De Rerum Natura |
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
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Quis potis est dignum pollenti pectore carmen condere pro rerum maiestate hisque repertis ? quisve valet verbis tantum , qui fingere laudes pro meritis eius possit , qui talia nobis pectore parta suo quaesitaque praemia liquit ? nemo , ut opinor , erit mortali corpore cretus . nam si , ut ipsa petit maiestas cognita rerum , dicendum est , deus ille fuit , deus , inclyte Memmi , qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam quae nunc appellatur sapientia , quique per artem fluctibus et tantis vitam tantisque tenebris in tam tranquillo et tam clara luce locavit . confer enim divina aliorum antiqua reperta . namque Ceres fertur fruges Liberque liquoris vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse ; cum tamen his posset sine rebus vita manere , ut fama est aliquas etiam nunc vivere gentis . at bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi ; quo magis hic merito nobis deus esse videtur , ex quo nunc etiam per magnas didita gentis dulcia permulcent animos solacia vitae . Herculis antistare autem si facta putabis , longius a vera multo ratione ferere . quid Nemeaeus enim nobis nunc magnus hiatus ille leonis obesset et horrens Arcadius sus , tanto opere officerent nobis Stymphala colentes ? denique quid Cretae taurus Lernaeaque pestis hydra venenatis posset vallata colubris ? quidve tripectora tergemini vis Geryonai et Diomedis equi spirantes naribus ignem Thracia Bistoniasque plagas atque Ismara propter aureaque Hesperidum servans fulgentia mala , asper , acerba tuens , immani corpore serpens arboris amplexus stirpes ? quid denique obesset propter Atlanteum litus pelagique severa , quo neque noster adit quisquam nec barbarus audet ? cetera de genere hoc quae sunt portenta perempta , si non victa forent , quid tandem viva nocerent ? nil , ut opinor : ita ad satiatem terra ferarum nunc etiam scatit et trepido terrore repleta est per nemora ac montes magnos silvasque profundas ; quae loca vitandi plerumque est nostra potestas . at nisi purgatumst pectus , quae proelia nobis atque pericula tumst ingratis insinuandum ! quantae tum scindunt hominem cuppedinis acres sollicitum curae quantique perinde timores ! quidve superbia spurcitia ac petulantia ? quantas efficiunt clades ! quid luxus desidiaeque ? haec igitur qui cuncta subegerit ex animoque expulerit dictis , non armis , nonne decebit hunc hominem numero divom dignarier esse ? cum bene praesertim multa ac divinitus ipsis iam mortalibus e divis dare dicta suerit atque omnem rerum naturam pandere dictis .
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PROEM O who can build with puissant breast a song Worthy the majesty of these great finds? Or who in words so strong that he can frame The fit laudations for deserts of him Who left us heritors of such vast prizes, By his own breast discovered and sought out?- There shall be none, methinks, of mortal stock. For if must needs be named for him the name Demanded by the now known majesty Of these high matters, then a god was he,- Hear me, illustrious Memmius- a god; Who first and chief found out that plan of life Which now is called philosophy, and who By cunning craft, out of such mighty waves, Out of such mighty darkness, moored life In havens so serene, in light so clear. Compare those old discoveries divine Of others: lo, according to the tale, Ceres established for mortality The grain, and Bacchus juice of vine-born grape, Though life might yet without these things abide, Even as report saith now some peoples live. But man's well-being was impossible Without a breast all free. Wherefore the more That man doth justly seem to us a god, From whom sweet solaces of life, afar Distributed o'er populous domains, Now soothe the minds of men. But if thou thinkest Labours of Hercules excel the same, Much farther from true reasoning thou farest. For what could hurt us now that mighty maw Of Nemeaean Lion, or what the Boar Who bristled in Arcadia? Or, again, O what could Cretan Bull, or Hydra, pest Of Lerna, fenced with vipers venomous? Or what the triple-breasted power of her The three-fold Geryon... The sojourners in the Stymphalian fens So dreadfully offend us, or the Steeds Of Thracian Diomedes breathing fire From out their nostrils off along the zones Bistonian and Ismarian? And the Snake, The dread fierce gazer, guardian of the golden And gleaming apples of the Hesperides, Coiled round the tree-trunk with tremendous bulk, O what, again, could he inflict on us Along the Atlantic shore and wastes of sea?- Where neither one of us approacheth nigh Nor no barbarian ventures. And the rest Of all those monsters slain, even if alive, Unconquered still, what injury could they do? None, as I guess. For so the glutted earth Swarms even now with savage beasts, even now Is filled with anxious terrors through the woods And mighty mountains and the forest deeps- Quarters 'tis ours in general to avoid. But lest the breast be purged, what conflicts then, What perils, must bosom, in our own despite! O then how great and keen the cares of lust That split the man distraught! How great the fears! And lo, the pride, grim greed, and wantonness- How great the slaughters in their train! and lo, Debaucheries and every breed of sloth! Therefore that man who subjugated these, And from the mind expelled, by words indeed, Not arms, O shall it not be seemly him To dignify by ranking with the gods?- And all the more since he was wont to give, Concerning the immortal gods themselves, Many pronouncements with a tongue divine, And to unfold by his pronouncements all The nature of the world. |
