Book V

Proem

Who is skillful enough to produce an adequate poem

about the magnificent world and these discoveries about it?

Does anyone so use language that he can praise appropriately

the man [Epicurus] who made these discoveries and left them for us?

I think the subject beyond an ordinary mortal,

for to put things in the way so superb a subject

demands, Memmius, a person no less than that deity

who first discovered the explanation of life

which is now called wisdom, and who had the ability

to rescue life from all its storms and darkness

and put it down in a calm and brilliant light.

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Compare what he did with what the other gods did.

Ceres brought corn and Bacchus started the notion

of making the most of the juice that comes from the vine.

Yet neither of these two gifts is indispensable

and travelers say some countries still do without them.

But you cannot live well unless your heart is unclouded.

Reason enough to consider that man as a deity

from whom we get these delightful consolations

which soothe the mind and make life tolerable.

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Or perhaps after all you have a preference for Hercules;

If you do let me tell you, you are completely wrong.

Should we really worry now about the gaping

jaws of the lion, or that boar in Arcady?

Or about that bull in Crete, or that plague in Lerna,

the hydra whose head was protected by poisonous snakes?

What about the triplet body of Geryon?

Or Diomede’s horses breathing fire from their nostrils

in Thrace, along the Bistonian border and Ismara?

Do they matter all that much? Do we fear those harpies

with their raucous cries and their claws on Lake Stymphalus?

And the snake which had to look after the golden apples

of the Hesperides, he certainly looked fierce

and had to wrap his enormous length around the tree;

What harm could he do on his remote Atlantic shore

where we don’t go and the savages don’t dare to?

The same with all those monsters that were gotten rid of,

If they hadn’t been killed, would they do much harm alive?

None at all, I think: for there are enough wild beasts

even now; there is plenty to be afraid of

in woods, upon great mountains and in deep forests

but none the less we can generally avoid them.

.

But unless the heart is cleansed, what struggles we face,

what dangers, and hardly know how it comes about!

How bitterly are we torn if we let lust coax us,

What cares we have and then, what fears as well!

Or how much pride and filthiness and petulance

and what disasters! What self-indulgence and laziness!

The man who gets the better of all this

by words and without weapons, will not such a one

deserve to be reckoned among deities?

The more if he has himself given explanations

about the immortal gods and revelations

about the order of nature in its entirety.

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Following his footsteps, I too attempt to find reasons

and in my writings to show how all is created

within a system from which nothing can escape;

And that there are laws of time which must be obeyed.

And first, the soul itself is subject to them

—formed of a body which itself was born—

it cannot last intact throughout the ages;

It is only images cheat our minds in dreams

when we think we see someone whom life has abandoned.

For the rest, the general plan of my work now brings me

to show the mortality of the world itself,

that it too has a body which had a beginning.

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I hope to show from what assembled material

the earth, sky, sea, stars, sun all came together

and the globe of the moon; what kinds of living creatures

sprang out of the earth and what kinds never existed;

How the human race with different ways of talking

began to converse by giving names to things;

And how it was that the fear of the gods found an entrance

into men’s minds, and now guards all over the world

shrines, lakes, groves, and altars and statues of gods.

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Besides, I will deal with the course of sun and moon

and by what forces they are naturally steered

lest you make the mistake of thinking their own free will

sends them about the sky in sacred procession

compliantly ripening corn and controlling destinies

or imagine that they move by the will of the gods.

Even those who have taken the point that the gods are indifferent

sometimes wonder how the whole affair is managed

and are specially concerned about things overhead

which they see rolling round so high in the heavens.

Once more they revert to the ancient superstitions

and take back those terrible masters they think all-powerful,

not knowing that there are some things which can happen

and some which cannot, that every power is limited

by the system itself, and that everything has an end.

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110

But before I begin to expose the decrees of fate

more scrupulously and also with greater certainty

than the Pythian priestess from the tripod and laurel of Phoebus,

I will go into this consoling matter quite thoroughly,

so that you don’t superstitiously imagine

that earth and sun and sky, sea, stars and moon

are divine material and ought to be everlasting;

Or take the view that, just like the giants and Titans

anyone ought to be subject to criminal punishments

who so to speak reasons away the walls of the world

and looks as if he wanted to put out the sun

and brand the everlasting with common speech.

