Compiled by Rob James

May 25, 2025

The great restatement of epicurean thought is De Rerum Natura (The Naiure of Things, or The Way Things Are) by Titus Lucretius Carus (circa 99-55 bce). It was lost to the ages though widely quoted in later literature. Then, in 1417, an antiquities hunter named Poggio Bracciolini found a copy that eventually found its way into print. The detective story is brilliantly told in Stephen Greenblatt’s award-winning book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (2011) (the subtitle might be just a tad overblown).

Unusually for a work of philosophy, it is a poem—a seven-thousand line poem, in fact. And what we have appears to be just a fragment of what the author had in mind, as it ends abruptly in the middle of describing an example of a horrible plague in Athens. The six books we have must be part of a larger imagined whole, but we like the epicureans should be grateful for what we have and not mope about what we have not.

There have been many translations into English (you can see my personal collection above). The most accessible is Rolfe Humphries’ The Way Things Are (1968) and the most widely used is that by Martin Ferguson Smith (1969, new edition 2001), cited approvingly by Greenblatt.

My favorite is the Loeb Classical Library dual-language edition, in the familiar compact format (you know them—green for Greek, red for Roman, and now blue for Medieval). The 1924 translator, W.H.D. Rouse, I know nothing about. But where most Loebs have marginal annotations in the form of cryptic noun phrases, Rouse supplied marginalia in the form of one long commentary of continuous complete sentences! Thus one, if he were so inclined, could read the margins and get the overall feel for the very long poem.

So that is what I did. While recuperating from an arm injury, I leafed through my copy and dictated onto my computer the entire Rouse marginalia (the “trot” as English schoolboys would call it). To give you an example, here is the famous racy passage where Lucretius pokes fun at the ways that men will turn apparent faults and shortcomings of their beloveds into virtues:

Lest anyone accuse Lucretius (or his Greek sources) or me of misogyny, I think women play this game as well. The Frankenstein-monster with craggy lined features is ruggedly handsome; the beardless youth barely out of babyfatted infancy is a boy toy; the quiet hulk is the strong silent type who is brilliant but he doesn’t test well; and the ordinary schlub can aspire to be admired for his dad bod.

Here is a stark summary of what you will find in this amazing work. Some is fully consistent with modern science, while some has been totally disproven. Adherents of religion of all stripes will take offense at the nihilism but may be hard pressed to refute it.

Brace yourself.

• Everything is made of invisible particles, eternal, infinite in number but limited in shape and size. Like atoms, like genes, they are “like the letters of the alphabet.” The Harvard philosopher George Santayana called this idea–the ceaseless mutation of forms composed of indestructible substances–“the greatest thought that mankind has ever hit upon.”

• All particles are in motion in an infinite void, colliding with each other as a result of a swerve. Thus there is place for both determinism and free will.

• The universe has no creator or designer or human purpose; nature ceaselessly experiments. There is no purpose to existence, creation and destruction, all of which occur entirely by chance.

• Humans are not unique. Society began not in a golden age of tranquility and plenty, but in a primitive battle for survival.

• The soul dies; there is no afterlife; death should mean nothing to us. All organized religions are superstitious illusions.

• The highest goal of human life is the enhancement of pleasure and the reduction of pain. The greatest opposition to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.

• Understanding the nature of things generates deep wonder akin to a spiritual sense.

Greenblatt concludes;

“It might seem at first that this comprehension would inevitably bring with a sense of cold emptiness, as if the universe had been robbed of its magic. But being liberated from harmful illusions is not the same as disillusionment. The origin of philosophy, it was often said in the ancient world, was wonder. Surprise and bafflement led to a desire to know, and knowledge in turn led to wonder. In Lucretius’s account the process is something like the reverse–it is in knowing the way things really are that awakens the deepest wonder.”

Here, then, are the Rouse marginalia to The Way Things Are.

Titus Lucretius Carus

De Rerum Natura, or On the Nature of Things

marginal annotations of W.H.D. Rouse (1924)

compiled by Robert A. James (2025)

Book I

O Venus, aid in my work for the benefit of Memmius; persuade your lover Mars to give us peace. After all, the gods dwell apart in eternal peace. I have to explain heaven, the gods, and the elements of matter.

Epicurus first defied superstition and taught us the laws of nature. Not philosophy but superstition is impious, as is evidenced by the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Fear no true terrors after death, which will be proved vain when I explain the truth about nature and the structure of mind and spirit. My task is difficult, but the hope of gaining your friendship inspires me to tackle it. Knowledge of nature’s law will dispel the fear.

Nothing can arise out of nothing, or else anything could arise out of anything; things could be created in any season; no time would be needed for growth; crops and animals could be produced without rain and food; there would be no limit of size; and there would be no need for cultivation.

