Introduction
by Richard Jenkyns
#Epicureanism--"a strict materialism, which denies the existence of anything magical, mysterious or transcendent."
[Greeks of the 8th to 5th centuries] discovered that fact is different from fiction and that history is different from myth, that theology and philosophy are different ways of talking about the world, and that each of these is different from natural science. #differentiation.
The dominant tradition of Western philosophy descending from Socrates/Plato/Aristotle tells us to look inwards and work out the nature of reality within our own minds by a process of abstract reasoning. Epicurus held that natural science is the route to philosophical understanding, and his system...can be seen as a revival of an older tradition of Greek thought. [See Empedocles below]
Epicurus begins not with abstract cogitation but with the external world:
- All matter is made up of small indivisible particles - atoms- and that nothing exists but atoms and empty space. (includes mind and soul; death is simply a dissolution of atoms)
- All events and processes are merely the effects of the movement of atoms. All existence is material; everything that exists is part of nature, and therefor there can be no supernatural realm. (No providential being/force)
- No one can rationally pursue anything other than his own pleasure (but we should try to moderate them as far as our nature allows. (Not a flagrant hedonism)
- All pleasures of the senses are inferior to abstract pleasures as friendship and philosophical contemplation.
- The goal of Stoicism was apatheia, or not feeling.
- The goal of Epicureanism was ataraxia, or not being disturbed.
***According to Lucretius, everything that happens has the same essential cause. Every action, all creation and all destruction are alike the product of the push and pull of atoms
Empedocles, another Greek (pre-Socratic?) believed that the universe was governed by an interplay between two forces: Love versus Strife.
Love symbolized/associated with Venus/Aphrodite
Strife symbolized/associated with Mars/Ares
Both it would seems are necessary for the world to flourish, without Love there would be no coherence or continuity, without Strife no activity or new creation. So Love and Strife need to be in balance or harmony.
Epicureanism/materialist philosophy appears to such the glory, wonder and mystery out of the world, and that as a philosophy of pleasure it was ignoble.
Lucretius' argument aims to show us that the teachings of Epicurus are true; the manner in which he puts that argument aims to show that they are also beautiful and lovable...by displaying as part of the beauty and diversity of the world the fact that everything has a fixed mother. [Lucretius'] metaphors of parenthood present everything that is, including ourselves, as part of a universal kinship. #cosmopolitan
"The great kinship of man with all mankind" - Marcus Aurelius
Meditations XII 23,26
What Lucretius has done is to bring the doctrines of Epicurus a disposition of mind more characteristic of the rival Stoics.
#Epicureanism: man can only rationally pursue our own pleasure. But the affection of parents and children for one another is a natural and instinctive pleasure, rooted in our animal being. Once we come to love the world as members of a family love one another, we can explain, in Epicurean terms, how it can be rational for us to care for creatures other than ourselves; and we have a new cause to accept, and even in a way to desire, our own deaths.
Lucretius put the idea of salvation into the great poem...and finds safety within the individual, in the citadel of the soul. "The Nature of Things" is a didactic poem presented in a heroic manner.
Book I: Matter and Void
Superstition...Loomed over over mortal men, the first among them who dared raise
His Human eyes to her was Greek, the first man to withstand
her.
Neither the myths of gods, nor lightning bolts, nor threatening
thunder
Of heaven hindered him but, rather, all the more they fired
His mind's courage, so that he was the first man who desired
To break the close-barred gates of Nature down. The vital force
Of his intelligence prevailed, and he advanced his course
Far past the blazing bulwarks of the world, and roamed, the whole
Immeasurable Cosmos in his mind and in his soul.
~~~~
One thing I am concerned about: you might, as you commence
Philosophy, decide you see impiety therein,
And that the path you enter is the avenue to sin.
More often, on the contrary, it is Religion breeds
Wickedness and that has given rise to wrongful deeds...
~~~~
This dread, these shadows of the mind, must be swept away
Not by rays of the sun nor by the brilliant beams of day,
But by observing Nature and her laws. And this will lay
The warp out for us - her first principle: that nothing's brought
Forth by any supernatural power out of naught. ...
Nothing can be made from nothing.
~~~~
...Nature does not render anything to naught,
But she instead reduces everything that she has wrought
Back to its eternal particles again [atoms].
~~~~
These particles perforce are indestructible. Therefore
Nothing can be reduced to nothing,...
~~~~
Thus things that seem to perish utterly, do not. See how
Nature refashions one thing from another, and won't allow
A birth unless it's midwived by another's death.
~~~~
...Everything for which we have a name
Is either a quality of the two [matter or void], or a consequence of the same.
A quality is what, without obliterating shock,
Can never be separated and removed: as weight to rock. ...
Whatever comes and goes while natures stay unchanging, these
We rightly tend to term as 'consequences' or 'events'.
Nor does Time exist in its own right. But there's a sense
Derived from things themselves as to what's happened in the
past,
And what is here and now, and what will come about at last.
~~~~~
For any incident of history can be referred
To as a 'consequence' - of men or of where it occurred. ...
...done deeds have not separate entity
The way that matter does, nor can these deeds be said to be
In the selfsame way that void exists. But we can rightly class
Them as consequences of matter and the place they came to pass.
~~~~
Yet when it comes to fundamentals, they [Other philosophic schools of thought] meet their doom.
These men were giants; when they stumble, they have far to fall:
First, because they allow for motion with no void at all...[and]
...they don't provide
For any void to be mingled in their bodies. Second, because
They set no limit to the division of bodies, and no pause
To their decay, and utterly deny that there can be
A smallest particle;...
~~~~
In short, if the whole universe were fashioned from these four,
and everything dissolved back to these elements once more,
Why are they called the elements of things? Why not instead
Consider things their elements, and turn it on its head?
For they are born of one another, ever changing hue
And changing their entire natures with one another too.
~~~~
And thus you will gain knowledge, guided by a little labour,
For one thing will illuminate the next, and blinding night
Won't steal your way; all secrets will be opened to your sight,
One truth will illuminate another, as light kindles light.
Book II : The Dance of Atoms
...it's sweet to know from what misfortunes you are free. ...
But there is nothing sweeter than to dwell in the towers that rise
On high, serene and fortified with teachings of the wise....
The skirmishing of wits, the scramble for renown, the fight,
Each striving harder than the next, and struggling day and
night,
To climb atop a heap of riches and lay claim to might.
O miserable minds of men! O hearts that cannot see!
Beset by such great dangers and in such obscurity
You spend your lot in life! Don't you know it's plain
That all your nature yelps for is a body free from pain,
And, to enjoy pleasure, a mind removed from fear and care?
