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

contains within it
 
The deeper strike the blows of those assailants.
 
Therefore if atoms are solid and without void,
 
As I have shown, they must be everlasting.
 
Besides, had matter not been everlasting,
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All things by now would have returned to nothing,
 
And the things we see would have been born again from nothing.
 
But since I have shown that nothing can be created
 
From nothing, nor things made return to nothing,
 
The primal atoms must have immortal substance
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Into which at their last hour all things can be resolved
 
And furnish matter to renew the world.
 
So atoms must be solid single wholes;
 
Nor can they be in any other way
 
Preserved intact from endless ages past
 
Throughout eternity to make things new.
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Consider this also: if nature had set
 
No limit to the breaking of things, the atoms of matter
 
Would have been ground so small as ages past
 
Fragmented them, that nothing in due time
 
Could ever have been conceived from them and brought
 
Into the full maturity of life.
555
For we see things can be dissolved more quickly
 
Than reconstructed. Therefore what past years
 
And bygone days of all eternity
 
Had broken up before now, dissolved and shattered,
 
In time remaining could never be made new.
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But as it is, a certain end is given
 
Of breaking, since we see all things renewed,
 
And fixed times stand for things after their kind
 
In which they can attain the flower of life.
 
And here’s another point. Though atoms of matter
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Are completely solid, yet we can explain
 
Soft things—air, water, earth, and fire—
 
How they are made and what force works in them,
 
When once we see that void is mixed with things.
 
But on the other hand, if atoms are soft,
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No explanation can be given how flints
 
And iron, hard things, can be produced; for nature
 
Will utterly lack a base on which to build.
 
Their pure solidity gives them mighty power,
 
And when they form a denser combination
 
Things can be knit together and show great strength.
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Moreover, if no limit has been set
 
To the breaking-up of bodies, nevertheless
 
You must admit that after infinite time
 
Bodies do survive of every kind of thing,
 
Not yet attacked by any form of danger;
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But since by definition they are breakable,
 
It is inconsistent to say they could have lasted
 
Through time eternal struck by endless blows.
 
Again, since a limit has been set
 
For the growth of things and for their hold on life,
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Each after its kind, and since it stands decreed
 
What each by nature can do and cannot,
 
And nothing changes, but all things are constant
 
So much that every kind of bird displays
 
Its own specific markings on its body,
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They must for sure consist of changeless matter.
 
For if the primal atoms could suffer change,
 
Under some strange compulsion, then no more
 
Would certainty exist of what can be
 
And what cannot, in a word how everything
 
Has finite power and deep-set boundary stone;
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Nor could so oft the race of men repeat
 
The nature, manners, habits of their parents.
 
To proceed with the argument: in every body
 
There is a point so small that eyes cannot see it.
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That point is without parts, and is the smallest
 
Thing that can possibly exist. It has never existed
 
Separately by itself, nor ever will,
 
But only as one part of something else;
 
Then other and other like parts in due order
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In close formation fill the atom up.
 
Since these can have no separate existence,
 
They must needs clings together in one whole
 
From which they can in no way be detached.
 
Atoms therefore are solid single wholes
 
Cohered from smallest parts close packed together,
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Not compounds formed by gathering of parts,
 
But strong in everlasting singleness.
 
To them nature allows no diminution
 
Nor severance, but keeps them as seeds for things.
 
Besides, unless there is some smallest thing,
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The tiniest body will consist