Book V
Proem Who is skillful enough to produce an adequate
poem about the magnificent world and these discoveries
about it? Does anyone so use language that he can praise
appropriately the man
[Epicurus] who made these
discoveries and left them for us? I think the subject beyond an ordinary mortal, for to put things in the way so superb a subject demands, Memmius, a person no less than that deity who first discovered the explanation of life which is now called wisdom, and who had
the ability to rescue life from all its storms and darkness and put it down in a calm and brilliant light. . Compare what he did with what the other gods did. Ceres brought corn and Bacchus started the notion of making the most of the juice that comes from
the vine. Yet neither of these two gifts is indispensable and travelers say some countries still do without
them. But you cannot live well unless your heart is
unclouded. Reason enough to consider that man as a deity from whom we get these delightful consolations which soothe the mind and make life tolerable. . Or perhaps after all you have a preference for
Hercules; If you do let me tell you, you are completely
wrong. Should we really worry now about the gaping jaws of the lion, or that boar in Arcady? Or about that bull in Crete, or that plague in
Lerna, the hydra whose head was protected by poisonous
snakes? What about the triplet body of Geryon? Or Diomede’s horses breathing fire from their
nostrils in Thrace, along the Bistonian border and Ismara? Do they matter all that much? Do we fear those
harpies with their raucous cries and their claws on Lake
Stymphalus? And the snake which had to look after the golden
apples of the Hesperides, he certainly looked fierce and had to wrap his enormous length around the
tree; What harm could he do on his remote Atlantic shore where we don’t go and the savages don’t dare to? The same with all those monsters that were gotten
rid of, If they hadn’t been killed, would they do much
harm alive? None at all, I think: for there are enough wild
beasts even now; there is plenty to be afraid of in woods, upon great mountains and in deep forests but none the less we can generally avoid them. . But unless the heart is cleansed, what struggles
we face, what dangers, and hardly know how it comes about! How bitterly are we torn if we let lust coax us, What cares we have and then, what fears as well! Or how much pride and filthiness and petulance and what disasters! What self-indulgence and laziness! The man who gets the better of all this by words and without weapons, will not such a
one deserve to be reckoned among deities? The more if he has himself given explanations about the immortal gods and revelations about the order of nature in its entirety. . Following his footsteps, I too attempt to find
reasons and in my writings to show how all is created within a system from which nothing can escape; And that there are laws of time which must be
obeyed. And first, the soul itself is subject to them —formed of a body which itself was born— it cannot last intact throughout the ages; It is only images cheat our minds in dreams when we think we see someone whom life has abandoned. For the rest, the general plan of my work now
brings me to show the mortality of the world itself, that it too has a body which had a beginning. . I hope to show from what assembled material the earth, sky, sea, stars, sun all came together and the globe of the moon; what kinds of living
creatures sprang out of the earth and what kinds never existed; How the human race with different ways of talking began to converse by giving names to things; And how it was that the fear of the gods found
an entrance into men’s minds, and now guards all over the
world shrines, lakes, groves, and altars and statues
of gods. . Besides, I will deal with the course of sun and
moon and by what forces they are naturally steered lest you make the mistake of thinking their own
free will sends them about the sky in sacred procession compliantly ripening corn and controlling destinies or imagine that they move by the will of the gods. Even those who have taken the point that the gods
are indifferent sometimes wonder how the whole affair is managed and are specially concerned about things overhead which they see rolling round so high in the heavens. Once more they revert to the ancient superstitions and take back those terrible masters they think
all-powerful, not knowing that there are some things which can
happen and some which cannot, that every power is limited by the system itself, and that everything has
an end. . 110 But before I begin to expose
the decrees of fate more scrupulously and also with greater certainty than the Pythian priestess from the tripod and
laurel of Phoebus, I will go into this consoling matter quite thoroughly, so that you don’t superstitiously imagine that earth and sun and sky, sea, stars and moon are divine material and ought to be everlasting; Or take the view that, just like the giants and
Titans anyone ought to be subject to criminal punishments who so to speak reasons away the walls of the
world and looks as if he wanted to put out the sun and brand the everlasting with common speech. . These things in fact are far from any divinity and certainly not to be counted among the gods; They seem rather to be outstanding examples of the sort of things which has neither life nor
feeling. It is not as if there were reason to think that
a mind can equally well exist in any body. Trees cannot grow in the sky, and in the salt
sea you will find no clouds, and fish do not live
in fields, There is no blood in wood and there is no sap
in rocks; Everything grows and lives in fixed conditions: It is the nature of mind that it cannot arise except in the body and close to the sinews and
blood. You might rather expect, I suppose, to find the
intellect in the head or shoulders or possibly in the heels if it could pop up anywhere; At least that would still be within the human
container. But as it seems that even within the body there is a fixed location where soul and mind