Nothing can be reduced to nothing, or else things would be annihilated. Suddenly, there would be no supply of material for the creation and replenishment of things, all things could be destroyed by the same force, one thing’s death would not be another thing. The atoms are invisible, but so are other things whose effects show them to be bodily: wind, scent, heat, cold, sound, vapor of water, particles of warm metal or stone, and particles of living bodies that grow and decay.

There is also void, or things could not move, solid bodies could not be penetrated, things of one size would not differ in weight. Some say that things move without void, by changing places; but how could the motion begin without room? If two bodies leap apart, there is a void at first; nor indeed could matter ever be condensed between them without void.

Follow the other proofs for yourself. Sensation proves that body exists, and without void nothing more could move or be. There is no third nature; if it can be touched, it is body, if not, it is void; if it acts or is acted upon, it is body; if things can be done to it, it is void. All other things are properties or accidents of these.

Time has no independent existence, nor have historical events. The first beginnings are solid and indestructible. For body and void are mutually exclusive; compound objects contain void, and this void must be enclosed by body that contains no void (that is, atoms). 

The Universe consists of both body and void, and so there must be definite bodies, which, because they contain no void, or indissoluble; if not all things would have come to nothing, and been renewed from nothing; if there were no limit to breaking up, destruction would be quicker than renewal; solid bodies can make soft things, but soft bodies cannot make hard things. If there is no limit to breaking up, there must be permanent particles corresponding to each kind of thing – and impossible, if there is no limit to division. The constancy of species proves the existence of unchangeable elements; the atom consists of smallest part that is separately coherent. If there were infinite division, the smallest thing would be equal to the sum of things; if things could be resolved in a minimal parts, these would not have the very qualities needed for creating things.

Fire is not the original substance, as Heraclitus held. It could not produce anything but fire; he denies void, without which his fire could not change at all; if fire changes into something else, it is destroyed; something else must be permanent, or all will be reduced to nothing; this theory defies the senses—our final court of appeal. And why choose fire rather than something else?

The basis of things cannot be fire, air, water, or earth, or two of these elements, or all four. Empedocles is a philosopher-poet of divine genius, but he and others who hold similar views are wrong, for they deny void; they do not limit division; their elements are soft; their elements are mutually destructive; things may be thought the elements of the elements, rather than the elements themselves; the elements of things; if the four elements retain their character in union, they cannot produce anything; if the four elements change into one another, they are not imperishable; although the four elements are needed for growth, that is because they contain appropriate atoms.

Anaxagoras denies void, does not limit division, makes elements soft. He supposes that all things are hidden in all things; if so, why are no traces ever seen? When fire breaks out in a forest, it is not fire but seeds able to create fire that were hidden in the wood.

Now to my doctrine, which I convey to you by the charm of poesy.

Our space is infinite. The universe is infinite, it has no boundary; if it were finite, what would become of a spear thrown from its limit? If space were finite, all would have collected at the bottom; unlike the components of our world, the universe has nothing outside bounded. Therefore space is infinite.

Matter, too, is infinite; if it were finite, creation would be impossible, for the atoms did not come together by their own design; an infinite matter is needed for the preservation of a world. Some supposed that all matter tends to the middle, but there is no middle; and they suppose that some things actually tend the contrary way. If their theory were right, the world would be destroyed.

 Truth will throw light on truth for you.

Book II

The serene sanctuary of philosophy. Luxury is of no use for body or mind; only philosophy can help us. Some believe that the gods made the world for man, but it is too faulty for that.

Atomic motion. Atoms are in constant motion, increasing this, diminishing that, while the sum remains unchanged. Some move through through the void; those which are combined in the groups move also. The motion of motes in a sunbeam illustrates atomic motion, and indeed the motes derive their motion from the atoms. The speed of the atoms is greater than that of light, which is hindered by the air because it is a compound, whereas the atoms are unchecked. No bodily thing can move upwards, unless driven by some force.

The atoms move downwards, but have a slight swerve at uncertain times, which is the cause of their meeting. All atoms fall at the same speed through the void; thus the swerve is necessary, and it is possible.

The swerve is the cause of free will in living beings. Motion begins in the well or mind, which acts on the limbs. very different is the process when force without causes motion. Matter and motion are permanent. Although everything is in motion, the whole seems at rest.

Shape. There are many varieties of shapes in the atoms, as there are in the units of any species which are superficially alike. (Examples: animals, grains of corn, shells.) This explains why some things can pass where others cannot; why some please the taste, others displease. So also with hearing, smell, and sight; all comes from the shapes of the atoms, for touch issensation. (Examples: hard things, liquids, smoke, seawater, indeed the brine can be separated.) The shapes of the atoms are limited in number; or else some would be infinite in size, and the best and worst in sensible things would be surpassed, as with the extremes of heat and cold.

