Read Online On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) by Ronald Melville, Don, Peta Fowler - Free Book Online

in the past, what now is present,
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And what in addition is to follow after.
 
And no one has a sense of time distinct
 
From the movement of things or from their quiet rest.
 
Moreover, when they say that Helen’s rape
 
And Troy’s defeat in war are facts, we must be careful
 
To see that they do not drive us to admit
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That these things have an independent existence,
 
Arguing that those ancient generations
 
Of whom these great events were accidents
 
By time irrevocable have all been borne away.
 
For whatever is done must be an accident
 
Either of the whole earth or of some place in it.
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Moreover, if no matter had existed
 
Nor room or space for things to operate,
 
The flame of love would never have been fired
 
By Helen’s beauty deep in Paris’ heart
 
Nor kindled blazing battles of savage war.
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No wooden horse unmarked by sons of Troy
 
Spawning the midnight Greeks from out its womb
 
Had set the towers of Ilium aflame.
 
So you may see that events never at all
 
Exist by themselves as matter does, nor can
 
Be said to exist in the same way as void.
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But rightly you may call them accidents
 
Of matter and of place in which things happen.
 
Material objects are of two kinds, partly atoms
 
And partly also compounds formed from atoms.
 
The atoms themselves no force can ever quench,
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For by their solidity in the end they win.
 
Though it is difficult to believe that anything
 
That is completely solid can exist.
 
For lightning passes through the walls of houses,
 
And likewise sound and voices; iron glows
 
White hot in fire, and boulders burst apart
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In the fierce blaze of heat; the solidness
 
Of gold grows soft and melts, the ice of bronze
 
Is overcome by fire and liquefied;
 
And warmth and piercing cold both seep through silver
 
As when in solemn rite we hold the cup
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We feel both when dewy water is poured in.
 
So nothing in the world seems really solid.
 
But yet, because true reason and nature itself
 
Compel, be with me, while I demonstrate
 
In a few verses that there do exist
 
Bodies that are both solid and everlasting,
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Which we teach are seeds or primal atoms of things
 
From which now all creation has been made.
 
First, since we have found that nature is twofold,
 
Consisting of two widely different things—
 
Matter and the space in which things happen—
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Each must exist by itself unmixed with the other.
 
For where there is empty space, which we call void,
 
There matter is not; and where matter takes its stand
 
There in no way can empty void exist.
 
Therefore primal atoms are solid and without void.
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Again, since void exists in things created,
 
There must be solid matter surrounding it,
 
Nor could you prove by truthful argument
 
That anything hides void, and holds it within it,
 
Unless you accept that that which holds is solid.
 
And that again can be nothing but an assembly
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Of matter, able to hold the void inside it.
 
Matter therefore, which is absolutely solid,
 
Can last for ever, though all else be dissolved.
 
Then further, if there were nothing void and empty,
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The universe would be one solid mass.
 
On the other hand, unless there were definite bodies
 
Able to fill the space each occupies,
 
Then everything would be vacant space and void.
 
An alternation then of matter and void
 
Must clearly exist, the two quite separate,
 
Since the universe is not completely full
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Nor yet completely empty. So definite bodies
 
Exist which distinguish empty space from full.
 
And, as I have just shown, these can neither be broken
 
By blows struck from outside, nor inwardly
 
Pierced and unravelled; neither can they be
 
Attacked and shaken in any other way.
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For without void it is clear that nothing can
 
Be crushed or broken or split in two by cutting;
 
Nor can it let in moisture or seeping cold
 
Or penetrating fire, all forces of destruction.
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And the more void a thing