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Cuius ego ingressus vestigia dum rationes persequor ac doceo dictis , quo quaeque creata foedere sint , in eo quam sit durare necessum nec validas valeant aevi rescindere leges , quo genere in primis animi natura reperta est nativo primum consistere corpore creta , nec posse incolumem magnum durare per aevum , sed simulacra solere in somnis fallere mentem , cernere cum videamur eum quem vita reliquit , quod super est , nunc huc rationis detulit ordo , ut mihi mortali consistere corpore mundum nativomque simul ratio reddunda sit esse ; et quibus ille modis congressus materiai fundarit terram caelum mare sidera solem lunaique globum ; tum quae tellure animantes extiterint , et quae nullo sint tempore natae ; quove modo genus humanum variante loquella coeperit inter se vesci per nomina rerum ; et quibus ille modis divom metus insinuarit pectora , terrarum qui in orbi sancta tuetur fana lacus lucos aras simulacraque divom . praeterea solis cursus lunaeque meatus expediam qua vi flectat natura gubernans ; ne forte haec inter caelum terramque reamur libera sponte sua cursus lustrare perennis , morigera ad fruges augendas atque animantis , neve aliqua divom volvi ratione putemus . nam bene qui didicere deos securum agere aevom , si tamen interea mirantur qua ratione quaeque geri possint , praesertim rebus in illis quae supera caput aetheriis cernuntur in oris , rursus in antiquas referuntur religiones et dominos acris adsciscunt , omnia posse quos miseri credunt , ignari quid queat esse , quid nequeat , finita potestas denique cuique qua nam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens .
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ARGUMENT OF THE BOOK AND NEW PROEM AGAINST A TELEOLOGICAL CONCEPT And walking now In his own footprints, I do follow through His reasonings, and with pronouncements teach The covenant whereby all things are framed, How under that covenant they must abide Nor ever prevail to abrogate the aeons' Inexorable decrees,- how (as we've found), In class of mortal objects, o'er all else, The mind exists of earth-born frame create And impotent unscathed to abide Across the mighty aeons, and how come In sleep those idol-apparitions, That so befool intelligence when we Do seem to view a man whom life has left. Thus far we've gone; the order of my plan Hath brought me now unto the point where I Must make report how, too, the universe Consists of mortal body, born in time, And in what modes that congregated stuff Established itself as earth and sky, Ocean, and stars, and sun, and ball of moon; And then what living creatures rose from out The old telluric places, and what ones Were never born at all; and in what mode The human race began to name its things And use the varied speech from man to man; And in what modes hath bosomed in their breasts That awe of gods, which halloweth in all lands Fanes, altars, groves, lakes, idols of the gods. Also I shall untangle by what power The steersman nature guides the sun's courses, And the meanderings of the moon, lest we, Percase, should fancy that of own free will They circle their perennial courses round, Timing their motions for increase of crops And living creatures, or lest we should think They roll along by any plan of gods. For even those men who have learned full well That godheads lead a long life free of care, If yet meanwhile they wonder by what plan Things can go on (and chiefly yon high things Observed o'erhead on the ethereal coasts), Again are hurried back unto the fears Of old religion and adopt again Harsh masters, deemed almighty,- wretched men, Unwitting what can be and what cannot, And by what law to each its scope prescribed, Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time. |
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Quod super est , ne te in promissis plura moremur , principio maria ac terras caelumque tuere ; quorum naturam triplicem , tria corpora , Memmi , tris species tam dissimilis , tria talia texta , una dies dabit exitio , multosque per annos sustentata ruet moles et machina mundi . nec me animi fallit quam res nova miraque menti accidat exitium caeli terraeque futurum , et quam difficile id mihi sit pervincere dictis ; ut fit ubi insolitam rem adportes auribus ante nec tamen hanc possis oculorum subdere visu nec iacere indu manus , via qua munita fidei proxima fert humanum in pectus templaque mentis . sed tamen effabor . dictis dabit ipsa fidem res forsitan et graviter terrarum motibus ortis omnia conquassari in parvo tempore cernes . quod procul a nobis flectat fortuna gubernans , et ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa succidere horrisono posse omnia victa fragore .