The atoms of any given shape are infinite in number, or the sum of matter would be finite.Rarity does not disprove this; indeed, one unique specimen would need an infinite store of suitable atoms to produce it; for if finite, they could no more combine than could the pieces of wrecked ships.  

The balanced warfare of creation and destruction. Nothing consists of only one kind of element. Earth contains all kinds. Therefore, she is rightly called Mother, Mother Cybele. (Her attributes: wild beasts, crown, guards, eunuchs, music, weapons, the cities, the armed escort.)But the gods dwell apart in eternal peace, and Earth has no feeling but contains many elements. So different creatures feed in one field, one creature contains different constituents. Things that burn contain elements of fire, one thing affects different senses, different words contain the same elements. But not all varieties are possible: there are no monsters. Inanimate nature, too, is governed by fixed laws. 

Secondary qualities. Atoms have no color. For all colors change, but the atoms cannot change. Color can be produced by varieties of shapes and arrangement; but if the seeds were if one color, that could not change; if of many, these would be distinguishable. Color again depends on light, and atoms do not come into the light. Touch causes the sensation of color, and touch is concerned with shape only. If atoms had color, things made of them would vary within one species, since each shape is not of a fixed color. Color is lost as things are divided up, hence atoms have none. Some bodies we know are without sound and smell, hence we can conceive bodies without color. So also atoms are without heat, sound, moisture, or smell, since they can admit nothing from themselves.

Feeling. Nor have atoms feeling. For we see things with feeling produced from things without feeling, and food changing into living creatures. If this does not always happen, the reason is that it depends on size, shape, arrangement, and motion. Moreover, if atoms had feelings, they must be soft, therefore mortal. Grant that they were immortal, they must feel as parts of the body or as whole animals; they would therefore not be first beginnings, and they combine them would not be to make not a thing, but a crowd. Sensible cannot arise from not sensible by change or by birth. For without combination, there is no sensation. A blow breaks up the combination and puts an end to sensation, unless the vital motions are strong enough to hold the combination together. Atoms feel no pain and no pleasure, because they are not combinations and have no motions within them. If atoms could feel, they would also laugh, weep, and argue.

The Heaven is our Father, the Earth, our Mother. Death disperses the atoms, to be united again.

There are other worlds than this of ours, for both space and matter are infinite, and our world was formed naturally by a chance combination of aoms. The same conditions that made the creation of our world possible are operative elsewhere in the universe; therefore there must be other inhabited worlds. Moreover, nothing is unique. Nature works of herself, without the gods. What god indeed could suffice for the task? Which god would strike his own temple? Bodies added from without first produced our Earth, just as living things grow by such additions, until they give out more than they take in, and so pass away. Even so, our Earth has begun its decay.

Book III

Address to Epicurus, who has driven away the terrors of our minds. Evil works through men’sfear of Acheron—the most potent of motives, the cause of avarice and ambition and cruelty. Knowledge of nature alone can dispel it.

Nature of the mind and spirit. The mind is a part of man as much as feet or eyes, not a harmony. Body may be sick while the mind is well, or the opposite. Bodies are without feeling in sleep, while mind is active. The spirit also is a part, lying within the body, not a harmony; for it remains when much of the body is lost, and the body dies when it departs. Therefore, neither is a harmony. Mind and spirit form one compound nature, the mind dominating. Mind abides in the breast, while the spirit is dispersed throughout the limbs. Mind can feel by itself; but when deeply moved, it affects the spirit, and through this the body. Mind and spirit are bodily, since they act upon the body, which can be done only by touch, and the body in turn acts upon the mind.

The mind is made of very small rounded particles, because it acts more swiftly than anything else. (Causes of speed and slowness: water, honey, poppyseed, stone, wheat ears.) When mind departs at death, there is no change in look or in weight. It is like the aroma of wine or the smell of ointment or flavor. The soul is composite, being made of breath, heat, air, and a fourth nameless substance. In sensation, this fourth substance moves first, then heat, wind, air, then the body is moved. These four form one connected whole; no part separately, but the fourth substance is the spirit of the spirit; if separated, there could be no feeling. Heat is prominent in anger, wind in fear, air in repose. (Examples: lion, stag, cow. So with man.) 

Reason can overcome our faults. Soul and body united live but, separated, both die. A body cannot be born without soul, nor can it last long without. The body itself has sensation. (Example of the eyes, which are organs of feeling and not mere doors for the mind to seethrough.) Soul and body do not correspond atom to atom; the atoms of the spirit are smaller and fewer. Certain things, too small to be felt, measure this distance. The mind is more potent for life than the spirit. (Example of the eye.)