~~~~
In no way was the universe made by the power of God
For our sake, when the universe stands so profoundly flawed. ...
This is the point I shall establish for you in due course
That nothing physical can lift itself by its own force,
Nor can it drift up on its own, nor is it able to rise.
~~~~
Another basic principle you need to have a sound
Understanding of: when bodies fall through empty space
Straight down, under their own weight, at a random time and
place,
They swerve a little. Just enough swerve for you to call
It a change of course. Unless inclined to swerve, all things would fall
Right through the deep abyss like drops of rain...
Empty void cannot at any part or time withstand
Any object, but it must continually heed
Its nature and give way, so all things fall at equal speed,
Even though of differing weights, through the still void.
~~~~
Again, if every motion is connected, and we hold
New motions that arise, arise in due course from the old,
And atoms do not swerve a little and initiate
The kind of motion which in turn shatters the laws of fate,
But leave effect to follow cause inexorably forever,
Where does freewill come from that exists in every creature
The world over? Where do we get that freewill, wrenched away
From the fates, by which we proceeds to follow pleasure's
sway,
So that we swerve our motions not at a designated spot
And fixed time, but the very place we will it in our thought?
Without a doubt these motions have their beginning in the
whims
Of each, and from that Will these motions trickle into the limbs....
...it can follow that yearning of the mind,
And therefore our motion has its impetus in Thought, we find,
First arising from a whim of spirit, then travelling through
The flesh, and through the limbs. The same, however, is not true
When we lurch forward because we have received a mighty
shove
From someone else - it's clear then our whole mass is made to
move
And that our body's rushed ahead involuntarily
Until our freewill curbs it back throughout our limbs...
...there is something in our chest can fight back and can stand
Against it, making the mass of matter turn at its command
Throughout our body, and when that mass is spurred ahead, can
rein
It back into its place and settle it back down again.
Therefore, it's clear, the principle for atoms is the same:
There must be something else besides just weights and blows to
blame
Their movement on, from which our power of freewill arises.
~~~~
For touch - yes the power of the gods!- touch is the key
To all our physical sensations, whether a feeling be
Triggered by a foreign substance worming its way within
Or something born inside the body itself inflict a pain;
~~~~
But those who claim
What feels is made from sensate elements, and that the same
Holds true for sensate elements, that these in turn derive
Their ability to feel from smaller things that are alive,
These people, by making atoms soft [must make them mortal too],
For all sensation's fastened to the flesh, to living tissue
Sinews and veins, and since we note that these are soft, we see
They must be of a substance subject to mortality.
~~~~
Therefore sense can't be an attribute
of atoms! Again, if living beings can only be allowed
To have sensations if in turn their atoms are endowed
With feeling, what of atoms which compose the human race?
~~~~
Nor does Death demolish anything so utterly
That it annihilates the very atoms of its matter;
It only makes the combination of the same atoms scatter.
From these it joins one particle with another--this is how
All things transform their shape and alter their colour, now
Receiving sensation, and in an instant, yielding it up again.
That's how you know how much depends on the configuration
Of atoms, how they're held together, and in what position,
What motions they impart to one another or receive,
And that's the reason you should not mistakenly believe
Atoms permanently retain those qualities we see
Sliding across the surfaces of things, both suddenly
Coming into being and of a sudden passing away.
...for what really matters,
What makes a world of difference, is the arrangement of the
letters [atoms]. ...for when you rearrange
Atoms, their order, shapes and motions, then you also change
What they compose.
~~~~
Since empty space is limitless on all sides and the amount
Of atoms meandering in the measureless universe, past count,
All flitting about in many different ways, endlessly hurled
In restless motion, it is most unlikely that this world,
This sky and rondure of the earth, was made the only one,
All all those atoms outside of our world get nothing done;
Especially since this world is the product of Nature,
the happenstance
Of the seeds of things colliding into each other by pure chance
In every possible way, no aim in view, at random, blind,
Till sooner or later certain atoms suddenly combined...
~~~~
If you possess a firm grasp of these tenets, you will see
That Nature, rid of harsh taskmasters, all at once is free,
And everything she does, does on her own, so that gods play
No part.
From every direction, being drawn to what's the same;
Water adds to water, earth increase earth, and flame
Forges flame, air, air; till Nature, Maker of Things, brings each
To the zenith of its growth, the upper limit can reach...
But atoms must be entering in greater numbers still,
Until the object finally attains the pinnacle
Of growth. Then from that moment, little by little, over time,
Age breaks down the oak-strength and the vigour of its prime
And slide into decay...
It is therefore,
No wonder that things pass away, seeing how they become
Enfeebled by the ebb of atoms, and since all succumb
To outside blows.
~~~~
But those who claim
What feels is made from sensate elements, and that the same
Holds true for sensate elements, that these in turn derive
Their ability to feel from smaller things that are alive,
These people, by making atoms soft [must make them mortal too],
For all sensation's fastened to the flesh, to living tissue
Sinews and veins, and since we note that these are soft, we see
They must be of a substance subject to mortality.
~~~~
Therefore sense can't be an attribute
of atoms! Again, if living beings can only be allowed
To have sensations if in turn their atoms are endowed
With feeling, what of atoms which compose the human race?
~~~~
Nor does Death demolish anything so utterly
That it annihilates the very atoms of its matter;
It only makes the combination of the same atoms scatter.
From these it joins one particle with another--this is how
All things transform their shape and alter their colour, now
Receiving sensation, and in an instant, yielding it up again.
That's how you know how much depends on the configuration
Of atoms, how they're held together, and in what position,
What motions they impart to one another or receive,
And that's the reason you should not mistakenly believe
Atoms permanently retain those qualities we see
Sliding across the surfaces of things, both suddenly
Coming into being and of a sudden passing away.
...for what really matters,
What makes a world of difference, is the arrangement of the
letters [atoms]. ...for when you rearrange
Atoms, their order, shapes and motions, then you also change
What they compose.
~~~~
Since empty space is limitless on all sides and the amount
Of atoms meandering in the measureless universe, past count,
All flitting about in many different ways, endlessly hurled
In restless motion, it is most unlikely that this world,
This sky and rondure of the earth, was made the only one,
All all those atoms outside of our world get nothing done;
Especially since this world is the product of Nature,
the happenstance
Of the seeds of things colliding into each other by pure chance
In every possible way, no aim in view, at random, blind,
Till sooner or later certain atoms suddenly combined...
~~~~
If you possess a firm grasp of these tenets, you will see
That Nature, rid of harsh taskmasters, all at once is free,
And everything she does, does on her own, so that gods play
No part.
