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De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)
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De Rerum Natura

Author: Lucretius
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
169
O
genus
infelix
humanum
,
talia
divis

cum
tribuit
facta
atque
iras
adiunxit
acerbas
!
quantos
tum
gemitus
ipsi
sibi
,
quantaque
nobis

volnera
,
quas
lacrimas
peperere
minoribus
nostris
!
nec
pietas
ullast
velatum
saepe
videri

vertier
ad
lapidem
atque
omnis
accedere
ad
aras

nec
procumbere
humi
prostratum
et
pandere
palmas

ante
deum
delubra
nec
aras
sanguine
multo

spargere
quadrupedum
nec
votis
nectere
vota
,
sed
mage
pacata
posse
omnia
mente
tueri
.
nam
cum
suspicimus
magni
caelestia
mundi

templa
super
stellisque
micantibus
aethera
fixum
,
et
venit
in
mentem
solis
lunaeque
viarum
,
tunc
aliis
oppressa
malis
in
pectora
cura

illa
quoque
expergefactum
caput
erigere
infit
,
ne
quae
forte
deum
nobis
inmensa
potestas

sit
,
vario
motu
quae
candida
sidera
verset
;
temptat
enim
dubiam
mentem
rationis
egestas
,
ecquae
nam
fuerit
mundi
genitalis
origo
,
et
simul
ecquae
sit
finis
,
quoad
moenia
mundi

et
taciti
motus
hunc
possint
ferre
laborem
,
an
divinitus
aeterna
donata
salute

perpetuo
possint
aevi
labentia
tractu

inmensi
validas
aevi
contemnere
viris
.
praeterea
cui
non
animus
formidine
divum

contrahitur
,
cui
non
correpunt
membra
pavore
,
fulminis
horribili
cum
plaga
torrida
tellus

contremit
et
magnum
percurrunt
murmura
caelum
?
non
populi
gentesque
tremunt
,
regesque
superbi

corripiunt
divum
percussi
membra
timore
,
ne
quod
ob
admissum
foede
dictumve
superbe

poenarum
grave
sit
solvendi
tempus
adauctum
?
summa
etiam
cum
vis
violenti
per
mare
venti

induperatorem
classis
super
aequora
verrit

cum
validis
pariter
legionibus
atque
elephantis
,
non
divom
pacem
votis
adit
ac
prece
quaesit

ventorum
pavidus
paces
animasque
secundas
?
ne
quiquam
,
quoniam
violento
turbine
saepe

correptus
nihilo
fertur
minus
ad
vada
leti
.
usque
adeo
res
humanas
vis
abdita
quaedam

opterit
et
pulchros
fascis
saevasque
secures

proculcare
ac
ludibrio
sibi
habere
videtur
.
denique
sub
pedibus
tellus
cum
tota
vacillat

concussaeque
cadunt
urbes
dubiaeque
minantur
,
quid
mirum
si
se
temnunt
mortalia
saecla

atque
potestatis
magnas
mirasque
relinquunt

in
rebus
viris
divum
,
quae
cuncta
gubernent
?

