or from outside thrust in on alien air,

But from the first beginning of the world

It was conceived and grew together with it,

A fixed part of it, as limbs are of our body.

Besides, when earth by sudden mighty thunder

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Is struck, it shakes all the air that lies above.

This it could never do, were it not bound

To the world’s airy regions and to the sky.

By common roots united and conjoined,

Joined when their lives began, they cling together.

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See also how a most thin essence of spirit

Sustains our body, despite its heavy weight

Because it is so conjoined and united with it.

And what can lift the body in a leap

If not the force of spirit that guides the limbs?

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Now do you see how great the power can be

Of a thin substance joined with heavy body,

As air is joined with earth, and mind with us?