Mind and spirit are mortal. The particles of the soul are very small and mobile, and disperse when the soul leaves the body. Mind is born, grows, and ages with the body; it is thus natural then that it should die with the body. As the body has disease, so the mind has care and pain. When the body ails, the mind often suffers. Wine affects the soul. An epileptic fit shakes the mind and soul within the body. Then how could they exist in the air? Medicine can help heal mind as well as body. When a man dies piecemeal, the soul does the like, for it does not gatherinto one place; and if it did, it would still be mortal, since it would gradually be dull.

Mind has a fixed place in the body and cannot exist apart. Body and mind exist only in union: the open air cannot hold the mind together so that it might function. The body rots when the spirit leaves it; because its foundations have been broken up by the dispersing of the spirit. A shock weakens the spirit even within the body; therefore, the spirit could not possibly exist outside the body. No one feels his soul issuing forth as through a hole from his throat. The mind has a fixed place, where alone it can exist. If the spirit is immortal, it must have the five senses. If the body is suddenly divided, the spirit is divided too; but that which can be divided is not immortal. (Examples from battle; the snake.)

If the spirit is immortal, why do we not remember an earlier existence? If the spirit were introduced at birth into the already completed body, it would not permeate it and grow with it; whereas, in fact, it penetrates every part of the body. If the spirit introduced from without were able to permeate the body, it would still be mortal, for that which permeates is dissolved. If seeds of spirit remain in the body, it is dissolved, and therefore mortal; if not, whence come the worms? Their spirits do not enter them from without; they do not hunt for bodies, ready-made, nor do they make them; why should they take the trouble?

Heredity is a proof that the mind is transmitted with body: if souls passed from body to body, characteristics in a species would vary. An immortal soul cannot change with a change of body. Even if human souls always passed into human bodies, they must change from old to young, and change implies death. Soul and body cannot grow together, unless they were born together.

And why should a soul wish to leave an old body? It is absurd to suppose a crowd of souls waiting for bodies. Each thing has its own appointed place, and mine cannot exist outside the body. The unit of mortal and immortal is impossible. What is everlasting must be solid and impenetrable, like the atoms, or intangible, like the void, or have no space around it, like the universe. The soul is subject to disease, therefore to death.

Death is nothing to us. We felt nothing before our death, we shall feel nothing after death. Even if the soul were to have sensation after separation from the body, that would be nothing to us. Nor even if these same atoms were combined anew as they are now, since there would be no memory. that which does not exist cannot feel. If a man resents the fate of his body after death, he imagines something of himself to survive. When a man dies, mourners say that he is deprived of life‘s choices, forgetting that he will not miss them. If the dead man is at rest, why mourn forever? Men lament the loss of sensual pleasures after death, forgetting that in death there is no longing for such pleasures or anything else.

Death is of less concern to us than sleep. Nature might thus reproach the discontented: “Ifyou have been happy, why not depart with contentment? If not, why seek to prolong life?Nothing new awaits you.” An old man lamenting is still more ugly. He should depart and make room for others. There is no fear in the thought of death. No Tantalus is tormented in Acheron; he is to be found in this life, the prey of superstition. Thyisos is the victim of passion; Sisyphus, the ambitious man ever disappointed; the Danaeids, those who are never content. Cerberus, the Furies and Tartarus are the guilty conscience and the fear of retribution. Think how many of died before you; kings, warriors, wise men, poets, philosophers. Will you fear to die, you who are all but dead already? Men are restless and weary, and try to flee from themselves; but only philosophy can help them. What is this craving for life? There’s nothing new to expect. And nothing can diminish the time when we shall be no more.

Book IV

The cause of vision. Images or films are thrown off from the surface of things. Arguments for the existence of films: smoke and heat are discharged from certain things; crickets and snakescast their skins, calves their caul, from the surface; and a thin, external film would meet with less resistance. Color indeed we see to be thrown off from the surface, just as we assume things in general do. Mirrors and the like throw back these films unchanged. These images are unsurpassed in fineness. Other images are formed in the air, as we see clouds taking the shape of monsters, or mountains, or the like. The images are formed very swiftly; they pass through glass, but are broken up by wood or other rough or solid things. Smooth and compact surfaces throw them back whole, so swiftly that there must be a continuous stream of such images. See also how swiftly the sun sends forth his lights, and how swiftly clouds form.