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These things in fact are far from any divinity

and certainly not to be counted among the gods;

They seem rather to be outstanding examples

of the sort of things which has neither life nor feeling.

It is not as if there were reason to think that a mind

can equally well exist in any body.

Trees cannot grow in the sky, and in the salt sea

you will find no clouds, and fish do not live in fields,

There is no blood in wood and there is no sap in rocks;

Everything grows and lives in fixed conditions:

It is the nature of mind that it cannot arise

except in the body and close to the sinews and blood.

You might rather expect, I suppose, to find the intellect

in the head or shoulders or possibly in the heels

if it could pop up anywhere;

At least that would still be within the human container.

But as it seems that even within the body

there is a fixed location where soul and mind can grow

there can be no reason whatever for asserting

they could hold their own outside any animal body,

in the crumbling soil or in the fire of the sun,

In water, or in the highest ethereal regions.

No question therefore of these things being divine

since it is clear that they are not even alive.

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It is moreover impossible that you should credit

that the gods can live in any part of the world.

Their nature is delicate and far from anything

our senses perceive; it can hardly be seen by our minds.

And since it has always eluded the touch of our fingers

it must find intangible anything we can touch

for what cannot touch can certainly not be touched.

Therefore the gods must live in quite different conditions

from us, in mansions as delicate as themselves:

A point I will return to and deal with more fully.

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To say that it was for the sake of men that the gods

established this marvelous world and that on that account

we are in duty-bound to praise their work

and even to believe that it will last forever:

That its is blasphemy, in the face of their venerable wisdom

which made all this for our eternal benefit

ever to question what goes on in their residences,

to talk disrespectfully and turn things upside-down

—to go on like this is, I assure you, Memmius,

absolute rubbish. These immortal and blessed beings

could be none the better for any thanks we could give them:

Why should they therefore do anything for us?

What could have happened to make them want to change

their way of life which had gone on so smoothly so long?

Surely to get any pleasure out of novelties

implies something wrong with what you have already?

But a being who has never known pain

and has passed the time beautifully,

whatever could make him itch for something new?

Or are we to think life was passed in shadows and sorrows

till things were brightened up by a new generation?

Would it have hurt us not to have been created?

Admittedly once you are born you want to stay

but then there is pleasure to persuade you to keep alive.

But for one who has never tasted the Venus of living

what drawback could there be in not being born?

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And where would the gods have found a model to work from

or first got the notion of what man should be like?

How could they see in their minds what they wanted to make?

How could they have known the properties of the elements

and the likely results of various combinations

if nature did not provide them with examples?

So many elements in so many ways

in collision with each other for infinite time

and always kept in motion by their weight

attempted all possible ways of coming together

and every creation which could be so produced:

No wonder they have found the arrangement they have

and entered on the courses which gave us the universe

which now persists by a constant self-renewal!

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If I knew nothing of the nature of elements

yet, given the behavior of celestial bodies

and from other observations, I would conclude

that nature was not a divine invention

intended for us: there is so much that is wrong with it.

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In the first place, of all that the immense skies roll over,

there are the mountains and woods which ravenous beasts

have taken possession of; there are rocks, vast marshes,

and the sea which keeps the various shores apart.

Two thirds are rendered useless to men by either

blazing heat or else intolerable cold.

What is left for agriculture would be overrun

by thorns and the like if we did not take it in hand

in order to keep alive and, groaning in labor,

turn up the earth all the time with hoe and plow.

If we did not turn the fertile soil with the plowshares

and work at it until the crops came up

they would not emerge into the air on their own.

And yet so often the product of all this labor,

when at last the leaves appear and everything flowers,

is either burnt up by excessive heat

or else is ended by the rains and frost

or blown about by violent gales of wind.

What of all those terrifying breeds of wild animals

which are dangerous to man on land or sea?

Why does nature encourage them? And why at all seasons

are there so many sick? And why do so many die young?

