Free On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) by Ronald Melville, Don, Peta Fowler Page A

again, if all things were created
 
Out of four things, and resolved back into them,
 
Why should we call them elements of things
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Rather than, thinking in reverse, maintain
 
That other things are elements of them?
 
For they are born from each other, and change colour
 
And their whole natures among themselves for ever.
 
But if you think that fire and earth and wind,
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The breezes of the sky, the dew that lies,
 
Can so combine that in their combination
 
Their natures are not changed, then clearly nothing
 
Could be created from them, no animal
 
Nor anything inanimate, like a tree.
 
For in the mingling of this diverse mass
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Each element in its own nature will display:
 
Air will then be seen mixed up with earth
 
And fire persisting side by side with moisture.
 
But primal atoms in begetting things
 
Must bring a nature secret and unseen,
 
That nothing may stand out to bar and thwart
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Each thing that’s made from being its proper self.
 
Indeed these men trace all things back to heaven
 
And heaven’s fires, and hold that fire first turns
 
Itself into breezes of the air, that rain
 
Is generated thence, and earth from rain
 
Created, then all things return again
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From earth, reversing order, moisture first
 
Next air, then heat, and these things never cease
 
Their mutual changes, moving from the sky
 
To earth, from earth back to the stars of heaven.
 
This primal atoms never ought to do.
 
For something must survive unchangeable
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Lest all things utterly return to nothing.
 
For all things have their boundaries fixed and sure;
 
Transgress them, and death follows instantly.
 
Therefore since those things we mentioned earlier
 
Undergo change, then they must needs consist
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Of other things that cannot change at all,
 
Of you will find all things return to nothing.
 
Why not rather assume that atoms exist
 
Of such a nature that if they have produced fire
 
Then with a few more added or taken away
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And motions and positions changed, they make air,
 
And in this way things change from one to another?
 
‘But’, you will say, ‘the plain facts clearly show
 
That from the earth into the winds of air
 
All things grow, and from earth all take their food.
 
And unless the season with propitious hour
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Makes way for rain and trees reel as storm clouds break,
 
And sunshine cherishes and brings them warmth,
 
Crops, trees, and animals can never grow.’
 
Yes, and unless we ourselves by solid food
 
And tender juices were sustained, at once
 
Our body would waste away, and all our life
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From all our bones and sinews be dissolved.
 
For certainly we are ourselves sustained and fed
 
By fixed and certain things; and other things
 
And others again by certain other things.
 
No doubt the reason is that many atoms
 
Common in many ways to many things
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Are mixed in many things, commingled with them,
 
So different things are fed from different sources.
 
And often it is a matter of great importance
 
How these same atoms combine, in what positions
 
They are held, what motions they give and take.
 
For these same atoms form sky, sea, land, rivers, sun,
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The same compose crops, trees, and animals,
 
And have different motions, different combinations.
 
Why, in my verses everywhere you see
 
Are many letters common to many words,
 
But yet you must admit that words and lines
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Differ in meaning and the sounds they make.
 
Such power have letters through mere change of order;
 
But atoms can bring more factors into play
 
To create all things in their variety.
 
Now let us examine Anaxagoras’
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Homoeomeria, named so by the Greeks,
 
Which in our language is without a name
 
Because of the poverty of our native tongue.
 
However, it is easy to explain the thing.
 
First, when he talks about homoeomeria,
 
You must understand him to believe that bones
 
Are made of very small and tiny bones,
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And flesh of small and tiny