Free On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) by Ronald Melville, Don, Peta Fowler Page B
bits of flesh,
And blood created out of many drops
Of blood combined together, and that gold
Can be built up from grains of gold, and earth
Grows out of little earths, and fire from fires,
840
Water from water drops, and all the rest
He fancies are formed on the same principle.
But he does not conclude that void exists,
Nor any limit to the division of things.
Therefore on both these points he plainly errs
845
Just as those did of whom I spoke before.
Add that he makes his elements too frail,
If elements they are that are endowed
With a nature similar to the things themselves,
Suffer like them and perish, nowhere reined back
By anything from ruin and destruction.
Which of them under huge pressure will endure
850
And escape destruction right in the jaws of death?
Will fire or air or water? Which of them?
Will blood or bones? Not one, in my belief,
But everything alike will in its essence
Be as perishable as those things we clearly see
855
Visibly perishing, vanquished by some force.
I call to witness what I proved before:
That nothing ever can be reduced to nothing
Nor anything again grow out of nothing.
Again, since food builds up the body and nourishes it,
Plainly our veins and blood and bones and sinews
860
Must needs be made of parts unlike themselves.
Or if they say that all food is a mixture
Incorporating little bits of bones
And sinews, yes, and little drops of blood,
All food both solid and liquid must be held
To be composed of things unlike itself,
865
A mixture of bones and sinews, pus and blood.
And all those things that grow out from the earth,
If they are in the earth, earth must consist
Of things unlike itself that spring from it.
Take other cases, and the same words will apply
870
If flame, smoke, ashes lurk unseen in wood
It follows that the wood must be composed
Of things unlike itself, that rise from it.
And here is left some small chance of escape
875
Which Anaxagoras puts to good use.
All things, he holds, lie hidden in all things
Mixed up with them, but only one is seen,
The one that has the most parts in the mixture,
Set on the surface, readier to see.
But this is very far removed from truth.
880
For then it would be natural that corn
Ground by the millstone’s crushing strength would show
Some signs of blood or other substances
Which find their nourishment within the body;
And that, when we rub stone on stone, then blood should trickle,
And grass and water likewise should emit
885
Drops sweet and flavoured like the milk of sheep.
And often too when clods of earth are crumbled
One should see various plants and corn and leaves
Lurking in miniature amid the soil.
890
Lastly, when wood is broken one should see
That ash and smoke and tiny flames lie hid.
But plain facts show that none of this occurs.
It follows therefore that one sort of thing
Is not mixed with another in this way.
No. But seeds common to many things
In many ways must needs lie hid inside them.
895
‘But often on great mountains’, you will say,
‘It happens that the high tops of tall trees
Are rubbed together, forced by strong south winds,
Until they blaze in bursting flower of flame.’
900
Agreed. But fire is not implanted in the wood,
But there are many seeds of heat which the friction
Concentrates, to make the forest fires.
If flame were hiding in forests ready-made,
Not for one moment could the fires be hid,
905
But everywhere they’ld burn the woods, turn trees to ashes.
Now do you see the point I made before,
That 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,
910
And that these same by quite small mutual changes
Can make both fires and firs? As the words themselves
Consist of elements a little changed
When we say fires or firs with different
And blood created out of many drops
Of blood combined together, and that gold
Can be built up from grains of gold, and earth
Grows out of little earths, and fire from fires,
840
Water from water drops, and all the rest
He fancies are formed on the same principle.
But he does not conclude that void exists,
Nor any limit to the division of things.
Therefore on both these points he plainly errs
845
Just as those did of whom I spoke before.
Add that he makes his elements too frail,
If elements they are that are endowed
With a nature similar to the things themselves,
Suffer like them and perish, nowhere reined back
By anything from ruin and destruction.
Which of them under huge pressure will endure
850
And escape destruction right in the jaws of death?
Will fire or air or water? Which of them?
Will blood or bones? Not one, in my belief,
But everything alike will in its essence
Be as perishable as those things we clearly see
855
Visibly perishing, vanquished by some force.
I call to witness what I proved before:
That nothing ever can be reduced to nothing
Nor anything again grow out of nothing.
Again, since food builds up the body and nourishes it,
Plainly our veins and blood and bones and sinews
860
Must needs be made of parts unlike themselves.
Or if they say that all food is a mixture
Incorporating little bits of bones
And sinews, yes, and little drops of blood,
All food both solid and liquid must be held
To be composed of things unlike itself,
865
A mixture of bones and sinews, pus and blood.
And all those things that grow out from the earth,
If they are in the earth, earth must consist
Of things unlike itself that spring from it.
Take other cases, and the same words will apply
870
If flame, smoke, ashes lurk unseen in wood
It follows that the wood must be composed
Of things unlike itself, that rise from it.
And here is left some small chance of escape
875
Which Anaxagoras puts to good use.
All things, he holds, lie hidden in all things
Mixed up with them, but only one is seen,
The one that has the most parts in the mixture,
Set on the surface, readier to see.
But this is very far removed from truth.
880
For then it would be natural that corn
Ground by the millstone’s crushing strength would show
Some signs of blood or other substances
Which find their nourishment within the body;
And that, when we rub stone on stone, then blood should trickle,
And grass and water likewise should emit
885
Drops sweet and flavoured like the milk of sheep.
And often too when clods of earth are crumbled
One should see various plants and corn and leaves
Lurking in miniature amid the soil.
890
Lastly, when wood is broken one should see
That ash and smoke and tiny flames lie hid.
But plain facts show that none of this occurs.
It follows therefore that one sort of thing
Is not mixed with another in this way.
No. But seeds common to many things
In many ways must needs lie hid inside them.
895
‘But often on great mountains’, you will say,
‘It happens that the high tops of tall trees
Are rubbed together, forced by strong south winds,
Until they blaze in bursting flower of flame.’
900
Agreed. But fire is not implanted in the wood,
But there are many seeds of heat which the friction
Concentrates, to make the forest fires.
If flame were hiding in forests ready-made,
Not for one moment could the fires be hid,
905
But everywhere they’ld burn the woods, turn trees to ashes.
Now do you see the point I made before,
That 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,
910
And that these same by quite small mutual changes
Can make both fires and firs? As the words themselves
Consist of elements a little changed
When we say fires or firs with different