The speed of the images. Light and small things in general move swiftly; since particles sent forth from within things move so swiftly, those which come from the surface must move much more swiftly; indeed, we see their speed when the sky is reflected in the water in an instant in time. Similar effects are produced in touch, taste, and hearing by other influences. Touch and sight are moved by a like cause. These images are scattered everywhere; they enable us to judge distance. All this is very swift. We cannot perceive the single image any more than the single particles of wind or cold, or all the parts of a stone. We see the image beyond the mirror, as we see through a door; first, the air this side of the door touches our eyes, then the door, then the outside air, then the things seen. So with the mirror. The mirror reverses the image, because the image is thrown back straight. Images may be reflected from mirror to mirror, changing sides each time. But mirrors with concave sides return images the right way. Why the image seems to keep step with us. 

Problems of vision. Bright objects burn the eyes because they contain seeds of fire. A jaundiced person sees yellow, because yellow seeds from his body mingle with the images. We see from the dark what is in the light, because the light air comes last; but not the opposite, because the dark air comes last. Square buildings seen at a distance look round, because the angles of the images are rubbed off in passing through the air. Our shadow seems to follow us, because we hide the light as we move. Not the eyes are deceived in all this, but the mind. So when a moving ship seems to stand still, and the surroundings to move; the stars seem to be still; separated mountains seem to be joined; the room seems to revolve; the rising sun seems to touch the mountains; the sky seems to be contained in a puddle; a horse standing in the river seems to move sideways; a colonnade seems to vanish in a point; the sun seems to rise and set in the sea or seems to be broken back in water; the stars seem to move behind the clouds; pressure on one eye makes things seem double; in sleep we seem to move, see, hear, speak. In all such cases, the senses are true, but the mind is deceived.

What is the criterion of truth, if not the senses? Reasoning, which rests on the senses,cannot refute the senses; one sense cannot refute another, nor can the senses refute themselves. It is better to allow that reasoning may be at fault than to break up the foundations of reason in life. Reasoning based on false senses is like a house built in accordance with false calculations.

The other senses. Hearing is caused by sound striking the sense. Sound is bodily because it strikes the sense, because it scrapes the gullet, because a long speech weakens the body. Rough elements make their voice rough, smooth, smooth. The sound issuing is shaped by tongue and lips. Words lose their shape by passing through the air. One sound is dispersed into many; for many are heard, and much still is wasted, or beaten back. Hence comes the echo, which causes the tales of Satyrs and Nymphs. Sounds pass where eyes cannot see, because they can pass through tortuous passages while images cannot, because one sound is dispersed into many, while images go straight.

Taste is caused because particles of food are squeezed out in the mouth and distributed through the pores of the palate. Smooth particles are pleasant, rough unpleasant. But in the belly, there is no taste. Different foods are good for different creatures; because there are many different seeds in the food, and the channels also are different shapes. So what suits one does not suit another; and taste differs in health and sickness with the same person.

So smell is caused by streams of particles which enter the nostrils, and their different shapes affect different creatures differently. Smell does not travel as far as sound or images, because it is admitted with difficulty; it is made of larger elements.

Sights also affect different creatures differently. Thus lions fear the sight of a cock because he emits particles which hurt the lions’ eyes.

The mind moves in all directions, and often combine images; hence the mind sees monsters and ghosts. No real Centaur ever existed. The mind sees images, just as the eye does, but the images are thinner. It is the same in sleep, but memory cannot serve our judgment. Apparent movement is caused by a succession of images. 

Questions suggested: How can the mind think of whatever it wishes? How can images seem to move? A great variety of images is ready at any given time; but the mind sees only those which it intends, and once begun, they go on in series. Attention is important when we are awake, beware of false deductions. Images often change in sleep. A warning: do not suppose that senses and limbs were made for a use; they came first, their use after. They differ from instruments made by man. Living bodies seek food to replace their waste; drink quenches the inward parching. 

Motion. An image of movement strikes the mind; then comes the will to move, the mind strikes the spirit, the spirit strikes the body, which moves, aided by the air in the opening pores. We know that small things do move great things.

Sleep. Part of the spirit leaves the body, part is withdrawn into the depth; and the body relaxes.If all left the body, it would die. Sleep comes about thus. The outside air is always buffeting the body, against the inner air. When we breathe; the result is disorder. Part of the spirit is ejected,the heart receives within, and the limbs unsupported relax. Food produces the same effect. In sleep, the mind dreams of the interest of the day; sometimes even when awake. Horses also dream of their races, dogs of the chase or their watching, birds of being pursued; so men of their very interests. Some even betray their secrets.

Sexual desire. How to avoid its snares. Love is mixed with pain. It is never satisfied. All is vanity. The frenzy ever returns. This consumes the strength and wastes the substance. True torment of conscience and jealousy. Unsuccessful love is worse still; therefore avoid the beginnings. Love deludes the lover and makes him praise his mistress for her faults. Women are really all alike, and they hide their imperfections. Women’s passions are not always feigned. Why children are like either parent, or some ancestor.