The child is like a sailor cast up by the sea,

lying naked on the shore, unable to speak,

helpless, when first it comes to the light of day,

shed from the womb through all the pains of labor,

and fills the place with cries as well it might,

having a life of so many ills before it.

Yet flocks and herds, to say nothing of wild beasts,

don’t need a rattle or anything of that kind

nor even a nurse to feed them with baby-talk:

Nor do they need sets of clothes for summer and winter.

One may add that they don’t need weapons or high walls

to keep them safe, they find themselves perfectly happy

walking around in a world which produces plenty.

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509

I go on to explain the movements of the stars.

And first, if it is the whole of the sky which turns

the air must press with particular force on the poles

and hold them so that at those points there is no movement

while another current flows in the direction

the glittering stars follow in their rotation;

Or else the current flows underneath the world

as we see rivers turn a water-wheel.

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On the other hand the whole sky may stay still

while the brilliant stars are somehow carried across:

Either because there are rapid currents of either

circulating as they look for a way out

and these carry the stars and determine their orbit;

Or else a current of air coming from outside

accounts for their movements: or they glide by themselves

in search of food and go wherever they find it,

feeding on elements of flame here and there in the sky.

It is not easy to establish with certitude

the cause of events I this word; my aim is rather

to show what is possible anywhere in the universe

in various worlds formed upon various plans

and to set out the several causes which might operate

throughout the universe to move the stars.

Only one of these can operate in our sky

and I will not venture to say which it might be;

The advance of knowledge is inevitably gradual.

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For the earth to rest as it does in middle of our system

its weight must gradually decrease to vanishing point

so that underneath it is of a different nature

and has been from its beginnings

one with the air in which it is embodied.

That is why it has no weight and can ride on air

Rather as a man does not feel the weight of his limbs

and the head does not weigh on the neck, and we do not feel

the whole weight of our bodies upon our feet

while any burden placed on us from outside

we feel at once, though the weight may be much less:

Which shows how the circumstances make a difference.

The earth does not therefore rest upon alien material

but is cushioned by something which has the nature of air

and was conceived with it from the beginning of the world,

a part of the system as our limbs are part of us.

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When the earth is struck by a sudden clap of thunder

the whole atmosphere about it shakes,

which could not happen in this way if earth were not

joined somehow or other to the air and sky.

They are, indeed, fixed by their common roots

and have been together since the beginning of time.

Do you not see how, for all the weight of the body,

the soul with its subtle nature can support it

because they have always been together as one?

And what could lift the body when it leaps in the air

except the strength of the soul which controls the limbs?

So you see how a subtle nature can be strong

when joined to a heavy body, and that is the case

with air and the earth and with ourselves and our soul.

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The disc of the sun must be the same size, more or less

as it seems to our sense, and just about as hot,

for however far it may transmit its heat

the distances take nothing from the mass of flames

and it does not appear any smaller than it is.

The heat of the sun and the light which it pours out

arrive at our organs of sense and fall on the earth,

so its form and size must be as they appear

without indeed addition or subtraction.

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705

The moon may shine because it is struck by the rays of the sun

and turns the light increasingly towards us

the further she recedes from the ball of the sun

until just opposite him she shines out full

and at her rising watches the sun go down:

Then slowly reversing her steps she must hide her light

in the same way, the nearer she slides to the sun,

passing through the other half of the zodiac;

That is the theory of those who think that the moon

is a ball which runs below the course of the sun;

Which seems to me a true hypothesis.

It may be, however, that the moon has her own light

and turns and shows the various shapes of her brightness.

There may be some other body which turns with the moon,

obscuring her light in varying degrees as it moves,

a body which cannot be seen since it has no light.

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780

Now I go back to the early days of the world

when the ground was soft and gave birth to new productions

committing them to the care of the wayward winds.

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In the beginning, the earth gave forth vegetation and bright foliage

all over the hills and across the level plains;

The flowering meadows glittered with bright green;

The different trees rose high in the air,

striving with nothing holding them back.

Like first feathers and hair and bristles appearing

on the naked bodies of quadrupeds and birds,

the new earth shot out grass and shrubs at first

and then went on to produce the mortal animals,

great numbers of them, starting in various ways.