O humankind unhappy!- when it ascribed
Unto divinities such awesome deeds,
And coupled thereto rigours of fierce wrath!
What groans did men on that sad day beget
Even for themselves, and O what wounds for us,
What tears for our children's children! Nor, O man,
Is thy true piety in this: with head
Under the veil, still to be seen to turn
Fronting a stone, and ever to approach
Unto all altars; nor so prone on earth
Forward to fall, to spread upturned palms
Before the shrines of gods, nor yet to dew
Altars with profuse blood of four-foot beasts,
Nor vows with vows to link. But rather this:
To look on all things with a master eye
And mind at peace. For when we gaze aloft
Upon the skiey vaults of yon great world
And ether, fixed high o'er twinkling stars,
And into our thought there come the journeyings
Of sun and moon, O then into our breasts,
O'erburdened already with their other ills,
Begins forthwith to rear its sudden head
One more misgiving: lest o'er us, percase,
It be the gods' immeasurable power
That rolls, with varied motion, round and round
The far white constellations. For the lack
Of aught of reasons tries the puzzled mind:
Whether was ever a birth-time of the world,
And whether, likewise, any end shall be
How far the ramparts of the world can still
Outstand this strain of ever-roused motion,
Or whether, divinely with eternal weal
Endowed, they can through endless tracts of age
Glide on, defying the o'er-mighty powers
Of the immeasurable ages. Lo,
What man is there whose mind with dread of gods
Cringes not close, whose limbs with terror-spell
Crouch not together, when the parched earth
Quakes with the horrible thunderbolt amain,
And across the mighty sky the rumblings run?
Do not the peoples and the nations shake,
And haughty kings do they not hug their limbs,
Strook through with fear of the divinities,
Lest for aught foully done or madly said
The heavy time be now at hand to pay?
When, too, fierce force of fury-winds at sea
Sweepeth a navy's admiral down the main
With his stout legions and his elephants,
Doth he not seek the peace of gods with vows,
And beg in prayer, a-tremble, lulled winds
And friendly gales?- in vain, since, often up-caught
In fury-cyclones, is he borne along,
For all his mouthings, to the shoals of doom.
Ah, so irrevocably some hidden power
Betramples forevermore affairs of men,
And visibly grindeth with its heel in mire
The lictors' glorious rods and axes dire,
Having them in derision! Again, when earth
From end to end is rocking under foot,
And shaken cities ruin down, or threaten
Upon the verge, what wonder is it then
That mortal generations abase themselves,
And unto gods in all affairs of earth
Assign as last resort almighty powers
And wondrous energies to govern all?
170
Quod
super
est
,
aeque
aurum
ferrumque
repertumst

et
simul
argenti
pondus
plumbique
potestas
,
ignis
ubi
ingentis
silvas
ardore
cremarat

montibus
in
magnis
,
seu
caelo
fulmine
misso
,
sive
quod
inter
se
bellum
silvestre
gerentes

hostibus
intulerant
ignem
formidinis
ergo
,
sive
quod
inducti
terrae
bonitate
volebant

pandere
agros
pinguis
et
pascua
reddere
rura
,
sive
feras
interficere
et
ditescere
praeda
;
nam
fovea
atque
igni
prius
est
venarier
ortum

quam
saepire
plagis
saltum
canibusque
ciere
.
quicquid
id
est
,
qua
cumque
e
causa
flammeus
ardor

horribili
sonitu
silvas
exederat
altis

a
radicibus
et
terram
percoxerat
igni
,
manabat
venis
ferventibus
in
loca
terrae

concava
conveniens
argenti
rivus
et
auri
,
aeris
item
et
plumbi
.
quae
cum
concreta
videbant

posterius
claro
in
terra
splendere
colore
,
tollebant
nitido
capti
levique
lepore
,
et
simili
formata
videbant
esse
figura

atque
lacunarum
fuerant
vestigia
cuique
.
tum
penetrabat
eos
posse
haec
liquefacta
calore

quamlibet
in
formam
et
faciem
decurrere
rerum
,
et
prorsum
quamvis
in
acuta
ac
tenvia
posse

mucronum
duci
fastigia
procudendo
,
ut
sibi
tela
parent
silvasque
ut
caedere
possint

materiemque
dolare
et
levia
radere
tigna

et
terebrare
etiam
ac
pertundere
perque
forare
.
nec
minus
argento
facere
haec
auroque
parabant

quam
validi
primum
violentis
viribus
aeris
,
ne
quiquam
,
quoniam
cedebat
victa
potestas

nec
poterant
pariter
durum
sufferre
laborem
.
nam
fuit
in
pretio
magis
aes
aurumque
iacebat

propter
inutilitatem
hebeti
mucrone
retusum
;
nunc
iacet
aes
,
aurum
in
summum
successit
honorem
.
sic
volvenda
aetas
commutat
tempora
rerum
.
quod
fuit
in
pretio
,
fit
nullo
denique
honore
;
porro
aliud
succedit
et
contemptibus
exit

inque
dies
magis
adpetitur
floretque
repertum

laudibus
et
miro
est
mortalis
inter
honore
.