Incompatibility in marriage causes barren-ness. A change of partners may remove it. The importance of food and coital position. Erotic movements are undesirable for wives. Habit breeds love.

Book V

The divine discoveries of Epicurus are more precious than corn or wine or the feats of Hercules, as purging the mind of delusions and vices is the greatest feat of all. I follow in his footsteps, and teach the laws of nature. I must show next that the world is mortal; explaining how animals first arose on earth, then man, how speech and religion first began, and how the worlds are ruled without God. This visible world one day will be destroyed—a new idea, but one to be proved by reasoning.

It is not impious to believe that the world is not divine. The parts of the world are not even one; for the mind needs appropriate bodies in order to exist, and apart from flesh and blood there can be none. It cannot exist in earth, fire, water, or air. The gods have no abode in the world; their abodes, like their bodies, are attenuated. They did not make the world for man; what profit could it bring to them, or to us? Whence could they have got the idea? All has come about by the movements of the atoms.

Even if it were not so, the world is too faulty to be of divine origin. Two-thirds of it are useless to man; of the rest, much is wild; and without hard labor, all would be full of weeds.Look at wild beasts, and disease, and the helplessness of the child compared with the young of other animals.

The world is mortal. The parts which compose the world are mortal, therefore the whole is mortal, diminishing and increasing before your eyes. You see rivers flowing into the sea. Air also changes by absorption and discharge. The sun is forever sending forth its rays, to fail and perish – and ever needing to bring up new supplies. The interruption of light shows that it comes in a stream. Even stones are worn away in time. If the encompassing sky diminishes and increases, it is immortal.

The world is young, and still developing. See the progress of arts and sciences. Legends of flood and fire, if you believe them, prove the Earth’s mortality. What is everlasting must be solid and impenetrable, like the atoms, or intangible, like the void, or have no space around it, like the universe; but the world is none of these, therefore it is mortal. The war of the elements may one day cease by the victory of one; partial victories are recorded in legend, of fire and of water.

The world arose not by design, but by chance congress of atoms. Once it was without form, a confused mass, then particles assorted themselves; those of earth to the bottom, squeezing out those of water, those of air and fire rising aloft. Thence came the sky, sun and moon; the Earth and sea sinking and being compacted by blows, until the elements were arranged as we see them.

Astronomical phenomena. Motions of the celestial bodies. The whole sky may move, driven by currents of air; the celestial bodies may move, driven by currents of ether within the sky, or by currents of air from without, or by desire for food. Which of these causes prevails in our world is uncertain. Earth is at rest in the middle, forming an organic whole with the atmosphere. Comparison with the limbs; the Earth shares its shocks with the atmosphere; the soul and body similarly intermingle.

The sun is about the same size as we see, as fires at a distance do not diminish. So is the moon, since its outline is not blurred. So the stars also. How can so small a sun emit so much light? Perhaps it is like a fountain of fire; perhaps it kindles elements of fire as it meets the air; perhaps it has invisible heat around it. The courses of the sun, moon, and stars. It may be that each is moved by the whirling sky, the faster the further away from earth. This would explain why the moon seems to move backwards through the signs. Or steady currents of air may move them, varying in direction, as we see with clouds. Night comes because the sun is put out each day, or because he travels under the Earth. Dawn comes either because the sunsends rays before him, or because his fires gradually collect, as other things are made at fixed times, the causes being constant, and the effects following. The varying length of day and night is caused either because the sun‘s curves vary in proportion above and below the Earth, until they become equal at the equinox, or because the air is thicker sometimes and delays him; or because at certain seasons his fire is gathered more slowly. The moon may shine with reflected light, varying according to her position against the sun; or with her own light, obscured by the passing of a satellite, or having a light half and dark half which faces us as she revolves; or fresh moons may be made daily in succession, like the succession of the seasons. In a solar eclipse the sun may be obscured by the passage of the moon or some unseen body; or certain regions may choke his light. In a lunar eclipse the moon may be obscured by the Earth, or some other body, or certain regions may choke her light.

The infancy of the earth, and its growth. First came herbs and trees, then living creatures, by different processes. The Earth is mother of all; even now she spontaneously generates living creatures, and in her youth, she produced more and larger animals; birds came first, thenmammals emerged from wombs growing from the Earth and were nourished by a milky liquid from her veins; the Earth gave them food, warmth, and a bed. So she is deservedly called mother, but she came to the end of her bearing, and cannot do what she once did. Many deformed and defective beings were at first produced, which could not propagate their kind, because they did not suit their surroundings. Many kinds perished, because they could not protect themselves or win men’s protection. But there were never monsters made of different species, for animals have different rates of growth, different habits, and taste; just as there were never rivers of gold, or giants. Certain laws were always fixed.