can grow there can be no reason whatever for asserting they could hold their own outside any animal body, in the crumbling soil or in the fire of the sun, In water, or in the highest ethereal regions. No question therefore of these things being divine since it is clear that they are not even alive. . It is moreover impossible that
you should credit that the gods can live in any part of the world. Their nature is delicate and far from anything our senses perceive; it can hardly be seen by
our minds. And since it has always eluded the touch of our
fingers it must find intangible anything we can touch for what cannot touch can certainly not be touched. Therefore the gods must live in quite different
conditions from us, in mansions as delicate as themselves: A point I will return to and deal with more fully. . To say that it was for the sake
of men that the gods established this marvelous world and that on that
account we are in duty-bound to praise their work and even to believe that it will last forever: That its is blasphemy, in the face of their venerable
wisdom which made all this for our eternal benefit ever to question what goes on in their residences, to talk disrespectfully and turn things upside-down —to go on like this is, I assure you,
Memmius, absolute rubbish. These immortal and blessed beings could be none the better for any thanks we could
give them: Why should they therefore do anything for us? What could have happened to make them want to
change their way of life which had gone on so smoothly
so long? Surely to get any pleasure out of novelties implies something wrong with what you have already? But a being who has never known pain and has passed the time beautifully, whatever could make him itch for something new? Or are we to think life was passed in shadows
and sorrows till things were brightened up by a new generation? Would it have hurt us not to have been created? Admittedly once you are born you want to stay but then there is pleasure to persuade you to
keep alive. But for one who has never tasted the Venus of
living what drawback could there be in not being born? . And where would the gods have found a model to
work from or first got the notion of what man should be
like? How could they see in their minds what they wanted
to make? How could they have known the properties of the
elements and the likely results of various combinations if nature did not provide them with examples? So many elements in so many ways in collision with each other for infinite time and always kept in motion by their weight attempted all possible ways of coming together and every creation which could be so produced: No wonder they have found the arrangement they
have and entered on the courses which gave us the universe which now persists by a constant self-renewal! . If I knew nothing of the nature of elements yet, given the behavior of celestial bodies and from other observations, I would conclude that nature was not a divine invention intended for us: there is so much that is wrong
with it. . In the first place, of all that the immense skies
roll over, there are the mountains and woods which ravenous
beasts have taken possession of; there are rocks, vast
marshes, and the sea which keeps the various shores apart. Two thirds are rendered useless to men by either blazing heat or else intolerable cold. What is left for agriculture would be overrun by thorns and the like if we did not take it in
hand in order to keep alive and, groaning in labor, turn up the earth all the time with hoe and plow. If we did not turn the fertile soil with the plowshares and work at it until the crops came up they would not emerge into the air on their own. And yet so often the product of all this labor, when at last the leaves appear and everything
flowers, is either burnt up by excessive heat or else is ended by the rains and frost or blown about by violent gales of wind. What of all those terrifying breeds of wild animals which are dangerous to man on land or sea? Why does nature encourage them? And why at all
seasons are there so many sick? And why do so many die
young? The child is like a sailor cast up by the sea, lying naked on the shore, unable to speak, helpless, when first it comes to the light of
day, shed from the womb through all the pains of labor, and fills the place with cries as well it might, having a life of so many ills before it. Yet flocks and herds, to say nothing of wild beasts, don’t need a rattle or anything of that kind nor even a nurse to feed them with baby-talk: Nor do they need sets of clothes for summer and
winter. One may add that they don’t need weapons or high
walls to keep them safe, they find themselves perfectly
happy walking around in a world which produces plenty. . 509 I go on to explain the movements
of the stars. And first, if it is the whole of the sky which
turns the air must press with particular force on the
poles and hold them so that at those points there is
no movement while another current flows in the direction the glittering stars follow in their rotation; Or else the current flows underneath the world as we see rivers turn a water-wheel. . On the other hand the whole sky may stay still while the brilliant stars are somehow carried
across: Either because there are rapid currents of either circulating as they look for a way out and these carry the stars and determine their
orbit; Or else a current of air coming from outside accounts for their movements: or they glide by
themselves in search of food and go wherever they find it, feeding on elements of flame here and there in
the sky. It is not easy to establish with certitude the cause of events I this word; my aim is rather to show what is possible anywhere in the universe in various worlds formed upon various plans and to set out the several causes which might
operate throughout the universe to move the stars. Only one of these can operate in our sky and I will not venture to say which it might be; The advance of knowledge is inevitably gradual. . For the earth to rest as it does in middle of
