On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (46 page)

From others, and ignore the evidence

Of their own senses, it profits no more now,

Nor ever will do, than it did before.

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Therefore the kings were killed, and in the dust

The ancient majesty of thrones and sceptres proud

Lay overthrown. The sovereign head’s great crown

Bloodstained beneath the rabble’s trampling feet,

All honour lost, bewailed its high estate.

For men do eagerly tread underfoot

What they have feared too much in former time.

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So things fell back to utter dregs and turmoil

As every man sought power for himself.

Then some men taught them to appoint magistrates

With rights established and the rule of law;

For mankind worn by a life of violence

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And weakened by its feuds, was ready now

To yield to rules of law and binding statutes.

For men in anger would avenge themselves

More savagely than just laws now would suffer;

And for this reason a life of violence

Was viewed with utter weariness and loathing.

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Hence comes the fear of punishment that stains

The prizes of life. For violence and wrong

Enmesh a man and oft recoil upon him;

Nor easily with calm and quiet mind

Can he abide who violates the bonds

Of peace established for the common good.

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Though he should keep it hid from gods and men,

Yet he must wonder how his sin can stay

Secret for ever, seeing that many men

Talking in dreams or raving in disease

Are said to have betrayed themselves, and brought

Long-hidden crimes into the light of day.

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Let us now think why reverence for gods

Has spread through mighty nations and filled cities

With altars, and established solemn rites,

Rites that now flourish in great states and places;

Whence even now implanted in men’s hearts

Comes that dread awe which over all the world

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Raises new temples to the gods, and summons

The crowds that throng them on great festal days.

These matters are quite easy to explain.

The truth is then that in those early days

Men in their waking hours and still more in sleep

Had visions of gods, conspicuous in beauty,

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Of form surpassing and of wondrous stature.

These they endowed with senses, since they seemed

To move their limbs, and speak proud words, befitting

Their splendid beauty and their mighty strength;

And they gave them eternal life, because always

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The figures were renewed with form unchanged,

And they thought indeed that figures of such strength

Could hardly be by any force subdued.

Therefore they thought them past all measure blest

Since none was troubled by the fear of death,

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And because also in their dreams they saw

These wondrous beings do many miracles

All without labour wrought or weariness.

And men observed the order of the heavens

And seasons of the year on their fixed course

Turning, and could not tell the reason why.

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Therefore for refuge everything they gave

To gods, their nod controlling everything.

And in the sky they placed the gods’ abodes

Since night and moon are seen to cross the sky,

Moon, day, and night, and the stern signs of night,

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Night-wandering torches of heaven, flying flames,

Clouds, sun, rain, snow, winds, lightnings, hail,

And thunderclaps and mighty murmurings.

Ah, wretched race of men, that to the gods

Ascribe such things, and add fierce bursts of wrath!

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What groans they made for themselves, what wounds for us,

What tears for generations still to come!

It is no piety to show oneself

Bowing with veiled head towards a stone,

Nor to be seen frequenting every altar,

Nor to fall prostrate on the ground, with palms outspread

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Before the shrines of gods, nor deluge altars

With streams of blood from beasts, vow piled on vow.

True piety is for a man to have the power

To contemplate the world with quiet mind.

When we look upward to the heavenly realms

Of the great firmament, and see the sky

Bedecked with sparkling stars, and when we think

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Of the sure courses of the sun and moon,

Then in our hearts already worn with woes

A new anxiety lifts up its head,

Whether some power beyond all reckoning

Hangs over us perchance, of gods, that make

The bright stars in their varied courses move.

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The doubting mind is racked by ignorance

Whether the world had a beginning, whether

Some final end is set for it, when all

The mighty bastions of the world no longer

Can bear the forces of its restless motion,

Or whether by power divine forever sure

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They glide eternal through the course of ages

And scorn the power of time immeasurable.

And what man does not quail with fear of gods,

With shrinking mind and flesh creeping with terror,

When the parched earth struck by a thunderbolt

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Trembles, and thunder rolls across the sky.

Nations and people tremble and proud kings

Shiver, limbs shaken by the fear of gods,

Lest for some foul deed or contemptuous word

The solemn hour of punishment be near.

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And when at sea a mighty wind and storm

Sweeps o’er the waters some high admiral

With all his legions and his elephants,

What vows he makes to gods to send him peace,

What prayers for gentle winds and favouring breezes!

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In vain, since oft the violent hurricane

Drives him no less upon the reefs of death.

So true it is that by some hidden power

Human affairs are ground to dust, a power

That seems to trample on the splendid rods

And cruel axes, and hold them in derision.

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Then, when the whole world reels beneath their feet,

And cities shaken fall or threaten ruin,

What wonder if mortal men despise themselves

And all the great and wondrous powers relinquish

To gods, as governors of all the world?

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I now discuss how metals first were found.

Copper and iron and gold and heavy silver

And serviceable lead, these were discovered

When fire upon high mountains had consumed

Vast forests, or a bolt from heaven had struck,

Or because tribesmen in some forest war

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Had fired the woods to scare their enemies,

Or because seeing the bounty of the soil

They wished to clear fat fields for pasturage,

Or else they wished to kill the forest beasts

And profit by their spoils, for pits and fire

Were found of use for hunting before they learnt

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To fence a wood with nets and drive with dogs.

Whatever the reason was that flaming heat

With hideous roar burnt all the forest down

Deep to its roots and baked the earth with fire,

Through melted veins into hollows in the earth

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Would trickle a stream of silver and of gold

And copper and lead, collecting; and when they saw

These hardened and glowing with colour on the earth

They would pick them up, charmed by their bright smooth beauty,

And see that each was formed into a shape

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Printed like that of the hollow in the earth.

Then the thought came to them that these things melted

By heat could run into any shape or form,

And into sharpest point or thinnest edge

Be drawn by hammering, and so make tools

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To cut down woods and rough-hew timber, and plane

Smooth planks, and bore and pierce and perforate.

And they tried to make these things of gold and silver

At first, no less than of bronze so tough and strong—

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In vain, since all their strength gave way defeated,

Unable to bear so well the heavy labour.

Then bronze was valued higher and gold sank low,