From every direction, being drawn to what's the same;
Water adds to water, earth increase earth, and flame
Forges flame, air, air; till Nature, Maker of Things, brings each
To the zenith of its growth, the upper limit can reach...
But atoms must be entering in greater numbers still,
Until the object finally attains the pinnacle
Of growth. Then from that moment, little by little, over time,
Age breaks down the oak-strength and the vigour of its prime
And slide into decay...
It is therefore,
No wonder that things pass away, seeing how they become
Enfeebled by the ebb of atoms, and since all succumb
To outside blows.
Book III: Mortality and the Soul
Of mind and spirit, and toss that Dread of Death out on its ear,
Since that's what stirs the lives of mortals into such turmoil
...For men say that illness or the loss of one's good name
Are more to be feared than death and the pit of Hell, and when
they claim
To know the essence of the soul is blood, or even air
If the fancy takes them, and our reason's something they can
spare,
Look to their actions--you will realize these things they crow
Are not beliefs they base on proven facts, but just for show.
~~~~
The more harsh that their hardships are, the harder they hold on
To superstition. To truly take the measure of a man,
You must observe him in the midst of trial and tribulation--
Then from the bottom of their hearts, men say what they believe:
The mask is torn away, and what remains cannot deceive.
~~~~
Compelled by an unfounded fear[of death], men, to evade such trouble,
Amass wealth by the blood of civil war, and they redouble
Their riches in their greed, heaping one murder on another.
Stone-hearted, they take pleasure in the sad death of a brother,
And are suspicious of the suppers served up by their kin.
Likewise, envy spring, from the self same fear, worries them thin...
Some fritter their lives away pursuing statues and a name.
Sometimes phobia of death can grip a man so tight
He comes to loathe his very life and looking on the light,
And in his mournful heart resolves to die by his own hand,
Oblivious this fear's source of what he cannot stand--
That this leads one to outrage honour, and to break ties
Of friendship, and in short overturn all loyalties.
[One can alleviate this fear] by observing nature's laws and looking on her face.
First of all, I say that what is called the intellect
Or mind, the seat of reason and the rudder to direct
Our lives, is part and parcel of a man...
A state the Greeks call "Harmony", and they claim it is this
Phenomenon that animates and gives us consciousness,
Although the mind in no particular organ can be found.
...In order that you understand that spirit, for a start,
Likewise seated in the flesh, and the ability
To feel does not come from the body's parts in harmony: ...
Thus since the nature of mind and spirit, as we learn,
Is basically a part of a human being--then
The name of "harmony"-a word that should belong by rights
To the musicians,...
...mind and spirit are bound up with one another,
And that together they combine to form a single nature.
But what heads the whole body and reigns over it like a king
is Judgement, which we also name the "mind" or "understanding",
And this keep its abode in the mid-region of the chest.
The mind is thoughtful by itself, rejoices on its own
When nothing agitates the flesh and spirit. Just as pains
Afflict our head or eyes, while all the rest of us remains
Free from torment, so the mind alone may suffer hurt...
...But if fear
More strongly jolts the mind, the spirit feels it too, it's clear,
All through the frames. Hence the entire body sweats and pales, ...
IN short, men often physically collapse beneath the sway
Of mental dread. From this it's easy for anyone to discern
That spirit's yoked to mind- for struck by the mind's power, in
turn,
The spirit strikes and drives the body forward. And we learn
By means of this same reasoning that the nature of the mind
And of the spirit is a physical one--...
Actions can be brought about only by means of touch.
And since what 'touches' must be material, isn't it true
That mind and spirit must be physical in nature too?
~~~~
...undertake to demonstrate to you what kind
Of material makes up the composition of the mind.
First, I assert the mind is delicate as it can be,...
...right when the peace of death has laid hold of a man
And mind and spirit retreat, inspect the body how you may,
You won't discover anything at all is taken away,
Neither in aspect nor in weight. For Death keeps the complete
Appearances of Life, except for vital sense and heat.
And therefore the whole soul consists of very tiny seeds...
For from the dying there escapes a slight breath mixed with heat,
while heat, in turn, must carry air along with it; for there
Is never any heat that is not also mixed with air.
Because heat's substance, being loose in texture, has to leave
Space for many seeds of air to travel through its weave.
This demonstrates the nature of the mind's at least threefold--
~~~~
Deep inside us; there is nothing deeper that abides
Within our bodies. It is the very soul of all the soul.
Just as, mingled in our limbs and bodies as a whole,
The force of mind and power of spirit lie hid from our view, ...
...this power with no name
Lies hidden, a sort of spirit of the spirit, and this same
Power furthermore holds its dominion over the frame.
~~~~
The mind too has a measure of hear--as when it seethes with ire, ...
...the mind possesses the tranquility of air,
When the heart's at peace, for instance, and the countenance is
fair.
~~~~
So too with men. Though education give them equal polish,
Still there are traces of their nature nothing can abolish.
Character flaws can't be uprooted--there will always be
One fellow who is more inclined to fall into fury. ...
The characters of men differ in many other respects
As well as those behaviors that the character affects...
Of inborn nature past the power of reason to erase,
That there is nothing that is fundamentally at odds
With living out our lives so they are worthy of the gods.
~~~~
This nature, then, is found throughout the body as a whole.
It is the body's sentinel, what keeps it sound. For soul
And body cling together with common roots, and so we see
The two cannot be wrenched apart without calamity. ...
So it is hard to extricate the spirit and the mind
From flesh with undoing everything that's left behind--
~~~~
...But do this favor for me just the same,
And yoke both of these concepts underneath a single name,
So that, say, when I speak of spirit, teaching that it dies,
Understand I am referring to the mind likewise,
Seeing that a single soul is formed out of their union.
~~~~
The living mind is mortal, since whoever wants to change
The mind or any other substance has to rearrange
The organization of its structure...
But what's immortal does not suffer any new
Arrangement of its members, nor can it be added to,
Neither can even one iota of it flow away. ...
Therefore, if the mind can sicken, or if it can be
Affected by a drug, that's proof of its mortality,...
~~~~
Flesh and spirit are both mortal--that much is decided,
Since both can be cut into many pieces and divided.
And if the nature of the soul's immortal, and it creeps
Into the body as we're born, why is it no one keeps
A memory of time before, why can't we bring to mind
The deeds that we have done, why do they leave no trace
behind? ...
Therefore you must admit that what it was has passed away,
And that which it is presently has been created fresh.
~~~~
Even within our bodies a fixed and separate place for mind
And spirit to grow and dwell, all the more reason to deride
The thought they could arise and could endure somehow
outside.
Thus when the body is destroyed, you must admit the soul
Passes away, shredded through the body as a whole.
