style="font-size:15px;"> The arm'd Dictaean Curetes, who, in Crete, As runs the story, whilom did out-drownThat infant cry of Zeus, what time their band, Young boys, in a swift dance around the boy, To measured step beat with the brass on brass, That Saturn might not get him for his jaws, And give its mother an eternal wound
Along her heart. And 'tis on this account That armed they escort the mighty Mother, Or else because they signify by this
That she, the goddess, teaches men to be
Eager with armed valour to defend
Their motherland, and ready to stand forth, The guard and glory of their parents' years. A tale, however beautifully wrought,
That's wide of reason by a long remove: For all the gods must of themselves enjoy Immortal aeons and supreme repose, Withdrawn from our affairs, detached, afar: Immune from peril and immune from pain, Themselves abounding in riches of their own, Needing not us, they are not touched by wrath They are not taken by service or by gift.
Truly is earth insensate for all time;
But, by obtaining germs of many things, In many a way she brings the many forth Into the light of sun. And here, whoso Decides to call the ocean Neptune, or
The grain-crop Ceres, and prefers to abuse The name of Bacchus rather than pronounce The liquor's proper designation, him
Let us permit to go on calling earth Mother of Gods, if only he will spare To taint his soul with foul religion.
So, too, the wooly flocks, and horned kine, And brood of battle-eager horses, grazing Often together along one grassy plain, Under the cope of one blue sky, and slaking
From out one stream of water each its thirst, All live their lives with face and form unlike, Keeping the parents' nature, parents' habits, Which, kind by kind, through ages they repeat. So great in any sort of herb thou wilt,
So great again in any river of earth Are the distinct diversities of matter. Hence, further, every creature--any one
From out them all--compounded is the same
Of bones, blood, veins, heat, moisture, flesh, and thews--
All differing vastly in their forms, and built
Of elements dissimilar in shape.
Again, all things by fire consumed ablaze,
Within their frame lay up, if naught besides,
At least those atoms whence derives their power
To throw forth fire and send out light from under,
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To shoot the sparks and scatter embers wide. If, with like reasoning of mind, all else
Thou traverse through, thou wilt discover thus That in their frame the seeds of many things They hide, and divers shapes of seeds contain. Further, thou markest much, to which are given Along together colour and flavour and smell, Among which, chief, are most burnt offerings.
Thus must they be of divers shapes composed. A smell of scorching enters in our frame
Where the bright colour from the dye goes not; And colour in one way, flavour in quite another Works inward to our senses--so mayst see
They differ too in elemental shapes.
Thus unlike forms into one mass combine, And things exist by intermixed seed.
But still 'tmust not be thought that in all ways
All things can be conjoined; for then wouldst view
Portents begot about thee every side: Hulks of mankind half brute astarting up,
At times big branches sprouting from man's trunk, Limbs of a sea-beast to a land-beast knit,
And nature along the all-producing earth Feeding those dire Chimaeras breathing flame From hideous jaws--Of which 'tis simple fact That none have been begot; because we see
All are from fixed seed and fixed dam Engendered and so function as to keep Throughout their growth their own ancestral type. This happens surely by a fixed law:
For from all food-stuff, when once eaten down, Go sundered atoms, suited to each creature, Throughout their bodies, and, conjoining there, Produce the proper motions; but we see
How, contrariwise, nature upon the ground
Throws off those foreign to their frame; and many
With viewless bodies from their bodies fly, By blows impelled--those impotent to join To any part, or, when inside, to accord
And to take on the vital motions there. But think not, haply, living forms alone
Are bound by these laws: they distinguished all.
For just as all things of creation are,
In their whole nature, each to each unlike, So must their atoms be in shape unlike--
Not since few only are fashioned of like form, But since they all, as general rule, are not
The same as all. Nay, here in these our verses, Elements many, common to many words, Thou seest, though yet 'tis needful to confess The words and verses differ, each from each, Compounded out of different elements-- Not since few only, as common letters, run
Through all the words, or no two words are made, One and the other, from all like elements,
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But since they all, as general rule, are not The same as all. Thus, too, in other things, Whilst many germs common to many things
There are, yet they, combined among themselves, Can form new wholes to others quite unlike. Thus fairly one may say that humankind,
The grains, the gladsome trees, are all made up Of different atoms. Further, since the seeds Are different, difference must there also be
In intervening spaces, thoroughfares,
Connections, weights, blows, clashings, motions, all
Which not alone distinguish living forms,
But sunder earth's whole ocean from the lands, And hold all heaven from the lands away.
ABSENCE OF SECONDARY QUALITIES
Now come, this wisdom by my sweet toil sought Look thou perceive, lest haply thou shouldst guess That the white objects shining to thine eyes
Are gendered of white atoms, or the black Of a black seed; or yet believe that aught That's steeped in any hue should take its dye From bits of matter tinct with hue the same. For matter's bodies own no hue the least-- Or like to objects or, again, unlike.
But, if percase it seem to thee that mind
Itself can dart no influence of its own
Into these bodies, wide thou wand'rest off.
For since the blind-born, who have ne'er surveyed