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But for the rest,- lest we delay thee here Longer by empty promises- behold, Before all else, the seas, the lands, the sky: O Memmius, their threefold nature, lo, Their bodies three, three aspects so unlike, Three frames so vast, a single day shall give Unto annihilation! Then shall crash That massive form and fabric of the world Sustained so many aeons! Nor do I Fail to perceive how strange and marvellous This fact must strike the intellect of man,- Annihilation of the sky and earth That is to be,- and with what toil of words 'Tis mine to prove the same; as happens oft When once ye offer to man's listening ears Something before unheard of, but may not Subject it to the view of eyes for him Nor put it into hand- the sight and touch, Whereby the opened highways of belief Lead most directly into human breast And regions of intelligence. But yet I will speak out. The fact itself, perchance, Will force belief in these my words, and thou Mayst see, in little time, tremendously With risen commotions of the lands all things Quaking to pieces- which afar from us May she, the steersman Nature, guide: and may Reason, O rather than the fact itself, Persuade us that all things can be o'erthrown And sink with awful-sounding breakage down! |
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Qua prius adgrediar quam de re fundere fata sanctius et multo certa ratione magis quam Pythia quae tripode a Phoebi lauroque profatur , multa tibi expediam doctis solacia dictis ; religione refrenatus ne forte rearis terras et solem et caelum , mare sidera lunam , corpore divino debere aeterna manere , proptereaque putes ritu par esse Gigantum pendere eos poenas inmani pro scelere omnis , qui ratione sua disturbent moenia mundi praeclarumque velint caeli restinguere solem inmortalia mortali sermone notantes ; quae procul usque adeo divino a numine distent inque deum numero quae sint indigna videri , notitiam potius praebere ut posse putentur quid sit vitali motu sensuque remotum . quippe etenim non est , cum quovis corpore ut esse posse animi natura putetur consiliumque . sicut in aethere non arbor , non aequore salso nubes esse queunt neque pisces vivere in arvis nec cruor in lignis neque saxis sucus inesse , certum ac dispositumst ubi quicquid crescat et insit , sic animi natura nequit sine corpore oriri sola neque a nervis et sanguine longius esse . quod si posset enim , multo prius ipsa animi vis in capite aut umeris aut imis calcibus esse posset et innasci quavis in parte soleret , tandem in eodem homine atque in eodem vase manere . quod quoniam nostro quoque constat corpore certum dispositumque videtur ubi esse et crescere possit seorsum anima atque animus , tanto magis infitiandum totum posse extra corpus formamque animalem putribus in glebis terrarum aut solis in igni aut in aqua durare aut altis aetheris oris . haud igitur constant divino praedita sensu , quandoquidem nequeunt vitaliter esse animata .