The animals cannot have fallen from the sky

nor those that live on land have come out of the sea.

No wonder therefore the earth is called our mother

since every creature came out of the ground.

Many creatures still exist underneath;

It takes the rain and sun to bring them up:

The less cause for wonder, therefore, that more and larger creatures

were brought to birth when the earth and air were young.

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826

But since all fecundity must have an end, she gave up

like a woman who is past the time of childbearing.

Time changes the nature of the whole world;

Everything passes from one state to another

and nothing stays like itself: all things pass away;

Nature obliges everything to change about.

One thing crumbles and falls in the weakness of age;

Another grows in its place from a negligible start.

So time alters the whole nature of the world

and earth passes from one state to another:

She can no longer bear what she could,

but she bears what before she could not.

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At that time the earth created many monsters

which came out with extraordinary faces and bodies,

the androgen—neither one sex nor the other

but between the two; there were creatures without hands or feet;

Mutes without mouths, blind creatures with nothing to look with,

and some with arms and legs so stuck to their bodies

that they could not do anything or go anywhere,

evade disaster or get what they needed for survival.

All such monsters were born without a future;

Their nature was such that they could not increase;

They never had a chance of reaching maturity;

They could not find food nor make a sexual connection.

We know that many conditions must be satisfied

if a species is to last and reproduce itself:

First there must be food for it, and then a channel

through which the genetic particles in the limbs

can find a way out; and the female must fit the male;

There must be organs which can give mutual pleasure.

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Many species will have died out at this period,

not having the capacity to continue their race.

For wherever you see a creature which has survived,

it is craft or strength or mobility that has saved it,

affording protection from the very beginning.

There are many animals which have survived because

they were useful enough to us for us to protect them.

With lions and other beasts of like ferocity

it was strength which preserved them; with the fox it was craftiness;

With deer it was speed. But the light-sleeping, faithful dog

and all the various beasts of burden

as well as the woolly sheep and all sorts of cattle:

All these have been entrusted to men to look after, Memmius.

They were anxious to escape wild beasts and live in peace

and obtain plenty of food without any labor;

We gave them all that but the price was that they had to be useful.

However, the animals nature endowed with none of these qualities,

who were neither able to live after their own manner

nor to render us any service for which we would tolerate

their living at our expense and being protected

—these it is clear would merely be prey for others,

as it were entangled in their unfortunate selves

until nature brought their race to complete destruction.

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925

The race of man at that time in the fields

was harder, having come from the hard ground.

They were constructed inside of larger bones,

stronger than ours, and their flesh was entirely sinuous.

It took more than heat or cold to exhaust such men;

They ate whatever offered and were not sick.

Through many repetitions of the sun’s course

they followed a wandering life as wild beasts do.

They did no to employ their energies at the plow

and did not know the use of iron in agriculture

nor how to plant saplings, or lop boughs from old trees.

Whatever the sun and rain gave them they took

and were content with what earth grow on her own.

An oak-tree bearing acorns gave them enough

in the ordinary way, with the berries which you see still

on the arbutus in winter, red when they are ripe,

but larger and more numerous in those days.

The young earth bore a variety of coarse crops,

more than enough for the needs of its wretched inhabitants.

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River and springs called men to slake their thirst

as now from high mountains the course of descending water

summons wild beasts from far and wide with its noise.

As they wandered in the night they came upon

the wooded haunts of nymphs, out of which, they knew

water would come splashing over the rocks,

the rocks dripping and covered with wet green moss,

and part of it bubbling out over the level plain.

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They did not know what uses fire could be put to,

nor how to dress themselves in wild beasts’ skins.

They lived in groves and caves and in the forests

and sheltered their dirty bodies in the undergrowth

when buffeting winds and rain became too much.

They had no notion at all of the common good,

understanding nothing of custom or of law.

The man who was lucky and found some prey went off with it,

the only idea they had was: each man for himself;

And Venus coupled their bodies in the forest;

What brought them together was either that both wanted it,

or the man was violent and his lust was threatening,

or he offered bribes such as acorns, berries, or choice pears.