Men were harder than they are now. They did not toil the soil, but fed on what nature provided. They drank from rivers and springs. They had no fire or clothing, no society or law, no rules of marriage. They hunted game, and slept on the ground, not fearing the darkness. But they were in fear of wild beasts. They were then more in danger from these than they are now; but not from battle or shipwreck. They died of hunger, but not of overeating; they poisoned themselves unwittingly, but not deliberately.

Growth of civilization. Huts, skins, fire, marriage, family, life, friendship, and covenants. Language was not invented arbitrarily, but developed from natural sounds such as other animals than man used to express their feelings. (Examples: dogs, horses, birds.) Fire came first from lightning, or the friction of trees. The sun taught cooking. Great men founded society; kings allotted possessions according to merit, until gold was discovered, which caused ambition for power, which is all vanity. Kings were slain, magistrates were appointed, and men, weary of fighting, gladly obeyed laws. Fear of punishment makes it impossible for a wrongdoer to be happy.

Religion. Men have visions of gods, especially in sleep. To the gods they attributed the ordering of the heavens, and the regular return of the seasons, being ignorant of their true causes. Thereby they caused great misery to themselves. True piety is not seen in the ceremonial, but in understanding and peace of mind. Ignorance causes doubt and fear, when the thunders roar, the tempests explode, and the Earth trembles.

Metals were discovered by accident, when some forest fire had melted them into very shapes. Men melted them and mold them into tools; then bronze was worth more than gold, but that has changed now. Bronze came before iron. Horses were used for riding before chariots came up. The Carthaginians first used elephants in war. Bulls, bears, and lions were also tried in battle, but these proved to be useless. Indeed, it is hard to believe that experiments with these beasts were actually made.

Plaited garments were used before woven stuffs were made, and men did the weaving before they left it to women. Nature herself taught them how to sow and graft. Men learned the art of cultivation by degrees. By imitating the birds, they learned to sing, then invented the instruments of music, to delight their leisure with jest and merry dance. The musical performance of the early man gave us as much pleasure as the accomplished playing of watchmen today.

Men’s present possessions give pleasure until something superior is discovered. Acorns and skins were discarded for new food and dress; but whatever they are worth, wealth brought war with it, and men always labor for vanities, being ignorant of the limited rewards of worldly possessions compared with true pleasure. Sun and moon taught them the seasons of the year. By degrees they developed fortified towns, division of lands, navigation, international treaties, letters, poetry, and all the arts of life, which are continually progressing onwards.

Book VI 

Athens produced not only corn, and laws, but Epicurus, the discover of truth, who saw how to cleanse the minds of men and freed them from unnecessary fears.

The sky. I am now to speak of the sky, and what happens there; which men ascribe to the gods. Such errors are great; to avoid them, we must know the causes of these things. 

Thunder is heard when clouds crash together; they may flap and tear, or scrape their sides.Thunder also occurs when wind is enclosed in a cloud and bursts; or when wind blows through ragged clouds, or rends them, or the cloud waves roar, or lightning falls on a wet cloud and hisses, or in a dry cloud and burns it up. Rattling hail also makes a din. Lightning is struck out by collision of clouds. Why the lightning is seen before the thunder is heard. Lightning occurs also when wind enclosed in a cloud grows hot by its own movement and, bursting the cloud scatters fire. In masses of cloud we can see the winds trying to escape. Or again it is squeezedout when clouds are crushed together, or fails as they grow thin.

Thunderbolts are made of the most refined fire, which has strange effects. I will explain their power. They are produced when clouds are piled thick and high; what we see is the lowest part of a tall heap. They are full of the seeds of fire, which the whirling wind collects, and sharpens the thunderbolt in that fire. When it is ready, the wind drives it forth with noise and rain. Or wind splits a cloud from without; or it takes fire by moving, or strikes out fire by a blow, like flint and iron. The speed of a thunderbolt comes from its first impulse; and it consists of small and smooth elements; the impulse to its weight doubles the speed, which increases with the distance. It passes through the pores of many things, without harm, but melts bronze and gold.Autumn and spring are the commonest times for thunderbolts; for then heat fights with cold, and there is confusion. This is the nature of the thunderbolt; it is no supernatural thing. For if the gods cast thunderbolts, why do they not strike the guilty instead of the innocent? Why do they waste their labor, are they practicing? Why does Jupiter not cast a bolt from the clear sky? Why does he strike the sea? Does he wish us to avoid the blow, or not? How can he strike in so many directions at once? Why does he strike temples and mountain-tops?