Now for the rest: copper and gold and iron
Discovered were, and with them silver's weight
And power of lead, when with prodigious heat
The conflagrations burned the forest trees
Among the mighty mountains, by a bolt
Of lightning from the sky, or else because
Men, warring in the woodlands, on their foes
Had hurled fire to frighten and dismay,
Or yet because, by goodness of the soil
Invited, men desired to clear rich fields
And turn the countryside to pasture-lands,
Or slay the wild and thrive upon the spoils.
(For hunting by pit-fall and by fire arose
Before the art of hedging the covert round
With net or stirring it with dogs of chase.)
Howso the fact, and from what cause soever
The flamy heat with awful crack and roar
Had there devoured to their deepest roots
The forest trees and baked the earth with fire,
Then from the boiling veins began to ooze
O rivulets of silver and of gold,
Of lead and copper too, collecting soon
Into the hollow places of the ground.
And when men saw the cooled lumps anon
To shine with splendour-sheen upon the ground,
Much taken with that lustrous smooth delight,
They 'gan to pry them out, and saw how each
Had got a shape like to its earthy mould.
Then would it enter their heads how these same lumps,
If melted by heat, could into any form
Or figure of things be run, and how, again,
If hammered out, they could be nicely drawn
To sharpest points or finest edge, and thus
Yield to the forgers tools and give them power
To chop the forest down, to hew the logs,
To shave the beams and planks, besides to bore
And punch and drill. And men began such work
At first as much with tools of silver and gold
As with the impetuous strength of the stout copper;
But vainly- since their over-mastered power
Would soon give way, unable to endure,
Like copper, such hard labour. In those days
Copper it was that was the thing of price;
And gold lay useless, blunted with dull edge.
Now lies the copper low, and gold hath come
Unto the loftiest honours. Thus it is
That rolling ages change the times of things:
What erst was of a price, becomes at last
A discard of no honour; whilst another
Succeeds to glory, issuing from contempt,
And day by day is sought for more and more,
And, when 'tis found, doth flower in men's praise,
Objects of wondrous honour.
171
Nunc
tibi
quo
pacto
ferri
natura
reperta

sit
facilest
ipsi
per
te
cognoscere
,
Memmi
.
arma
antiqua
manus
ungues
dentesque
fuerunt

et
lapides
et
item
silvarum
fragmina
rami

et
flamma
atque
ignes
,
post
quam
sunt
cognita
primum
.
posterius
ferri
vis
est
aerisque
reperta
.
et
prior
aeris
erat
quam
ferri
cognitus
usus
,
quo
facilis
magis
est
natura
et
copia
maior
.
aere
solum
terrae
tractabant
,
aereque
belli

miscebant
fluctus
et
vulnera
vasta
serebant

et
pecus
atque
agros
adimebant
;
nam
facile
ollis

omnia
cedebant
armatis
nuda
et
inerma
.
inde
minutatim
processit
ferreus
ensis

versaque
in
obprobrium
species
est
falcis
ahenae
,
et
ferro
coepere
solum
proscindere
terrae

exaequataque
sunt
creperi
certamina
belli
.
et
prius
est
armatum
in
equi
conscendere
costas

et
moderarier
hunc
frenis
dextraque
vigere

quam
biiugo
curru
belli
temptare
pericla
.
et
biiugo
prius
est
quam
bis
coniungere
binos

et
quam
falciferos
armatum
escendere
currus
.
inde
boves
Lucas
turrito
corpore
,
tetras
,
anguimanus
,
belli
docuerunt
volnera
Poeni

sufferre
et
magnas
Martis
turbare
catervas
.
sic
alid
ex
alio
peperit
discordia
tristis
,
horribile
humanis
quod
gentibus
esset
in
armis
,
inque
dies
belli
terroribus
addidit
augmen
.