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Trusting to the marvelous powers of their hands and feet

they would follow the tracks of wild beasts in the woods

and attack them with showers of stones, or club them down;

They could get the better of most, but a few they fled.

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And like bristly swine they would throw themselves on the ground

naked, whenever the night came down upon them,

covering themselves as best they could with leaves.

Yet there was no question of waiting for the day

or wandering around in terror looking for it;

They waited silently and buried in sleep

till the sun with its red beacon brought back the light.

Accustomed from childhood to night and day

being produced in turn in constant succession,

it never occurred to them to be astonished,

nor to fear that the night when it came might last forever.

They were much more concerned about the savage beasts

which would often make a sleep the end of everything:

Driven from the shelter of their rock or cave

by the arrival of a wild boar or a lion

at dead of night and in an excess of terror

they would give up their pile of leaves to their savage guest.

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There was not much more death about then than there is now

and little occasion to depart from life with laments.

No doubt it happened more often that some wild beast

got hold of someone and so made a lively dinner,

the hills and forests would be filled with moaning

as the man saw his flesh going into a living grave.

If anyone escaped with a piece bitten out of him

he would clutch his horrible wounds with trembling hands

and call for an end to it all with a strident voice

until cruel torments put an end to his life

without help, all being ignorant of what a wound wanted.

On the other hand, there was then no dying in thousands

in a single day in a military formation;

Nor was there any danger of being shipwrecked.

The sea often raged of course, but it brought about nothing

and had in the end to withdraw its empty threats;

Nor was there any question of a calm surface

enticing anyone with its treacherous smiles.

The desperate business of going to sea was unknown.

In those days it was starvation which finished men off

and now the same result is produced by plenty.

Then people accidentally poisoned themselves;

Now with great skill they poison one another.

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The next step was the use of huts and skins and fire,

and women became the property of one man.

So the chaste pleasures of a private Venus

were first invented and couples had their own children.

It was then that the human race began to soften.

Fire had the effect of making bodies less able

to bear the cold under the open sky;

Venus reduced their strength, and children with endearments,

easily broke down the stiff pride of their parents.

Then people first began to have friends and neighbors,

they did not seek to injure or treat with violence;

They gave a certain protection to women and children

and made it known in confused gestures and speech

that there ought to be some pity for those who are weak.

Of course they could not establish general peace

but a good proportion of people behaved in good faith;

If they hadn’t, the human race would soon have died out

and the present would do without us and our breed.

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Nature impelled men to make sounds with their tongues

and they found it useful to give names to things

much for the reason that we see children now

have recourse to gestures because they cannot yet speak

and point their fingers at things which appear before them.

Everyone tries to use the powers that are in him:

As calves will butt before they have grown their horns.

The young of the panther and of the lioness

fight with their claws and feet and teeth before

they have really got any teeth or claws to fight with.

In the same way we see that birds of very kind

begin to trust their wings before they can fly.

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Therefore to think that somebody handed out names

to things and that this is how men first learned to speak

is idiotic: for if one man could so designate objects,

and make all the various sounds with his tongue,

why could not others do the same thing at the same time?

Besides, if others too had not made use

of words among themselves, how could they have guessed

words might be useful? And how could one man get the idea

in his mind in the first place and see what he wanted to do?

And one man could hardly force many to do as he fancied,

to see the point of learning the names of things.

It isn’t easy to make the deaf understand

what one wants to teach them;

Those early men would not have stood for it

nor see any reason to put up with all that noise

being drummed into ears which naturally understood none of it.

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Lastly, what is there so strange about the fact

that the human race, with a powerful voice and tongue,

should designate different impressions by different sounds?

Since even dumb cattle, to say nothing of wild beasts,

are in the habit of uttering different cries

in fear or pain and when they are bursting with joy.

These are matters which you can learn by observation.

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1105

So from day to day they changed their food and their way of living

by new ways of using fire, which the most inventive

and ingenious among them pointed out to the rest.

Kings began to found cites and construct fortresses

to serve as strong places and a refuge when necessary;

They divided the land and cattle and gave them out

to those who were beautiful, strong or showed intelligence.

Beauty and strength were, both of them, much esteemed;

Then wealth was discovered and soon after it was gold

which quickly became more honored than strength or beauty.