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But ere on this I take a step to utter Oracles holier and soundlier based Than ever the Pythian pronounced for men From out the tripod and the Delphian laurel, I will unfold for thee with learned words Many a consolation, lest perchance, Still bridled by religion, thou suppose Lands, sun, and sky, sea, constellations, moon, Must dure forever, as of frame divine- And so conclude that it is just that those, (After the manner of the Giants), should all Pay the huge penalties for monstrous crime, Who by their reasonings do overshake The ramparts of the universe and wish There to put out the splendid sun of heaven, Branding with mortal talk immortal things- Though these same things are even so far removed From any touch of deity and seem So far unworthy of numbering with the gods, That well they may be thought to furnish rather A goodly instance of the sort of things That lack the living motion, living sense. For sure 'tis quite beside the mark to think That judgment and the nature of the mind In any kind of body can exist- Just as in ether can't exist a tree, Nor clouds in the salt sea, nor in the fields Can fishes live, nor blood in timber be, Nor sap in boulders: fixed and arranged Where everything may grow and have its place. Thus nature of mind cannot arise alone Without the body, nor have its being far From thews and blood. Yet if 'twere possible?- Much rather might this very power of mind Be in the head, the shoulders, or the heels, And, born in any part soever, yet In the same man, in the same vessel abide But since within this body even of ours Stands fixed and appears arranged sure Where soul and mind can each exist and grow, Deny we must the more that they can dure Outside the body and the breathing form In rotting clods of earth, in the sun's fire, In water, or in ether's skiey coasts. Therefore these things no whit are furnished With sense divine, since never can they be With life-force quickened. |
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Illud item non est ut possis credere , sedes esse deum sanctas in mundi partibus ullis . tenvis enim natura deum longeque remota sensibus ab nostris animi vix mente videtur ; quae quoniam manuum tactum suffugit et ictum , tactile nil nobis quod sit contingere debet ; tangere enim non quit quod tangi non licet ipsum . quare etiam sedes quoque nostris sedibus esse dissimiles debent , tenues de corpore eorum ; quae tibi posterius largo sermone probabo . Dicere porro hominum causa voluisse parare praeclaram mundi naturam proptereaque adlaudabile opus divom laudare decere aeternumque putare atque inmortale futurum , nec fas esse , deum quod sit ratione vetusta gentibus humanis fundatum perpetuo aevo , sollicitare suis ulla vi ex sedibus umquam nec verbis vexare et ab imo evertere summa , cetera de genere hoc adfingere et addere , Memmi , desiperest . quid enim inmortalibus atque beatis gratia nostra queat largirier emolumenti , ut nostra quicquam causa gerere adgrediantur ? quidve novi potuit tanto post ante quietos inlicere ut cuperent vitam mutare priorem ? nam gaudere novis rebus debere videtur cui veteres obsunt ; sed cui nihil accidit aegri tempore in ante acto , cum pulchre degeret aevom , quid potuit novitatis amorem accendere tali ? quidve mali fuerat nobis non esse creatis ? an , credo , in tenebris vita ac maerore iacebat , donec diluxit rerum genitalis origo ? natus enim debet qui cumque est velle manere in vita , donec retinebit blanda voluptas ; qui numquam vero vitae gustavit amorem nec fuit in numero , quid obest non esse creatum ? exemplum porro gignundis rebus et ipsa notities hominum divis unde insita primum est , quid vellent facere ut scirent animoque viderent , quove modost umquam vis cognita principiorum quidque inter sese permutato ordine possent . si non ipsa dedit speciem natura creandi ? namque ita multa modis multis primordia rerum ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertemptare , quae cumque inter se possint congressa creare , ut non sit mirum , si in talis disposituras deciderunt quoque et in talis venere meatus , qualibus haec rerum geritur nunc summa novando .