~~~~
Then Death is nothing to us; it concerns us not a jot,
Seeing we hold the mind is mortal....
So when the bond is put asunder between body and soul,
The two from which we are composed into a single whole,
Nothing can befall us, we who shall no longer be.
~~~~
...For when you cast
Your gaze back over the whole immeasurable span of ages
past, and consider matter's motions, a diversity so vast,
It's easy to believe that these same seeds of which we're made
In the here and now have in the past been frequently arrayed...
~~~~
Therefore, that Death is absolutely nothing we need to fear,
And that he who is not cannot be wretched or forlorn.
What can it matter to the man that he was even born
Once Deathless Death despoils him and his mortal life is shorn?
~~~~
For having as much of Life's rewards as you could reap,
You wither, but since you lust for what you don't have, and hold
cheap
What is at hand, Life, wasted and unfulfilled, slipped through
your fingers.
~~~~
And they, when life is through, shall follow you into the grave,
As those that came before, no less than you, wave after wave.
Thus one thing rises from another--it will never cease.
No one is given life to own; we all hold but a lease.
~~~~
There doesn't exist, as in the tale, a pitiful Tantalus
Who stands afraid, frozen to the spot from empty dread
Beneath a huge rock dangling in the air above his head.
But, rather, in life it's vain fear of the gods that hangs above
Mortals and downfalls of Chance they live in terror of.
~~~~
And Sisyphus exists in life, right here before our eyes:
The man consumed with seeking the accouterments of office
From the people, who always come back sad and beaten. To be
driven
To seek power--an illusion after all-- which is never given,
And undergo endless hard toil in striving for it still
This is the act of struggling to shove a stone uphill.
~~~~
...the Conscience fears its misdeeds, and it applies
Goads and floggings to itself, neither does it surmise,
Meanwhile, that there can be, to all its sufferings, an end,
Nor, at length, a final limit to its punishment,
So it dreads these same oppressions will grow weightier with
death,
Until, at last, the life of fools becomes a Hell on Earth.
~~~~
Thus in each way man is running from himself, yet still
Because he clings to that same self, although against his will,
And clearly can't escape from it, he loathes it; for he's ill
But doesn't grasp the cause of his disease....
It's his condition for all time--not for one hour--at stake,
The state in which all mortals should expect themselves to be
After death, for the remainder of eternity.
~~~~
The life of mortals has a limit set to it, my friend.
Death has no loopholes. All of us must meet it in the end.
We go through the same motions in the same old place. No
measure
Of added life will ever could for us a novel pleasure.
True, while we lack that which we long for, it is an obsession,
But we will just crave something else once it's in our possession;
We are forever panting with an unquenched thirst for life.
No one knows what the years to come will bring--what joy or
strife
May lie in store for us, what outcome's looming in our lot.
But by adding on to life, we don't diminish by one jot
The length of death, nor are we able to subtract instead
Anything to abbreviate the time that we are dead.
Though you outlive as many generations as you will,
Nevertheless, Eternal Death is waiting for you still.
It is no shorter, that eternity that lies in store
For the man who with the setting Sun today will rise no more,
Than for the man who sun has set months, even years, before.
He [a sceptic] doesn't even know the fact, since he is the first to own
That he knows nothing!...
For sense he's never put faith in the sensory world before,
How does he even know what knowing is, or furthermore,
Not-knowing? What forms his notion of the false or of the true,
What evidence has proved the difference between the two?
You'll find the concept of the true is formed and has its root
In the senses, their testimony such that no one can refute.
For their must be a higher court to which you can appeal,
That on its own can disprove what is false by what is real.
Beside, on what except the senses can you more rely?
Shall reason, based on the senses' false witness, testify
Against those very senses out of which it's wholly sprung?
For if the senses are untrue, all reasoning is wrong....
Each sense has a function to perform,
A separate jurisdiction....
So one sense can't disprove that which another sense propounds.
Nor can these senses testify against themselves; they must
Be granted at all times an equal measure of trust.
Thus what they say is true, at any given time, is true.
~~~~
Lastly, in construction, if the carpenter's rule is bent,
Or if the square is warped on which we base our measurement,
Or if the level anywhere staggers off by even a jot,
All of the structure must be built on crooked lines, the lot
Ramshackle, tumble-down, walls leaning out or in, and all
Out of whack....
And all because it was betrayed
By faulty measurements when its foundation was being laid.
Likewise your reasoning concerning things is built askew
If founded on sensations that are off from plumb and true.
~~~~
That we behold him in the flesh, when we see in our dreams
A man fled from this life, and in the power of death and dust.
But there's a natural explanation: sense all sensation must
Be lying checked and listless in the limbs, it can't appeal
Against the witness of the False by evidence of the Real.
Besides, the Memory lying lax in sleep cannot avow
The fellow's long been in the grip of grave and death by now,
Whom the mind itself believes that it beholds alive and well.
~~~~
When the mind desires to picture something, why
Is it able to see it right away?-->
There exist many further divisions of Time lurking still
(The mind grasps this), and that is why at any time you will,
All images are ready to hand where you are--so fast
Is the speed at which they fly, and the supply of things so vast.
Thus, when one image passes away, the next that rises whose
A different stance, and so the first one seems to change its pose.
And since they are so find, the mind cannot perceive them clear
Unless it makes an effort. Thus, all of them disappear
Except the images the mind has geared itself to see.
Yes , the mind prepares itself, and looks expectantly
For the image that comes next. And therefore, come the image
does.
~~~~
For nothing is born just so that we can use it--in due course,
That which is born just so that we can use it--in due course,
That which is born creates its own use.
~~~~
first, an image of walking comes into the mind,
And strikes it, as I've said before. Desire follows. You'll find
That no one starts to undertake a single act until
The mind has decided that it will.
Whatever thing the mind foresees, there is an image of.
And therefore when the mind rouses itself and wants to move
And walk, it stirs the whole force of the spirit scattered through...
Seeing that spirit and the mind so closely intermesh.
And spirit in turn prods the body, so all the mass of flesh
Is pushed ahead and moved little by little.
~~~~
[sleep/dream?]
First, sleep occurs when the spirits, force is scattered through the
frame--
So that some parts are cast abroad, and some parts of it keep
Within, crowded together more, retreating way down deep--
And only then do the limbs relax and slacken. For it's clear
This consciousness we have must come within the spirit's sphere.
So that when deep disrupts this consciousness, we must decide
The spirit has been scrambled up and expelled outside--
~~~~
[Love]
For though your love be absent, still the images remain,
the darling name of the beloved ringing in your ear.
~~~~
Nor does the man who gives the slip to Love lack for its fruit;
Rather, he enjoys it without penalty or pain:
Pleasures unalloyed not for the lovesick, but the sane.