For men, however strong or beautiful,

generally follow the train of a richer man.

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But if anyone were to conduct his life by reason,

he would find great riches in living a peaceful life

and being contented, one is never short of a little.

But men want always to be powerful and famous

so that their fortune rests on a solid foundation

and they can spend a placid life in opulence.

There isn’t a hope of it; to attain great honors

you have to struggle along a dangerous way

and even when you reach the top there is envy

which can strike you down like lightning into Tartarus.

For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top

or any point which sticks out form the ordinary level.

So it is better to submit and live in quiet

than to want to be the master of several kingdoms.

Let people wear themselves out, let them sweat blood,

struggling up the narrow road of ambition;

Since they know no more than they hear from the mouths of others

and go for what they have heard, not what they perceive;

That is how things are and have been and will be.

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So the kings were killed and that was the end of thrones

in their pristine majesty, and of the pride of scepters:

The crowned head, covered in blood, was kicked around

by the feet of the mob and had cause for dusty tears:

It is pleasant to trample on something that we have feared.

Power then went to the lowest dregs of the mob,

everyone fancied that he should be the top man.

Then some men had the idea of setting up magistracies

and establishing codes so that people could live by law.

For the human race had grown tired of anarchy

with its hostilities and so more easily yielded

of its own free will to live under legal restrictions;

The vengeance which individuals exacted in anger

was worse than is now enjoined under regular laws

—one can understand why men were sick of anarchy.

After that fear of punishment spoiled the prizes.

Violence and wrong catch people in their own nets

and those who start such things are most often entangled.

It is not easy to pass a peaceful life

if you act in a way that disturbs the general peace.

Although you elude the gods and the human race

you still must wonder whether your secret will be kept forever.

Are there not many people who talk in their sleep?

Or might not some word escape you in a delirium?

Crimes long concealed have come to light that way before.

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Now what is the reason for the belief in the gods

which has spread to all nations and filled their cities with altars?

What has given support to all those sacred rites

so prominent everywhere on great occasions?

What is the source of that deep-seated terror

which has raised sanctuaries all over the world

and has compelled men to celebrate holy days?

It is not so difficult to explain all this.

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Even in those times mortals would see the gods

in imagination, even when awake,

and in their dreams they were all the more impressive.

They attributed feelings to them because they saw

their limbs move and heard them speak fine words

suitable for such powerful and good-looking beings.

They thought them immortal, because they were always appearing

and yet somehow their form remained the same;

And because, after all, with all that strength they had,

one could hardly imagine anyone getting the better of them.

They thought them the most fortunate of beings

because they could not be troubled by the idea of death

and because in their dreams they saw them do marvelous things

without showing even the faintest sign of fatigue.

Besides, they saw the order of the celestial system

and how the seasons came around without mistake;

They did not guess at all how all that could happen

so they took refuge in attributing it all to the gods

and supposed they did it by a nod of the head.

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They assumed the sky was where the gods would live

because that was where the sun and the moon had their residences,

the moon, the day, the night, and the solemn nightly stars,

the meteors that wander by night, the flying flames,

clouds, dew, rain, snow; the winds and lightning and hail;

The sudden rumblings and threatening murmurs of thunder.

Oh miserable human race, to ascribe such acts

to the gods and then to suppose them bitterly angry!

What troubles they made for themselves, what harm they did us,

what tears we shall leave behind for our descendants!

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It is not piety to be repeatedly seen

turning a veiled head towards a piece of stone

and making sure you visit all the altars

with the blood of animals and a procession of prayers,

but to look on everything with a mind at peace.

When we look up to the temples of the sky

and the ether fast above all the glittering stars

and as we think of the course of the sun and the moon,

then to add to the other ills which weigh us down,

this fear also begins to raise its head:

That the power of the gods may be unlimited

and it may be that which sets the stars in motion.

It is this poverty of reason which troubles the mind

and we wonder about the origins of the world

and whether it may not end, and if the walls of the world

may not be able to stand this motion much longer;

Or whether, the gods having rendered them eternal,

they might go gliding on and on forever,

defying forever the strong power of time.