Now, Memmius,
How nature of iron discovered was, thou mayst
Of thine own self divine. Man's ancient arms
Were hands, and nails and teeth, stones too and boughs-
Breakage of forest trees- and flame and fire,
As soon as known. Thereafter force of iron
And copper discovered was; and copper's use
Was known ere iron's, since more tractable
Its nature is and its abundance more.
With copper men to work the soil began,
With copper to rouse the hurly waves of war,
To straw the monstrous wounds, and seize away
Another's flocks and fields. For unto them,
Thus armed, all things naked of defence
Readily yielded. Then by slow degrees
The sword of iron succeeded, and the shape
Of brazen sickle into scorn was turned:
With iron to cleave the soil of earth they 'gan,
And the contentions of uncertain war
Were rendered equal.
And, lo, man was wont
Armed to mount upon the ribs of horse
And guide him with the rein, and play about
With right hand free, oft times before he tried
Perils of war in yoked chariot;
And yoked pairs abreast came earlier
Than yokes of four, or scythed chariots
Whereinto clomb the men-at-arms. And next
The Punic folk did train the elephants-
Those curst Lucanian oxen, hideous,
The serpent-handed, with turrets on their bulks-
To dure the wounds of war and panic-strike
The mighty troops of Mars. Thus Discord sad
Begat the one Thing after other, to be
The terror of the nations under arms,
And day by day to horrors of old war
She added an increase.
172
Temptarunt
etiam
tauros
in
moenere
belli

expertique
sues
saevos
sunt
mittere
in
hostis
.
et
validos
partim
prae
se
misere
leones

cum
doctoribus
armatis
saevisque
magistris
,
qui
moderarier
his
possent
vinclisque
tenere
,
ne
quiquam
,
quoniam
permixta
caede
calentes

turbabant
saevi
nullo
discrimine
turmas
,
terrificas
capitum
quatientis
undique
cristas
,
nec
poterant
equites
fremitu
perterrita
equorum

pectora
mulcere
et
frenis
convertere
in
hostis
.
inritata
leae
iaciebant
corpora
saltu

undique
et
adversum
venientibus
ora
patebant

et
nec
opinantis
a
tergo
deripiebant

deplexaeque
dabant
in
terram
volnere
victos
,
morsibus
adfixae
validis
atque
unguibus
uncis
.
iactabantque
suos
tauri
pedibusque
terebant

et
latera
ac
ventres
hauribant
supter
equorum

cornibus
et
terram
minitanti
mente
ruebant
.
et
validis
socios
caedebant
dentibus
apri

tela
infracta
suo
tinguentes
sanguine
saevi

permixtasque
dabant
equitum
peditumque
ruinas
.
nam
transversa
feros
exibant
dentis
adactus

iumenta
aut
pedibus
ventos
erecta
petebant
,
ne
quiquam
,
quoniam
ab
nervis
succisa
videres

concidere
atque
gravi
terram
consternere
casu
.
si
quos
ante
domi
domitos
satis
esse
putabant
,
effervescere
cernebant
in
rebus
agundis

volneribus
clamore
fuga
terrore
tumultu
,
nec
poterant
ullam
partem
redducere
eorum
;
diffugiebat
enim
varium
genus
omne
ferarum
,
ut
nunc
saepe
boves
Lucae
ferro
male
mactae

diffugiunt
,
fera
facta
suis
cum
multa
dedere
.
Sed
facere
id
non
tam
vincendi
spe
voluerunt
;
quam
dare
quod
gemerent
hostes
,
ipsique
perire
,
qui
numero
diffidebant
armisque
vacabant
,
si
fuit
ut
facerent
.
sed
vix
adducor
ut
ante

non
quierint
animo
praesentire
atque
videre
,
quam
commune
malum
fieret
foedumque
,
futurum
.
et
magis
id
possis
factum
contendere
in
omni

in
variis
mundis
varia
ratione
creatis
,
quam
certo
atque
uno
terrarum
quolibet
orbi
.