~~~~
But Venus makes their suffering light
In the midst of love, and Pleasure, mingled in, curbs back the
bite.
For herein lies the hope: they think that they can quench the fire
By means of the same body that ignited their desire,
Something Nature contradicts with all her might. For love
Is unique: the more we have of it, the more it's not enough,
And the more calamitous desire sets the heart aflame.
~~~~
Nor is the power of a god to blame, nor Venus' dart,
When, from time to time, a plain girl steals somebody's heart.
Sometimes it is the woman herself who has achieved this feat;
By winning ways , and keeping her dress and person clean and neat,
She makes it easy to learn to live with her. And yet above
All this, it is a familiarity that leads to love.
For anything that's hammered by as blow, day after day,
However softly struck, at length is conquered and gives way.
Haven't you seen how drops of water falling, on their own
Have the power, over time, to wear their way through stone?
Compelled by an unfounded fear[of death], men, to evade such trouble,
Amass wealth by the blood of civil war, and they redouble
Their riches in their greed, heaping one murder on another.
Stone-hearted, they take pleasure in the sad death of a brother,
And are suspicious of the suppers served up by their kin.
Likewise, envy spring, from the self same fear, worries them thin...
Some fritter their lives away pursuing statues and a name.
Sometimes phobia of death can grip a man so tight
He comes to loathe his very life and looking on the light,
And in his mournful heart resolves to die by his own hand,
Oblivious this fear's source of what he cannot stand--
That this leads one to outrage honour, and to break ties
Of friendship, and in short overturn all loyalties.
[One can alleviate this fear] by observing nature's laws and looking on her face.
First of all, I say that what is called the intellect
Or mind, the seat of reason and the rudder to direct
Our lives, is part and parcel of a man...
A state the Greeks call "Harmony", and they claim it is this
Phenomenon that animates and gives us consciousness,
Although the mind in no particular organ can be found.
...In order that you understand that spirit, for a start,
Likewise seated in the flesh, and the ability
To feel does not come from the body's parts in harmony: ...
Thus since the nature of mind and spirit, as we learn,
Is basically a part of a human being--then
The name of "harmony"-a word that should belong by rights
To the musicians,...
...mind and spirit are bound up with one another,
And that together they combine to form a single nature.
But what heads the whole body and reigns over it like a king
is Judgement, which we also name the "mind" or "understanding",
And this keep its abode in the mid-region of the chest.
The mind is thoughtful by itself, rejoices on its own
When nothing agitates the flesh and spirit. Just as pains
Afflict our head or eyes, while all the rest of us remains
Free from torment, so the mind alone may suffer hurt...
...But if fear
More strongly jolts the mind, the spirit feels it too, it's clear,
All through the frames. Hence the entire body sweats and pales, ...
IN short, men often physically collapse beneath the sway
Of mental dread. From this it's easy for anyone to discern
That spirit's yoked to mind- for struck by the mind's power, in
turn,
The spirit strikes and drives the body forward. And we learn
By means of this same reasoning that the nature of the mind
And of the spirit is a physical one--...
Actions can be brought about only by means of touch.
And since what 'touches' must be material, isn't it true
That mind and spirit must be physical in nature too?
~~~~
...undertake to demonstrate to you what kind
Of material makes up the composition of the mind.
First, I assert the mind is delicate as it can be,...
...right when the peace of death has laid hold of a man
And mind and spirit retreat, inspect the body how you may,
You won't discover anything at all is taken away,
Neither in aspect nor in weight. For Death keeps the complete
Appearances of Life, except for vital sense and heat.
And therefore the whole soul consists of very tiny seeds...
For from the dying there escapes a slight breath mixed with heat,
while heat, in turn, must carry air along with it; for there
Is never any heat that is not also mixed with air.
Because heat's substance, being loose in texture, has to leave
Space for many seeds of air to travel through its weave.
This demonstrates the nature of the mind's at least threefold--
~~~~
Deep inside us; there is nothing deeper that abides
Within our bodies. It is the very soul of all the soul.
Just as, mingled in our limbs and bodies as a whole,
The force of mind and power of spirit lie hid from our view, ...
...this power with no name
Lies hidden, a sort of spirit of the spirit, and this same
Power furthermore holds its dominion over the frame.
~~~~
The mind too has a measure of hear--as when it seethes with ire, ...
...the mind possesses the tranquility of air,
When the heart's at peace, for instance, and the countenance is
fair.
~~~~
So too with men. Though education give them equal polish,
Still there are traces of their nature nothing can abolish.
Character flaws can't be uprooted--there will always be
One fellow who is more inclined to fall into fury. ...
The characters of men differ in many other respects
As well as those behaviors that the character affects...
Of inborn nature past the power of reason to erase,
That there is nothing that is fundamentally at odds
With living out our lives so they are worthy of the gods.
~~~~
This nature, then, is found throughout the body as a whole.
It is the body's sentinel, what keeps it sound. For soul
And body cling together with common roots, and so we see
The two cannot be wrenched apart without calamity. ...
So it is hard to extricate the spirit and the mind
From flesh with undoing everything that's left behind--
~~~~
...But do this favor for me just the same,
And yoke both of these concepts underneath a single name,
So that, say, when I speak of spirit, teaching that it dies,
Understand I am referring to the mind likewise,
Seeing that a single soul is formed out of their union.
~~~~
The living mind is mortal, since whoever wants to change
The mind or any other substance has to rearrange
The organization of its structure...
But what's immortal does not suffer any new
Arrangement of its members, nor can it be added to,
Neither can even one iota of it flow away. ...
Therefore, if the mind can sicken, or if it can be
Affected by a drug, that's proof of its mortality,...
~~~~
Flesh and spirit are both mortal--that much is decided,
Since both can be cut into many pieces and divided.
And if the nature of the soul's immortal, and it creeps
Into the body as we're born, why is it no one keeps
A memory of time before, why can't we bring to mind
The deeds that we have done, why do they leave no trace
behind? ...
Therefore you must admit that what it was has passed away,
And that which it is presently has been created fresh.
~~~~
Even within our bodies a fixed and separate place for mind
And spirit to grow and dwell, all the more reason to deride
The thought they could arise and could endure somehow
outside.
Thus when the body is destroyed, you must admit the soul
Passes away, shredded through the body as a whole.
~~~~
Then Death is nothing to us; it concerns us not a jot,
Seeing we hold the mind is mortal....
So when the bond is put asunder between body and soul,
The two from which we are composed into a single whole,
Nothing can befall us, we who shall no longer be.