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Likewise, thou canst ne'er Believe the sacred seats of gods are here In any regions of this mundane world; Indeed, the nature of the gods, so subtle, So far removed from these our senses, scarce Is seen even by intelligence of mind. And since they've ever eluded touch and thrust Of human hands, they cannot reach to grasp Aught tangible to us. For what may not Itself be touched in turn can never touch. Wherefore, besides, also their seats must be Unlike these seats of ours,- even subtle too, As meet for subtle essence- as I'll prove Hereafter unto thee with large discourse. Further, to say that for the sake of men They willed to prepare this world's magnificence, And that 'tis therefore duty and behoof To praise the work of gods as worthy praise, And that 'tis sacrilege for men to shake Ever by any force from out their seats What hath been stablished by the Forethought old To everlasting for races of mankind, And that 'tis sacrilege to assault by words And overtopple all from base to beam,- Memmius, such notions to concoct and pile, Is verily- to dote. Our gratefulness, O what emoluments could it confer Upon Immortals and upon the Blessed That they should take a step to manage aught For sake of us? Or what new factor could, After so long a time, inveigle them- The hitherto reposeful- to desire To change their former life? For rather he Whom old things chafe seems likely to rejoice At new; but one that in fore-passed time Hath chanced upon no ill, through goodly years, O what could ever enkindle in such an one Passion for strange experiment? Or what The evil for us, if we had ne'er been born?- As though, forsooth, in darkling realms and woe Our life were lying till should dawn at last The day-spring of creation! Whosoever Hath been begotten wills perforce to stay In life, so long as fond delight detains; But whoso ne'er hath tasted love of life, And ne'er was in the count of living things, What hurts it him that he was never born? Whence, further, first was planted in the gods The archetype for gendering the world And the fore-notion of what man is like, So that they knew and pre-conceived with mind Just what they wished to make? Or how were known Ever the energies of primal germs, And what those germs, by interchange of place, Could thus produce, if nature's self had not Given example for creating all? For in such wise primordials of things, Many in many modes, astir by blows From immemorial aeons, in motion too By their own weights, have evermore been wont To be so borne along and in all modes To meet together and to try all sorts Which, by combining one with other, they Are powerful to create, that thus it is No marvel now, if they have also fallen Into arrangements such, and if they've passed Into vibrations such, as those whereby This sum of things is carried on to-day By fixed renewal. |
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Quod iam rerum ignorem primordia quae sint , hoc tamen ex ipsis caeli rationibus ausim confirmare aliisque ex rebus reddere multis , nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam naturam rerum : tanta stat praedita culpa . principio quantum caeli tegit impetus ingens , inde avidam partem montes silvaeque ferarum possedere , tenent rupes vastaeque paludes et mare , quod late terrarum distinet oras . inde duas porro prope partis fervidus ardor adsiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert . quod super est arvi , tamen id natura sua vi sentibus obducat , ni vis humana resistat vitai causa valido consueta bidenti ingemere et terram pressis proscindere aratris . si non fecundas vertentes vomere glebas terraique solum subigentes cimus ad ortus . sponte sua nequeant liquidas existere in auras . et tamen inter dum magno quaesita labore cum iam per terras frondent atque omnia florent , aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol aut subiti peremunt imbris gelidaeque pruinae flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant . praeterea genus horriferum natura ferarum humanae genti infestum terraque marique cur alit atque auget ? cur anni tempora morbos adportant ? quare mors inmatura vagatur ? tum porro puer , ut saevis proiectus ab undis navita , nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni vitali auxilio , cum primum in luminis oras nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit , vagituque locum lugubri complet , ut aequumst cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum . at variae crescunt pecudes armenta feraeque nec crepitacillis opus est nec cuiquam adhibendast almae nutricis blanda atque infracta loquella nec varias quaerunt vestes pro tempore caeli , denique non armis opus est , non moenibus altis , qui sua tutentur , quando omnibus omnia large tellus ipsa parit naturaque daedala rerum .
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But knew I never what The seeds primordial were, yet would I dare This to affirm, even from deep judgments based Upon the ways and conduct of the skies- This to maintain by many a fact besides- That in no wise the nature of all things For us was fashioned by a power divine- So great the faults it stands encumbered with. First, mark all regions which are overarched By the prodigious reaches of the sky: One yawning part thereof the mountain-chains And forests of the beasts do have and hold; And cliffs, and desert fens, and wastes of sea (Which sunder afar the beaches of the lands) Possess it merely; and, again, thereof Well-nigh two-thirds intolerable heat And a perpetual fall of frost doth rob From mortal kind. And what is left to till, Even that the force of nature would o'errun With brambles, did not human force oppose,- Long wont for livelihood to groan and sweat Over the two-pronged mattock and to cleave The soil in twain by pressing on the plough. . . . . . . Unless, by