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Besides, whose mind is not contracted with fear

because of the gods? Whose body is not afraid

when the parched earth trembles under the lightning

and great rumblings of thunder cross the sky?

Are not whole nations terrified? Kings may be proud,

but they stoop quickly enough when they fear the gods,

afraid that for some one crime or even a word

the day of reckoning may suddenly have come.

When wind and waves exhibit all their violence

and sweep before them the commander of the fleet,

to say nothing of his legions and elephants,

does he not seek the mercy of the gods

and timidly ask for a lull and favorable winds?

It does no good, for the fierce hurricane

often carries him to the shallows of death all the same:

So much a secret force kicks men around

and tramples on all the splendid rods and axes

which it seems to treat with something less than respect.

And finally, when the whole world rocks under our feet

and cities are shaken and fall or threaten to do so,

what wonder if human beings abase themselves

and hand over everything which happens here

to the power of the gods and let them rule everything?

.

Next, copper and gold and iron were discovered,

lumps of silver, and what could be done with lead,

when fire consumed huge forests in a blaze

on high mountains, either started by lightning,

or because, when they were waging war in the woods,

men brought in fire to terrify their enemies;

Or because, seeing the soil was fertile, they wanted

to open up new fields or make new pastures;

Or perhaps to drive out beasts and grow rich on the spoil,

for pits and fires were certainly used in hunting

long before men had snares and packs of hounds.

However it happened, and whatever the cause of flames,

when the forests were crackling up from their very roots

so that the earth beneath was baked deep down,

out of its burning veins there trickled a stream

of silver and gold and copper and lead, and collected

in hollow places: and when men saw it set,

when the fire had gone, and shine with its brilliant colors

they were taken with it and picked up the smooth shining pieces

and found they had taken the shape of the dips they had run in.

Then it occurred to men that they could melt metals

and let them run into any mold they liked;

After which they could be made as sharp and fine as they pleased

by hammering and drawing out the points;

So they made tools with which they could cut down forests,

trim the wood and smooth it into planks

and finally pierce it and bore holes.

.

At first they set about using silver and gold

as well as the much stronger metal, copper:

They proved no good, it was found that they simply bent

and could not stand up half as well to the work.

Then copper was more valued and gold neglected

as something useless you couldn’t put a good point on:

Now copper has gone down and what men honor is gold.

So time, as it runs on, changes every fashion

and what was once valued attracts no honor at last.

Then something else comes along, which was disregarded

but now is more sought after from day to day

and everyone praises that and says it is marvelous.

.

It is easy now, Memmius, to find out for yourself

in what way the nature of iron was discovered.

The original weapons were hands and nails and teeth

and stones and pieces of broken wood from the forest

and flames and fire, once the use of them was known.

The value of iron came to light after that of copper

which is easier to work and found in greater abundance.

It was with copper men plowed, it was with copper

men threw themselves into battle and dealt out wounds,

acquired cattle and fields as well: for those who are naked

and have no arms give way to those who are armed.

Gradually the iron sword became popular

and a sickle of copper became ridiculous;

It was with iron that men tore up the ground

and its general use made chances in war more equal.

.

The habit of armed men mounting on horseback

and guiding the horse with one hand while they fight with the other

is older than risking the battle from a two-horsed chariot,

and two-horsed chariots came before chariots-of-four

where the armed man is protected by scythes on the wheels.

Later came elephants with towers on their backs

and trunks like snakes: the Carthaginians trained them

to take wounds calmly and make the enemy panic.

Discord invented one device after another

to make war ghastly to the nations engaged in it;

From day to day the horrors of war increased.

Men even tried to use bulls as part of the army

and to loose fierce boars into the midst of the enemy;

Some went to battle preceded by powerful lions

with armed trainers to keep them under control

who were supposed to guide and hold them in leash.

It didn’t work; they got excited by carnage

and caused confusion a little too indiscriminately

and their fearful manes popped up in unsuitable places:

There was no controlling the horses, and no certainty

that they would continue to advance on the enemy.