our system its weight must gradually decrease to vanishing
point so that underneath it is of a different nature and has been from its beginnings one with the air in which it is embodied. That is why it has no weight and can ride on air Rather as a man does not feel the weight of his
limbs and the head does not weigh on the neck, and we
do not feel the whole weight of our bodies upon our feet while any burden placed on us from outside we feel at once, though the weight may be much
less: Which shows how the circumstances make a difference. The earth does not therefore rest upon alien material but is cushioned by something which has the nature
of air and was conceived with it from the beginning of
the world, a part of the system as our limbs are part of
us. . When the earth is struck by a sudden clap of thunder the whole atmosphere about it shakes, which could not happen in this way if earth were
not joined somehow or other to the air and sky. They are, indeed, fixed by their common roots and have been together since the beginning of
time. Do you not see how, for all the weight of the
body, the soul with its subtle nature can support it because they have always been together as one? And what could lift the body when it leaps in
the air except the strength of the soul which controls
the limbs? So you see how a subtle nature can be strong when joined to a heavy body, and that is the case
with air and the earth and with ourselves and
our soul. . The disc of the sun must be the same size, more
or less as it seems to our sense, and just about as hot, for however far it may transmit its heat the distances take nothing from the mass of flames and it does not appear any smaller than it is. The heat of the sun and the light which it pours
out arrive at our organs of sense and fall on the
earth, so its form and size must be as they appear without indeed addition or subtraction. . 705 The moon may shine because it is struck by the
rays of the sun and turns the light increasingly towards us the further she recedes from the ball of the sun until just opposite him she shines out full and at her rising watches the sun go down: Then slowly reversing her steps she must hide
her light in the same way, the nearer she slides to the
sun, passing through the other half of the zodiac; That is the theory of those who think that the
moon is a ball which runs below the course of the sun; Which seems to me a true hypothesis. It may be, however, that the moon has her own
light and turns and shows the various shapes of her
brightness. There may be some other body which turns with
the moon, obscuring her light in varying degrees as it moves, a body which cannot be seen since it has no light. . 780 Now I go back to the early days of the world when the ground was soft and gave birth to new
productions committing them to the care of the wayward winds. . In the beginning, the earth gave forth vegetation
and bright foliage all over the hills and across the level plains; The flowering meadows glittered with bright green; The different trees rose high in the air, striving with nothing holding them back. Like first feathers and hair and bristles appearing
on the naked bodies of quadrupeds and birds, the new earth shot out grass and shrubs at first and then went on to produce the mortal animals, great numbers of them, starting in various ways. The animals cannot have fallen from the sky nor those that live on land have come out of the
sea. No wonder therefore the earth is called our mother since every creature came out of the ground. Many creatures still exist underneath; It takes the rain and sun to bring them up: The less cause for wonder, therefore, that more
and larger creatures were brought to birth when the earth and air were
young. . 826 But since all fecundity must have an end, she
gave up like a woman who is past the time of childbearing. Time changes the nature of the whole world; Everything passes from one state to another and nothing stays like itself: all things pass
away; Nature obliges everything to change about. One thing crumbles and falls in the weakness of
age; Another grows in its place from a negligible start. So time alters the whole nature of the world and earth passes from one state to another: She can no longer bear what she could, but she bears what before she could not. . At that time the earth created
many monsters which came out with extraordinary faces and bodies, the androgen—neither one sex nor the other but between the two; there were creatures without
hands or feet; Mutes without mouths, blind creatures with nothing
to look with, and some with arms and legs so stuck to their
bodies that they could not do anything or go anywhere, evade disaster or get what they needed for survival. All such monsters were born without a future; Their nature was such that they could not increase; They never had a chance of reaching maturity; They could not find food nor make a sexual connection. We know that many conditions must be satisfied if a species is to last and reproduce itself: First there must be food for it, and then a channel through which the genetic particles in the limbs can find a way out; and the female must fit the
male; There must be organs which can give mutual pleasure. . Many species will have died out at this period, not having the capacity to continue their race. For wherever you see a creature which has survived, it is craft or strength or mobility that has saved
it, affording protection from the very beginning. There are many animals which have survived because they were useful enough to us for us to protect
them. With lions and other beasts of like ferocity it was strength which preserved them; with the
fox it was craftiness; With deer it was speed. But the light-sleeping,
faithful dog and all the various beasts of burden as well as the woolly sheep and all sorts of cattle: All these have been entrusted to men to look after,
Memmius. They were anxious to escape wild beasts and live
in peace and obtain plenty of food without any labor; We gave them all that but the price was that they