~~~~
...For when you cast
Your gaze back over the whole immeasurable span of ages
past, and consider matter's motions, a diversity so vast,
It's easy to believe that these same seeds of which we're made
In the here and now have in the past been frequently arrayed...
~~~~
Therefore, that Death is absolutely nothing we need to fear,
And that he who is not cannot be wretched or forlorn.
What can it matter to the man that he was even born
Once Deathless Death despoils him and his mortal life is shorn?
~~~~
For having as much of Life's rewards as you could reap,
You wither, but since you lust for what you don't have, and hold
cheap
What is at hand, Life, wasted and unfulfilled, slipped through
your fingers.
~~~~
And they, when life is through, shall follow you into the grave,
As those that came before, no less than you, wave after wave.
Thus one thing rises from another--it will never cease.
No one is given life to own; we all hold but a lease.
~~~~
There doesn't exist, as in the tale, a pitiful Tantalus
Who stands afraid, frozen to the spot from empty dread
Beneath a huge rock dangling in the air above his head.
But, rather, in life it's vain fear of the gods that hangs above
Mortals and downfalls of Chance they live in terror of.
~~~~
And Sisyphus exists in life, right here before our eyes:
The man consumed with seeking the accouterments of office
From the people, who always come back sad and beaten. To be
driven
To seek power--an illusion after all-- which is never given,
And undergo endless hard toil in striving for it still
This is the act of struggling to shove a stone uphill.
~~~~
...the Conscience fears its misdeeds, and it applies
Goads and floggings to itself, neither does it surmise,
Meanwhile, that there can be, to all its sufferings, an end,
Nor, at length, a final limit to its punishment,
So it dreads these same oppressions will grow weightier with
death,
Until, at last, the life of fools becomes a Hell on Earth.
~~~~
Thus in each way man is running from himself, yet still
Because he clings to that same self, although against his will,
And clearly can't escape from it, he loathes it; for he's ill
But doesn't grasp the cause of his disease....
It's his condition for all time--not for one hour--at stake,
The state in which all mortals should expect themselves to be
After death, for the remainder of eternity.
~~~~
The life of mortals has a limit set to it, my friend.
Death has no loopholes. All of us must meet it in the end.
We go through the same motions in the same old place. No
measure
Of added life will ever could for us a novel pleasure.
True, while we lack that which we long for, it is an obsession,
But we will just crave something else once it's in our possession;
We are forever panting with an unquenched thirst for life.
No one knows what the years to come will bring--what joy or
strife
May lie in store for us, what outcome's looming in our lot.
But by adding on to life, we don't diminish by one jot
The length of death, nor are we able to subtract instead
Anything to abbreviate the time that we are dead.
Though you outlive as many generations as you will,
Nevertheless, Eternal Death is waiting for you still.
It is no shorter, that eternity that lies in store
For the man who with the setting Sun today will rise no more,
Than for the man who sun has set months, even years, before.
Book IV: The Senses
As for the fellow who asserts that "nothing can be known", He [a sceptic] doesn't even know the fact, since he is the first to own
That he knows nothing!...
For sense he's never put faith in the sensory world before,
How does he even know what knowing is, or furthermore,
Not-knowing? What forms his notion of the false or of the true,
What evidence has proved the difference between the two?
You'll find the concept of the true is formed and has its root
In the senses, their testimony such that no one can refute.
For their must be a higher court to which you can appeal,
That on its own can disprove what is false by what is real.
Beside, on what except the senses can you more rely?
Shall reason, based on the senses' false witness, testify
Against those very senses out of which it's wholly sprung?
For if the senses are untrue, all reasoning is wrong....
Each sense has a function to perform,
A separate jurisdiction....
So one sense can't disprove that which another sense propounds.
Nor can these senses testify against themselves; they must
Be granted at all times an equal measure of trust.
Thus what they say is true, at any given time, is true.
~~~~
Lastly, in construction, if the carpenter's rule is bent,
Or if the square is warped on which we base our measurement,
Or if the level anywhere staggers off by even a jot,
All of the structure must be built on crooked lines, the lot
Ramshackle, tumble-down, walls leaning out or in, and all
Out of whack....
And all because it was betrayed
By faulty measurements when its foundation was being laid.
Likewise your reasoning concerning things is built askew
If founded on sensations that are off from plumb and true.
~~~~
That we behold him in the flesh, when we see in our dreams
A man fled from this life, and in the power of death and dust.
But there's a natural explanation: sense all sensation must
Be lying checked and listless in the limbs, it can't appeal
Against the witness of the False by evidence of the Real.
Besides, the Memory lying lax in sleep cannot avow
The fellow's long been in the grip of grave and death by now,
Whom the mind itself believes that it beholds alive and well.
~~~~
When the mind desires to picture something, why
Is it able to see it right away?-->
There exist many further divisions of Time lurking still
(The mind grasps this), and that is why at any time you will,
All images are ready to hand where you are--so fast
Is the speed at which they fly, and the supply of things so vast.
Thus, when one image passes away, the next that rises whose
A different stance, and so the first one seems to change its pose.
And since they are so find, the mind cannot perceive them clear
Unless it makes an effort. Thus, all of them disappear
Except the images the mind has geared itself to see.
Yes , the mind prepares itself, and looks expectantly
For the image that comes next. And therefore, come the image
does.
~~~~
For nothing is born just so that we can use it--in due course,
That which is born just so that we can use it--in due course,
That which is born creates its own use.
~~~~
first, an image of walking comes into the mind,
And strikes it, as I've said before. Desire follows. You'll find
That no one starts to undertake a single act until
The mind has decided that it will.
Whatever thing the mind foresees, there is an image of.
And therefore when the mind rouses itself and wants to move
And walk, it stirs the whole force of the spirit scattered through...
Seeing that spirit and the mind so closely intermesh.
And spirit in turn prods the body, so all the mass of flesh
Is pushed ahead and moved little by little.
~~~~
[sleep/dream?]
First, sleep occurs when the spirits, force is scattered through the
frame--
So that some parts are cast abroad, and some parts of it keep
Within, crowded together more, retreating way down deep--
And only then do the limbs relax and slacken. For it's clear
This consciousness we have must come within the spirit's sphere.
So that when deep disrupts this consciousness, we must decide
The spirit has been scrambled up and expelled outside--
~~~~
[Love]
For though your love be absent, still the images remain,
the darling name of the beloved ringing in your ear.
~~~~
Nor does the man who gives the slip to Love lack for its fruit;
Rather, he enjoys it without penalty or pain:
Pleasures unalloyed not for the lovesick, but the sane.
~~~~
But Venus makes their suffering light
In the midst of love, and Pleasure, mingled in, curbs back the
bite.