The lionesses threw their excited bodies

in all directions and would attack whomever they met,

while others they would unexpectedly take from the rear

and pin them down to the ground or leave them wounded,

or fasten them with their teeth and claws.

The bulls would toss and trample on their owners

and rip the bellies of horses from below

or at least churn up the ground and look very threatening.

The boars would tear up their allies with their tusks,

dyeing with blood the weapons broken upon them

and shaking up both infantry and cavalry.

For the horses would shy away from the side where the tusk was

or stand on their hind legs and try to take to the air:

That didn’t work either, for their tendons were often snapped

and they came tumbling down in a heavy fall.

These animals which they though so domesticated

got a little heated with all that was going on,

the wounding, the shouting, the flight, the terror, the tumult;

It was quite impossible to collect even a few of them,

the whole menagerie flew in various directions

as elephants now when they are deeply wounded

will bolt and often damage their own side.

That was how things were managed: but I find it hard to believe

that men could not have see there would be trouble

before they brought so much of it on themselves:

But they did what they did no so much in the hope of winning

as to make their enemies suffer and die in the process

when they themselves had too few men and perhaps inferior weapons.

.

1379

The imitation of birdsong by the voice

came long before the singing of measured verses

which men in time learned to make to please their ears.

The whistling of breezes through the hollow reeds

taught country people to blow into hollow stalks;

Bit by bit they learned to make the plaintive sounds

which came from the pipe when the fingers bring it to life;

A discovery of secluded groves and woods

and the pastures where shepherds spent their empty days.

These things they would find soothing and delightful

when full of food: for then all things are pleasant.

Often they lay stretched out on the soft grass

beside a stream and under the shade of a tree.

They took their pleasures at very little costs,

especially when the weather was good and the season

provided them with a suitable carpet of flowers

There were games then and talk and friendly laughter;

It was then that the country muse was at her best.

Head and shoulders were decorated with garlands

of flowers and leaves, which prompted various amusements

including some clumsy dancing out of time

and heavy feet stamping rather hard on the earth,

the occasion of smiles and a great deal of laughter

—for everything was new, and that is exhilarating.

There was consolation for the absence of sleep

in the miscellaneous voices getting the song wrong

as someone ran his crooked lip over the pipes.

We have these amusements ourselves still in the evenings

but have learned to keep better time though that does not make us

listen to what we hear with any more pleasure

than those country people got from their entertainments.

.

For whatever we have, if we haven’t known anything pleasanter,

will seem to us absolutely the best there is;

Yet generally, with the discovery of something better,

it loses its value and our feelings about it change.

So acorns came to be scorned; and nobody wanted a bed

of grass and leaves such as was once thought comfortable.

Garments made of skins were sneered at in time

although I think the invention of them was envied

and probably cost the original wearer his life;

Though, torn to pieces and covered with blood by the murderers,

the garment they stole probably wasn’t much use to them.

.

Then it was skins, now it is gold and purple

people think so much of that they will go to war for it:

In my opinion the current error is worse.

Cold was torture to naked men and a sheepskin

did something for them: but there is no disadvantage

in managing without purple or gold or patterns

since ordinary clothes give all the cover we need.

It seems the human race likes to labor for nothing

and always to spend its time in empty cares.

Why? Because people don’t understand that possession is limited

and that there is pleasure in it only up to a point.

It is this which has carried people drifting along

until they have stirred up all the storms of war.

.

But those vigilant watchers of the turning sky,

the sun and the moon, filling all with their light,

taught men the seasons came around always in order

and that everything happens in accordance with a pattern.

.

People had long learned to build themselves strong places

and long divided up and tilled the land;

They and made the sea blossom with ships under sail

and found out all about allies and making treaties

—all this before the poets began

to hand things down, writing had only must been invented:

That is why we cannot look back very far

except so far as reasoning allows us inferences.

.

Navigation, the cultivation of fields,

defenses, laws, arms, roads, clothes, all the rest,

even to all the elegances of life,

poems, pictures, marvelous statues, all are the outcome

of practice and indefatigable minds

for all have been achieved little by little.

So it is time produces different discoveries

and reason gradually brings them into the daylight.

So step by step the mind of man grew clearer

until the arts reached their perfection.