Bulls, too, they tried
In war's grim business; and essayed to send
Outrageous boars against the foes. And some
Sent on before their ranks puissant lions
With armed trainers and with masters fierce
To guide and hold in chains- and yet in vain,
Since fleshed with pell-mell slaughter, fierce they flew,
And blindly through the squadrons havoc wrought,
Shaking the frightful crests upon their heads,
Now here, now there. Nor could the horsemen calm
Their horses, panic-breasted at the roar,
And rein them round to front the foe. With spring
The infuriate she-lions would up-leap
Now here, now there; and whoso came apace
Against them, these they'd rend across the face;
And others unwitting from behind they'd tear
Down from their mounts, and twining round them, bring
Tumbling to earth, o'ermastered by the wound,
And with those powerful fangs and hooked claws
Fasten upon them. Bulls would toss their friends,
And trample under foot, and from beneath
Rip flanks and bellies of horses with their horns,
And with a threat'ning forehead jam the sod;
And boars would gore with stout tusks their allies,
Splashing in fury their own blood on spears
Splintered in their own bodies, and would fell
In rout and ruin infantry and horse.
For there the beasts-of-saddle tried to scape
The savage thrusts of tusk by shying off,
Or rearing up with hoofs a-paw in air.
In vain- since there thou mightest see them sink,
Their sinews severed, and with heavy fall
Bestrew the ground. And such of these as men
Supposed well-trained long ago at home,
Were in the thick of action seen to foam
In fury, from the wounds, the shrieks, the flight,
The panic, and the tumult; nor could men
Aught of their numbers rally. For each breed
And various of the wild beasts fled apart
Hither or thither, as often in wars to-day
Flee those Lucanian oxen, by the steel
Grievously mangled, after they have wrought
Upon their friends so many a dreadful doom.
(If 'twas, indeed, that thus they did at all:
But scarcely I'll believe that men could not
With mind foreknow and see, as sure to come,
Such foul and general disaster.- This
We, then, may hold as true in the great All,
In divers worlds on divers plan create,-
Somewhere afar more likely than upon
One certain earth.) But men chose this to do
Less in the hope of conquering than to give
Their enemies a goodly cause of woe,
Even though thereby they perished themselves,
Since weak in numbers and since wanting arms.
173
Nexilis
ante
fuit
vestis
quam
textile
tegmen
.
textile
post
ferrumst
,
quia
ferro
tela
paratur
,
nec
ratione
alia
possunt
tam
levia
gigni

insilia
ac
fusi
,
radii
,
scapique
sonantes
.
et
facere
ante
viros
lanam
natura
coëgit

quam
muliebre
genus
;
nam
longe
praestat
in
arte

et
sollertius
est
multo
genus
omne
virile
;
agricolae
donec
vitio
vertere
severi
,
ut
muliebribus
id
manibus
concedere
vellent

atque
ipsi
pariter
durum
sufferre
laborem

atque
opere
in
duro
durarent
membra
manusque
.

Now, clothes of roughly inter-plaited strands
Were earlier than loom-wove coverings;
The loom-wove later than man's iron is,
Since iron is needful in the weaving art,
Nor by no other means can there be wrought
Such polished tools- the treadles, spindles, shuttles,
And sounding yarn-beams. And nature forced the men,
Before the woman kind, to work the wool:
For all the male kind far excels in skill,
And cleverer is by much- until at last
The rugged farmer folk jeered at such tasks,
And so were eager soon to give them o'er
To women's hands, and in more hardy toil
To harden arms and hands.
174
At
specimen
sationis
et
insitionis
origo

ipsa
fuit
rerum
primum
natura
creatrix
,
arboribus
quoniam
bacae
glandesque
caducae

tempestiva
dabant
pullorum
examina
supter
;
unde
etiam
libitumst
stirpis
committere
ramis

et
nova
defodere
in
terram
virgulta
per
agros
.
inde
aliam
atque
aliam
culturam
dulcis
agelli

temptabant
fructusque
feros
mansuescere
terra

cernebant
indulgendo
blandeque
colendo
.
inque
dies
magis
in
montem
succedere
silvas

cogebant
infraque
locum
concedere
cultis
,
prata
lacus
rivos
segetes
vinetaque
laeta

collibus
et
campis
ut
haberent
,
atque
olearum

caerula
distinguens
inter
plaga
currere
posset

per
tumulos
et
convallis
camposque
profusa
;
ut
nunc
esse
vides
vario
distincta
lepore

omnia
,
quae
pomis
intersita
dulcibus
ornant

arbustisque
tenent
felicibus
opsita
circum
.