Waterspouts are columns that descend from the sky, driven by a wind which cannot burst acloud; finally it bursts and makes the sea boil. Or a vortex of wind gathers clouds about it. Clouds gather when flying particles become tangled, and the cluster thus increases. They are seen especially about mountain tops. Many particles arise from sea, rivers, and earth; and the ether drives them down. Some also come into the sky from outside the world.

Rain is caused because moisture rises to the clouds, which becoming soaked discharges it downwards by pressure of the wind, and by their own weight; or when they become thin, melted by the sun’s heat. Violent showers and prolonged rains. When the sun shines upon the rain, the rainbow appears. Snow, wind, hail, frost, ice could all be understood by understanding their elements. 

The Earth. First, earthquakes. There are caverns, pools, and rivers beneath the surface of the earth, and internal collapses caused the whole to tremble. Or it may be blasts of wind, violently blowing forwards and backwards. Sometimes again a wind bursts out of the Earth, leaving a great chasm wherein entire cities are swallowed up. If the wind fails to burst out, it makes the Earth tremble. (Who could then believe that the Earth is everlasting?)

Why the sea does not increase; the water that comes in is a mere drop in the ocean, and much is drawn off by sun and wind and clouds, or oozes through the Earth. Eruption of Etna. If you remember the immensity of the universe, you will cease to wonder many things. Just as the world contains many seeds which cause diseases among men, so the universe contains many elements which cause natural upheavals in the world. Though Etna eruptions are vast, our whole world is nothing compared to the universe. Explanation of the phenomenon: there are caverns beneath; and when the wind has grown hot in these, it bursts out through the mountain’s throat. Sand and stones are washed in beneath by the sea and mixed up and thence cast forth.

We often mention many possible causes, when only one is the true cause. The Nile rises in summer either because Eteian winds blow the water back, or because sand blocks up the mouth, or because at the source there is rain or melted snow. The Avernian lakes, fatal to birds, as at a place in Syria, where beasts fall down, have natural causes, and are not the gates of Orcus.

For the Earth contains elements of all sorts, both wholesome and poisonous. Hence the noxious effects of certain trees, of a light snuffed out, of castor, a hot bath after a meal, the smell of charcoal, wine and fever, Mephitic vapors; so poison must rise in some places. Sometimes there may be an empty space in the air, which gives no support to wings. Wells and springs. Water in wells is cold in the summer, because the Earth dispenses its heat into the air, in winter, the Earth congealed presses its heat into the wells. A spring by the shrine of Jupiter Ammon is cold by day and hot by night; because the Earth is there porous, and contracting by night presses its heat into the spring; but when the sun opens the pores of the Earth, the heat returns to the Earth. The sun also shakes the water and makes it porous. There is another spring where a force drives out the seeds of heat, as a force drives up freshwater through saltwater. Other things kindle at a distance from the flame.

The magnet. Many principles must be established as a preliminary to the explanation. There was a continual discharge of particles from everything, which affects the senses. All things are porous, being body mixed with void; as we see in rocks, the human body, metals, walls, the encompassing heavens. But these particles did not affect everything in the same way. (Examples: the sun, fire, water, wild, olives, margarine, dirt.) Different things have pores of different sizes and shapes.

Now as to the magnet. An empty space is made between stone and iron, and the ring falls into it as a hole. The air that is behind pushes it forward beating from without and penetrating within the magnet, sometimes repels as with iron filings and a bronze bowl, the bronze particles having filled the pores in the iron first. Some things are unaffected by the magnet; but iron is driven away only when bronze particles have come in first. Other things have affinity; stones and mortar, wood and bowl-glue, wine and water, sea-purple and wool, gold and gold-glue, bronze and tin. We need not mention all; where fullness and emptiness correspond, there is the best conjunction. 

Disease. Noxious seeds gather and corrupt the air, or arise from the Earth. Each climate has its own danger; see Egypt, Attica, Achaea. The plague creeps through the air and falls on our water or food, or hovers in the air we breathe. Cows and sheep also are attacked.  

An example is the great plague of Athens. It came from Egypt. The symptoms of body and mind: the surface of the body did not feel too hot, but the internal parts were on fire. Attempts failed to relieve the heat and thirst. Medicine was useless. Symptoms of approaching death:death usually occurred in eight or nine days. If any escaped, he still suffered, or lost his extremities or his memory. Birds and beasts would not touch the corpses, or they also died. The most pitiable thing was the despair of the sick. The neglectful perished, but the careful no less. No one was unaffected by the disaster. The disease ravaged country as well as town. The country people flocked into the city; piles of bodies lay everywhere, even in the temples. The gods and customary modes of burial were neglected.

[Here the poem abruptly stops.]