the ploughshare turning the fruitful clods And kneading the mould, we quicken into birth, [The crops] spontaneously could not come up Into the free bright air. Even then sometimes, When things acquired by the sternest toil Are now in leaf, are now in blossom all, Either the skiey sun with baneful heats Parches, or sudden rains or chilling rime Destroys, or flaws of winds with furious whirl Torment and twist. Beside these matters, why Doth nature feed and foster on land and sea The dreadful breed of savage beasts, the foes Of the human clan? Why do the seasons bring Distempers with them? Wherefore stalks at large Death, so untimely? Then, again, the babe, Like to the castaway of the raging surf, Lies naked on the ground, speechless, in want Of every help for life, when nature first Hath poured him forth upon the shores of light With birth-pangs from within the mother's womb, And with a plaintive wail he fills the place,- As well befitting one for whom remains In life a journey through so many ills. But all the flocks and herds and all wild beasts Come forth and grow, nor need the little rattles, Nor must be treated to the humouring nurse's Dear, broken chatter; nor seek they divers clothes To suit the changing skies; nor need, in fine, Nor arms, nor lofty ramparts, wherewithal Their own to guard- because the earth herself And nature, artificer of the world, bring forth Aboundingly all things for all. |
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Principio quoniam terrai corpus et umor aurarumque leves animae calidique vapores , e quibus haec rerum consistere summa videtur , omnia nativo ac mortali corpore constant , debet eodem omnis mundi natura putari . quippe etenim , quorum partis et membra videmus corpore nativo mortalibus esse figuris , haec eadem ferme mortalia cernimus esse et nativa simul . qua propter maxima mundi cum videam membra ac partis consumpta regigni , scire licet caeli quoque item terraeque fuisse principiale aliquod tempus clademque futuram . Illud in his rebus ne corripuisse rearis me mihi , quod terram atque ignem mortalia sumpsi esse neque umorem dubitavi aurasque perire atque eadem gigni rursusque augescere dixi . principio pars terrai non nulla , perusta solibus adsiduis , multa pulsata pedum vi , pulveris exhalat nebulam nubesque volantis , quas validi toto dispergunt aëre venti . pars etiam glebarum ad diluviem revocatur imbribus et ripas radentia flumina rodunt . praeterea pro parte sua , quod cumque alit auget , redditur ; et quoniam dubio procul esse videtur omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum . ergo terra tibi libatur et aucta recrescit .
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THE WORLD IS NOT ETERNAL And first, Since body of earth and water, air's light breath, And fiery exhalations (of which four This sum of things is seen to be compact) So all have birth and perishable frame, Thus the whole nature of the world itself Must be conceived as perishable too. For, verily, those things of which we see The parts and members to have birth in time And perishable shapes, those same we mark To be invariably born in time And born to die. And therefore when I see The mightiest members and the parts of this Our world consumed and begot again, 'Tis mine to know that also sky above And earth beneath began of old in time And shall in time go under to disaster. And lest in these affairs thou deemest me To have seized upon this point by sleight to serve My own caprice- because I have assumed That earth and fire are mortal things indeed, And have not doubted water and the air Both perish too and have affirmed the same To be again begotten and wax big- Mark well the argument: in first place, lo, Some certain parts of earth, grievously parched By unremitting suns, and trampled on By a vast throng of feet, exhale abroad A powdery haze and flying clouds of dust, Which the stout winds disperse in the whole air. A part, moreover, of her sod and soil Is summoned to inundation by the rains; And rivers graze and gouge the banks away. Besides, whatever takes a part its own In fostering and increasing [aught]... . . . . . . Is rendered back; and since, beyond a doubt, Earth, the all-mother, is beheld to be Likewise the common sepulchre of things, Therefore thou seest her minished of her plenty, And then again augmented with new growth. |
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Quod super est , umore novo mare flumina fontes semper abundare et latices manare perennis nil opus est verbis : magnus decursus aquarum undique declarat . sed primum quicquid aquai tollitur in summaque fit ut nihil umor abundet , partim quod validi verrentes aequora venti deminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol , partim quod supter per terras diditur omnis ; percolatur enim virus retroque remanat materies umoris et ad caput amnibus omnis convenit , inde super terras fluit agmine dulci qua via secta semel liquido pede detulit undas .
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And for the rest, that sea, and streams, and springs Forever with new waters overflow, And that perennially the fluids well, Needeth no words- the mighty flux itself Of multitudinous waters round about Declareth this. But whatso water first Streams up is ever straightway carried off, And thus it comes to pass that all in all There is no overflow; in part because The burly winds (that over-sweep amain) And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves) Do minish the level seas; in part because The water is diffused underground Through all the lands. The brine is filtered off, And then the liquid stuff seeps back again And all regathers at the river-heads, Whence in fresh-water currents on it flows Over the lands, adown the channels which Were cleft erstwhile and erstwhile bore along The liquid-footed floods. |