But nature herself,
Mother of things, was the first seed-sower
And primal grafter; since the berries and acorns,
Dropping from off the trees, would there beneath
Put forth in season swarms of little shoots;
Hence too men's fondness for ingrafting slips
Upon the boughs and setting out in holes
The young shrubs o'er the fields. Then would they try
Ever new modes of tilling their loved crofts,
And mark they would how earth improved the taste
Of the wild fruits by fond and fostering care.
And day by day they'd force the woods to move
Still higher up the mountain, and to yield
The place below for tilth, that there they might,
On plains and uplands, have their meadow-plats,
Cisterns and runnels, crops of standing grain,
And happy vineyards, and that all along
O'er hillocks, intervales, and plains might run
The silvery-green belt of olive-trees,
Marking the plotted landscape; even as now
Thou seest so marked with varied loveliness
All the terrain which men adorn and plant
With rows of goodly fruit-trees and hedge round
With thriving shrubberies sown.
175
At
liquidas
avium
voces
imitarier
ore

ante
fuit
multo
quam
levia
carmina
cantu

concelebrare
homines
possent
aurisque
iuvare
.
et
zephyri
cava
per
calamorum
sibila
primum

agrestis
docuere
cavas
inflare
cicutas
.
inde
minutatim
dulcis
didicere
querellas
,
tibia
quas
fundit
digitis
pulsata
canentum
,
avia
per
nemora
ac
silvas
saltusque
reperta
,
per
loca
pastorum
deserta
atque
otia
dia
.
haec
animos
ollis
mulcebant
atque
iuvabant

cum
satiate
cibi
;
nam
tum
sunt
omnia
cordi
.
saepe
itaque
inter
se
prostrati
in
gramine
molli

propter
aquae
rivom
sub
ramis
arboris
altae
.
non
magnis
opibus
iucunde
corpora
habebant
,
praesertim
cum
tempestas
ridebat
et
anni

tempora
pingebant
viridantis
floribus
herbas
.
tum
ioca
,
tum
sermo
,
tum
dulces
esse
cachinni

consuerant
;
agrestis
enim
tum
musa
vigebat
.
tum
caput
atque
umeros
plexis
redimire
coronis

floribus
et
foliis
lascivia
laeta
movebat
,
atque
extra
numerum
procedere
membra
moventes

duriter
et
duro
terram
pede
pellere
matrem
;
unde
oriebantur
risus
dulcesque
cachinni
,
omnia
quod
nova
tum
magis
haec
et
mira
vigebant
.
et
vigilantibus
hinc
aderant
solacia
somno

ducere
multimodis
voces
et
flectere
cantus

et
supera
calamos
unco
percurrere
labro
;
unde
etiam
vigiles
nunc
haec
accepta
tuentur
.
et
numerum
servare
genus
didicere
,
neque
hilo

maiore
interea
capiunt
dulcedine
fructum

quam
silvestre
genus
capiebat
terrigenarum
.
nam
quod
adest
praesto
,
nisi
quid
cognovimus
ante

suavius
,
in
primis
placet
et
pollere
videtur
,
posteriorque
fere
melior
res
illa
reperta

perdit
et
immutat
sensus
ad
pristina
quaeque
.