For herein lies the hope: they think that they can quench the fire
By means of the same body that ignited their desire,
Something Nature contradicts with all her might. For love
Is unique: the more we have of it, the more it's not enough,
And the more calamitous desire sets the heart aflame.
~~~~
Nor is the power of a god to blame, nor Venus' dart,
When, from time to time, a plain girl steals somebody's heart.
Sometimes it is the woman herself who has achieved this feat;
By winning ways , and keeping her dress and person clean and neat,
She makes it easy to learn to live with her. And yet above
All this, it is a familiarity that leads to love.
For anything that's hammered by as blow, day after day,
However softly struck, at length is conquered and gives way.
Haven't you seen how drops of water falling, on their own
Have the power, over time, to wear their way through stone?
Book V: Cosmos and Civilization
#ataraxia
~~~~
And yet what dangers threaten if the mind is not washed clear,
What battles we unwillingly invite into the heart!
How biting are desire's cares that worry man apart,
How menacing the fears! And then consider Pride and Wrath
And Lust--and catastrophes which are their aftermath--
And Gluttony and Sloth. And he who's conquered all these,
then
And banished them from the mind--not by the sword, but by the pen--
Shouldn't he be numbered with the gods and not with men?
Especially because of the holy wisdom he would preach.
~~~~
...For what could such immortal, blessed powers
Stand to gain from any lavish gratitude of ours
That they should lift a finger for us? Or what new thing
transpire
That could tempt beings so serene before to now desire
To change the life they had already? For if truth be told
Who revels in newfangledness is fed up with the old. ...
Who's never encountered any woe in all time hitherto,
Who lives a life of bliss? If we had never been created--
What would have been the harm to us? Am I to be persuaded
Our life lay cringing in a mire of misery and dark
Until the dawning of Creation lit us with its spark?
[the universe was not created for our sake; Lucretius does not refute the existence of gods, but is adamant that they would have nothing to do with the realm of Nature.]
~~~~
Thus you can know that things require an ever-renewed supply
Of light, because wave after wave of the previous shafts die,
And the only way things in the sun appear before our sight
Is they are ever replenished by that fountainhead of light.
~~~~
...Strife stirring skirmishes up amongst them, and
confusion,
A melee of different intervals, of ways, connections, motion
Weights, combinations, blows--because, due to the manifold
Shapes and forms of atoms, not every group of them could
hold
Their configuration or make motions that could work together.
Then life began to join with like, parts started to dissever
From the chaos and draw the boundaries of the world, to
organize
Its members, setting its mighty parts in place: the towering skies
Divided from the land, the open ocean set in turn
Separate and apart from where the aether's pure fires burn.
~~~~
...Instead,
It is the weight that comes from outside of ourselves that gall
When placed upon us, though often relatively very small.
What matters in the end is what each has the power to do.
...
That though the soul is of a stuff as flimsy as can be,
Yet it can shoulder that hefty bulk of our frame--because it
weaves
With the body into one whole cloth? And what is the force that
heaves
The flesh up in a nimble spring, if not the spirit's might
Commanding the legs?
Substance can be powerful when once it is combined
With a heavy mass, as the air joined the earth, and as you'll
find
Is true for us when flesh is teamed up with the power of the mind?
~~~~
For Time changes the nature of the whole world, and one phase
Must be succeeded by the next; there is nothing that stays
The same. Everything flows. Nature makes everything alter,
For as one thing grows feeble with old age and starts to falter,
Another strengthens, emerging from obscurity.
[All is transient.]
~~~~
They [primordial man] could not look out for the common weal. There were not
then
Laws or customs governing the ways men dealt with men;
But each man seized what plunder Chance put in his way. To
thrive,
Each learned to watch out for himself, his own will to survive.
...
What worried wretched man instead was, when asleep, he lay
At the mercy of the tribes of wild animals, easy prey.
At times he fled, evicted from his rocky dwelling, when
A wild boar from thing at the mouth or powerful lion burst in,
And in the dead of night, roused terror-stricken from his rest,
He yielded up his leafy pallet to the savage guest.
Back then the fate of an untimely death was no more rife
Than now, when men with moaning leave the sweet life of this life.
~~~~
Then after acquiring shelter, hides and fire, man and wife
Were joined [and lived beneath one roof, and learned to share a
life]
And realized it was their union that produced a child.
That was when the race of man first started to grow mild.
Then fire saw to it that their shivering bodies could not more
Endure the cold beneath the vault of heaven as before,
And Venus drained their powers, and the little ones, with ease,
Broke down the stubborn pride of parents with their coaxing
pleas.
Then neighbors began to form the bonds of friendship, with a
will
Neither to be harmed themselves, nor do another ill,
The safety of babes and womenfolk in one another's trust,
And indicated by gesturing and grunting it was just
For everyone to have mercy on the weak. Without a doubt
Occasional infractions of the peace would come about
But the vast majority of people faithfully adhered
To the pact, or else man would already have wholly
disappeared;
Instead the human race has propagated to this day.
~~~~
In case you're wondering to yourself about how fire first came
To mankind, lightning brought it down to earth. This is the
flame
That is the source of all the other fire.
~~~~
Then those yo towered above the rest in intellect and bold
Imagination, day by day showed how to change the old
Manner of life with fire and with new ways of doing things. ...
Beauty was held in high esteem, and muscle won great praise.)
Then later on, wealth was invented; men discovered gold,
Which easily stole from fair and strong all ran that they might
hold.
But if you'd steer your life by a philosophy that's true,
The way to be the wealthiest of men is to eschew
High living, and be contented in the mind--for there has never
Been a poverty of modest means. People yearned, however,
To be renowned and to be powerful--that way, they thought
They built their fortunes upon solid ground. But all for naught
...
Often Envy would blast them like a thunderbolt, to fell
Them with disdain and hurl them in the pit of hateful Hell.
And since, like lightning, Envy loves to singe the summits best,
And anything that raises itself up higher than the rest,
It is far preferable to live in peace and obey
Than to wish to reign in power and hold whole kingdoms in
your sway.
Let others wear themselves out all for nothing, sweating blood,
Battling their way along ambition's narrow road
Because their wisdom smacks of others' lips, and they pursue
Things that they only know at second-hand, rather than
through
Their own senses. For their way of life is just as wrong
Today as it will be tomorrow, and has been all along.
~~~~
For men are eager to trample underfoot what they before
Had held in too much awe. And mankind was reduced once
more
To chaos, the very bottom of the barrel, as each sought
Power and glory only for himself.
