in form,How varied in multitudinous shapes they are-- These old beginnings of the universe;
Not in the sense that only few are furnished
With one like form, but rather not at all
In general have they likeness each with each, No marvel: since the stock of them's so great That there's no end (as I have taught) nor sum, They must indeed not one and all be marked By equal outline and by shape the same.
Moreover, humankind, and the mute flocks Of scaly creatures swimming in the streams, And joyous herds around, and all the wild,
And all the breeds of birds--both those that teem
In gladsome regions of the water-haunts, About the river-banks and springs and pools, And those that throng, flitting from tree to tree,
Through trackless woods--Go, take which one thou wilt, In any kind: thou wilt discover still
Each from the other still unlike in shape. Nor in no other wise could offspring know Mother, nor mother offspring--which we see They yet can do, distinguished one from other, No less than human beings, by clear signs. Thus oft before fair temples of the gods, Beside the incense-burning altars slain,
Drops down the yearling calf, from out its breast Breathing warm streams of blood; the orphaned mother, Ranging meanwhile green woodland pastures round, Knows well the footprints, pressed by cloven hoofs,
With eyes regarding every spot about,
For sight somewhere of youngling gone from her;
And, stopping short, filleth the leafy lanes
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With her complaints; and oft she seeks again Within the stall, pierced by her yearning still. Nor tender willows, nor dew-quickened grass,
Nor the loved streams that glide along low banks, Can lure her mind and turn the sudden pain;
Nor other shapes of calves that graze thereby
Distract her mind or lighten pain the least--
So keen her search for something known and hers. Moreover, tender kids with bleating throats
Do know their horned dams, and butting lambs The flocks of sheep, and thus they patter on, Unfailingly each to its proper teat,
As nature intends. Lastly, with any grain, Thou'lt see that no one kernel in one kind Is so far like another, that there still
Is not in shapes some difference running through. By a like law we see how earth is pied
With shells and conchs, where, with soft waves, the sea Beats on the thirsty sands of curving shores. Wherefore again, again, since seeds of things
Exist by nature, nor were wrought with hands
After a fixed pattern of one other,
They needs must flitter to and fro with shapes
In types dissimilar to one another.
Easy enough by thought of mind to solve
Why fires of lightning more can penetrate
Than these of ours from pitch-pine born on earth.
For thou canst say lightning's celestial fire, So subtle, is formed of figures finer far,
And passes thus through holes which this our fire, Born from the wood, created from the pine, Cannot. Again, light passes through the horn
On the lantern's side, while rain is dashed away. And why?--unless those bodies of light should be Finer than those of water's genial showers.
We see how quickly through a colander
The wines will flow; how, on the other hand, The sluggish olive-oil delays: no doubt, Because 'tis wrought of elements more large, Or else more crook'd and intertangled. Thus It comes that the primordials cannot be
So suddenly sundered one from other, and seep, One through each several hole of anything.
And note, besides, that liquor of honey or milk Yields in the mouth agreeable taste to tongue, Whilst nauseous wormwood, pungent centaury, With their foul flavour set the lips awry;
Thus simple 'tis to see that whatsoever
Can touch the senses pleasingly are made
Of smooth and rounded elements, whilst those Which seem the bitter and the sharp, are held Entwined by elements more crook'd, and so
Are wont to tear their ways into our senses, And rend our body as they enter in.
In short all good to sense, all bad to touch,
Being up-built of figures so unlike,
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Are mutually at strife--lest thou suppose That the shrill rasping of a squeaking saw Consists of elements as smooth as song
Which, waked by nimble fingers, on the strings
The sweet musicians fashion; or suppose
That same-shaped atoms through men's nostrils pierce
When foul cadavers burn, as when the stage
Is with Cilician saffron sprinkled fresh,
And the altar near exhales Panchaean scent; Or hold as of like seed the goodly hues
Of things which feast our eyes, as those which sting
Against the smarting pupil and draw tears,
Or show, with gruesome aspect, grim and vile.
For never a shape which charms our sense was made
Without some elemental smoothness; whilst Whate'er is harsh and irksome has been framed Still with some roughness in its elements.
Some, too, there are which justly are supposed
To be nor smooth nor altogether hooked, With bended barbs, but slightly angled-out, To tickle rather than to wound the sense-- And of which sort is the salt tartar of wine And flavours of the gummed elecampane. Again, that glowing fire and icy rime
Are fanged with teeth unlike whereby to sting Our body's sense, the touch of each gives proof. For touch--by sacred majesties of Gods!-- Touch is indeed the body's only sense--
Be't that something in-from-outward works, Be't that something in the body born Wounds, or delighteth as it passes out
Along the procreant paths of Aphrodite; Or be't the seeds by some collision whirl Disordered in the body and confound
By tumult and confusion all the sense--
As thou mayst find, if haply with the hand
Thyself thou strike thy body's any part. On which account, the elemental forms Must differ widely, as enabled thus
To cause diverse sensations.