But by the mouth
To imitate the liquid notes of birds
Was earlier far 'mongst men than power to make,
By measured song, melodious verse and give
Delight to ears. And whistlings of the wind
Athrough the hollows of the reeds first taught
The peasantry to blow into the stalks
Of hollow hemlock-herb. Then bit by bit
They learned sweet plainings, such as pipe out-pours,
Beaten by finger-tips of singing men,
When heard through unpathed groves and forest deeps
And woodsy meadows, through the untrod haunts
Of shepherd folk and spots divinely still.
Thus time draws forward each and everything
Little by little unto the midst of men,
And reason uplifts it to the shores of light.
These tunes would soothe and glad the minds of mortals
When sated with food,- for songs are welcome then.
And often, lounging with friends in the soft grass
Beside a river of water, underneath
A big tree's branches, merrily they'd refresh
Their frames, with no vast outlay- most of all
If the weather were smiling and the times of the year
Were painting the green of the grass around with flowers.
Then jokes, then talk, then peals of jollity
Would circle round; for then the rustic muse
Was in her glory; then would antic Mirth
Prompt them to garland head and shoulders about
With chaplets of intertwined flowers and leaves,
And to dance onward, out of tune, with limbs
Clownishly swaying, and with clownish foot
To beat our mother earth- from whence arose
Laughter and peals of jollity, for, lo,
Such frolic acts were in their glory then,
Being more new and strange. And wakeful men
Found solaces for their unsleeping hours
In drawing forth variety of notes,
In modulating melodies, in running
With puckered lips along the tuned reeds,
Whence, even in our day do the watchmen guard
These old traditions, and have learned well
To keep true measure. And yet they no whit
Do get a larger fruit of gladsomeness
Than got the woodland aborigines
In olden times. For what we have at hand-
If theretofore naught sweeter we have known-
That chiefly pleases and seems best of all;
But then some later, likely better, find
Destroys its worth and changes our desires
Regarding good of yesterday.
176
sic
odium
coepit
glandis
,
sic
illa
relicta

strata
cubilia
sunt
herbis
et
frondibus
aucta
.
pellis
item
cecidit
vestis
contempta
ferina
;
quam
reor
invidia
tali
tunc
esse
repertam
,
ut
letum
insidiis
qui
gessit
primus
obiret
,
et
tamen
inter
eos
distractam
sanguine
multo

disperiise
neque
in
fructum
convertere
quisse
.
tunc
igitur
pelles
,
nunc
aurum
et
purpura
curis

exercent
hominum
vitam
belloque
fatigant
;
quo
magis
in
nobis
,
ut
opinor
,
culpa
resedit
.
frigus
enim
nudos
sine
pellibus
excruciabat

terrigenas
;
at
nos
nil
laedit
veste
carere

purpurea
atque
auro
signisque
ingentibus
apta
,
dum
plebeia
tamen
sit
,
quae
defendere
possit
.
Ergo
hominum
genus
in
cassum
frustraque
laborat

semper
et
curis
consumit
inanibus
aevom
,
ni
mirum
quia
non
cognovit
quae
sit
habendi

finis
et
omnino
quoad
crescat
vera
voluptas
;
idque
minutatim
vitam
provexit
in
altum

et
belli
magnos
commovit
funditus
aestus
.

And thus
Began the loathing of the acorn; thus
Abandoned were those beds with grasses strewn
And with the leaves beladen. Thus, again,
Fell into new contempt the pelts of beasts-
Erstwhile a robe of honour, which, I guess,
Aroused in those days envy so malign
That the first wearer went to woeful death
By ambuscades,- and yet that hairy prize,
Rent into rags by greedy foemen there
And splashed by blood, was ruined utterly
Beyond all use or vantage. Thus of old
'Twas pelts, and of to-day 'tis purple and gold
That cark men's lives with cares and weary with war.
Wherefore, methinks, resides the greater blame
With us vain men to-day: for cold would rack,
Without their pelts, the naked sons of earth;
But us it nothing hurts to do without
The purple vestment, broidered with gold
And with imposing figures, if we still
Make shift with some mean garment of the Plebs.
So man in vain futilities toils on
Forever and wastes in idle cares his years-
Because, of very truth, he hath not learnt
What the true end of getting is, nor yet
At all how far true pleasure may increase.
And 'tis desire for better and for more
Hath carried by degrees mortality
Out onward to the deep, and roused up
From the far bottom mighty waves of war.