~~~~
And the fault, I think, lies chiefly within ourselves--because before
Animal pelts, the sons of the soil, with nothing on their back,
Were racked with cold, whereas we do not suffer from the lack
Of purple raiment worked with massive patterns in gold thread,
So long as we've a peasant cloak to shelter us instead.
Therefore the human race is ever labouring in vain,
And fretting the years away in bootless worries. For it's plain
Man doesn't realize that even having has its measure;
There's a point beyond which nothing can increase our real
pleasure.
And this is what has by degrees dragged Life so far from shore,
And stirred up from the very depths the tidal waves of War.
Seamanship and agriculture, law, fortifications,
Weaponry, clothing, roads, and all these sorts of innovations,
The prizes of life and absolutely everything that's fine--
Poetry, painting, statues cunningly wrought and made to shine--
By trial and error, and probing, restless intellect, day by day,
Step by step, these skills were taught to Man, feeling his way;
So incrementally Time brings all things within our sight,
And Reason lifts them up into the boundaries of light.
For men saw one thing after another clearly in their hears
Till they ascended to the very summit of the arts.
~~~~
They [primordial man] could not look out for the common weal. There were not
then
Laws or customs governing the ways men dealt with men;
But each man seized what plunder Chance put in his way. To
thrive,
Each learned to watch out for himself, his own will to survive.
...
What worried wretched man instead was, when asleep, he lay
At the mercy of the tribes of wild animals, easy prey.
At times he fled, evicted from his rocky dwelling, when
A wild boar from thing at the mouth or powerful lion burst in,
And in the dead of night, roused terror-stricken from his rest,
He yielded up his leafy pallet to the savage guest.
Back then the fate of an untimely death was no more rife
Than now, when men with moaning leave the sweet life of this life.
~~~~
Then after acquiring shelter, hides and fire, man and wife
Were joined [and lived beneath one roof, and learned to share a
life]
And realized it was their union that produced a child.
That was when the race of man first started to grow mild.
Then fire saw to it that their shivering bodies could not more
Endure the cold beneath the vault of heaven as before,
And Venus drained their powers, and the little ones, with ease,
Broke down the stubborn pride of parents with their coaxing
pleas.
Then neighbors began to form the bonds of friendship, with a
will
Neither to be harmed themselves, nor do another ill,
The safety of babes and womenfolk in one another's trust,
And indicated by gesturing and grunting it was just
For everyone to have mercy on the weak. Without a doubt
Occasional infractions of the peace would come about
But the vast majority of people faithfully adhered
To the pact, or else man would already have wholly
disappeared;
Instead the human race has propagated to this day.
~~~~
In case you're wondering to yourself about how fire first came
To mankind, lightning brought it down to earth. This is the
flame
That is the source of all the other fire.
~~~~
Then those yo towered above the rest in intellect and bold
Imagination, day by day showed how to change the old
Manner of life with fire and with new ways of doing things. ...
Beauty was held in high esteem, and muscle won great praise.)
Then later on, wealth was invented; men discovered gold,
Which easily stole from fair and strong all ran that they might
hold.
But if you'd steer your life by a philosophy that's true,
The way to be the wealthiest of men is to eschew
High living, and be contented in the mind--for there has never
Been a poverty of modest means. People yearned, however,
To be renowned and to be powerful--that way, they thought
They built their fortunes upon solid ground. But all for naught
...
Often Envy would blast them like a thunderbolt, to fell
Them with disdain and hurl them in the pit of hateful Hell.
And since, like lightning, Envy loves to singe the summits best,
And anything that raises itself up higher than the rest,
It is far preferable to live in peace and obey
Than to wish to reign in power and hold whole kingdoms in
your sway.
Let others wear themselves out all for nothing, sweating blood,
Battling their way along ambition's narrow road
Because their wisdom smacks of others' lips, and they pursue
Things that they only know at second-hand, rather than
through
Their own senses. For their way of life is just as wrong
Today as it will be tomorrow, and has been all along.
~~~~
For men are eager to trample underfoot what they before
Had held in too much awe. And mankind was reduced once
more
To chaos, the very bottom of the barrel, as each sought
Power and glory only for himself.
~~~~
And the fault, I think, lies chiefly within ourselves--because before
Animal pelts, the sons of the soil, with nothing on their back,
Were racked with cold, whereas we do not suffer from the lack
Of purple raiment worked with massive patterns in gold thread,
So long as we've a peasant cloak to shelter us instead.
Therefore the human race is ever labouring in vain,
And fretting the years away in bootless worries. For it's plain
Man doesn't realize that even having has its measure;
There's a point beyond which nothing can increase our real
pleasure.
And this is what has by degrees dragged Life so far from shore,
And stirred up from the very depths the tidal waves of War.
Seamanship and agriculture, law, fortifications,
Weaponry, clothing, roads, and all these sorts of innovations,
The prizes of life and absolutely everything that's fine--
Poetry, painting, statues cunningly wrought and made to shine--
By trial and error, and probing, restless intellect, day by day,
Step by step, these skills were taught to Man, feeling his way;
So incrementally Time brings all things within our sight,
And Reason lifts them up into the boundaries of light.
For men saw one thing after another clearly in their hears
Till they ascended to the very summit of the arts.
Book VI: Weather and the Earth
And blessed by the good name of sons, nevertheless, apart
In the privacy of their own homes, each was worried sick at
heart--
[#Anxiety]Against their will, these worries plagued their life, with no
relenting,
And made them burst out bitterly with cursing and lamenting--
He understood it was the vessel itself that was to blame,
And that by means of its internal flaw, all things that came
Inside it from without, however sweet at first, went sour;
Partly, he [Epicurus] saw, since it had holes and leaked, and by no power
Could anything fill it; partly since when anything was placed
Inside the vessel, it was 'corrupted' with an evil taste.
And thus with his truth-telling words he washed the heart all
clear,
And set a limit to desire and an end to fear,
And showed what was the highest good, towards which we all strain ,
And pointed out the route, that we, unswerving, might attain
The straight and narrow path; and showed what evils and what cares
Worry man at every turn and darken his affairs;
~~~~
[Lucretius is sarcastic]...banish from yourself all thoughts unworthy of the gods
And alien to their peace, their power will often be at odds
With you and do you harm, that holy power that you slight;
Not since their sublimity is outraged, and they thirst to smite
In wrathful, fierce revenge, but since you'll have it in your head
That tranquil beings, living in unruffled calm, instead
Seethe with great waves of wrath. You won't be able to draw
near
The temples of the immortals with a heart that's free from fear.
As for those images that wend their way to minds of men
From their holy bodies, and whose stamp declares their origin
From forms divine, you won't be in a fit state to receive
Them with a peaceful spirit. And it's easy to perceive
Right away the kind of life this leads to!
~~~~