had to be useful. However, the animals nature endowed with none
of these qualities, who were neither able to live after their own
manner nor to render us any service for which we would
tolerate their living at our expense and being protected —these it is clear would merely be prey for others, as it were entangled in their unfortunate selves until nature brought their race to complete destruction. . 925 The race of man at that time
in the fields was harder, having come from the hard ground. They were constructed inside of larger bones, stronger than ours, and their flesh was entirely
sinuous. It took more than heat or cold to exhaust such
men; They ate whatever offered and were not sick. Through many repetitions of the sun’s course they followed a wandering life as wild beasts
do. They did no to employ their energies at the plow and did not know the use of iron in agriculture nor how to plant saplings, or lop boughs from
old trees. Whatever the sun and rain gave them they took and were content with what earth grow on her own. An oak-tree bearing acorns gave them enough in the ordinary way, with the berries which you
see still on the arbutus in winter, red when they are ripe, but larger and more numerous in those days. The young earth bore a variety of coarse crops,
more than enough for the needs of its wretched
inhabitants. . River and springs called men to slake their thirst as now from high mountains the course of descending
water summons wild beasts from far and wide with its
noise. As they wandered in the night they came upon the wooded haunts of nymphs, out of which, they
knew water would come splashing over the rocks, the rocks dripping and covered with wet green
moss, and part of it bubbling out over the level plain. . They did not know what uses
fire could be put to, nor how to dress themselves in wild beasts’ skins. They lived in groves and caves and in the forests and sheltered their dirty bodies in the undergrowth when buffeting winds and rain became too much. They had no notion at all of the common good, understanding nothing of custom or of law. The man who was lucky and found some prey went
off with it, the only idea they had was: each man for himself; And Venus coupled their bodies in the forest; What brought them together was either that both
wanted it, or the man was violent and his lust was threatening, or he offered bribes such as acorns, berries,
or choice pears. . Trusting to the marvelous powers of their hands
and feet they would follow the tracks of wild beasts in
the woods and attack them with showers of stones, or club
them down; They could get the better of most, but a few they
fled. . And like bristly swine they would throw themselves
on the ground naked, whenever the night came down upon them, covering themselves as best they could with leaves. Yet there was no question of waiting for the day or wandering around in terror looking for it; They waited silently and buried in sleep till the sun with its red beacon brought back
the light. Accustomed from childhood to night and day being produced in turn in constant succession, it never occurred to them to be astonished, nor to fear that the night when it came might
last forever. They were much more concerned about the savage
beasts which would often make a sleep the end of everything: Driven from the shelter of their rock or cave by the arrival of a wild boar or a lion at dead of night and in an excess of terror they would give up their pile of leaves to their
savage guest. . There was not much more death about then than
there is now and little occasion to depart from life with laments. No doubt it happened more often that some wild
beast got hold of someone and so made a lively dinner, the hills and forests would be filled with moaning as the man saw his flesh going into a living grave. If anyone escaped with a piece bitten out of him he would clutch his horrible wounds with trembling
hands and call for an end to it all with a strident
voice until cruel torments put an end to his life without help, all being ignorant of what a wound
wanted. On the other hand, there was then no dying in
thousands in a single day in a military formation; Nor was there any danger of being shipwrecked. The sea often raged of course, but it brought
about nothing and had in the end to withdraw its empty threats; Nor was there any question of a calm surface enticing anyone with its treacherous smiles. The desperate business of going to sea was unknown. In those days it was starvation which finished
men off and now the same result is produced by plenty. Then people accidentally poisoned themselves; Now with great skill they poison one another. . The next step was the use of
huts and skins and fire, and women became the property of one man. So the chaste pleasures of a private Venus were first invented and couples had their own
children. It was then that the human race began to soften. Fire had the effect of making bodies less able to bear the cold under the open sky; Venus reduced their strength, and children with
endearments, easily broke down the stiff pride of their parents. Then people first began to have friends and neighbors, they did not seek to injure or treat with violence; They gave a certain protection to women and children and made it known in confused gestures and speech that there ought to be some pity for those who
are weak. Of course they could not establish general peace but a good proportion of people behaved in good
faith; If they hadn’t, the human race would soon have
died out and the present would do without us and our breed. . Nature impelled men to make
sounds with their tongues and they found it useful to give names to things much for the reason that we see children now have recourse to gestures because they cannot
yet speak and point their fingers at things which appear
before them. Everyone tries to use the powers that are in him: As calves will butt before they have grown their
horns. The young of the panther and of the lioness fight with their claws and feet and teeth before they have really got any teeth or claws to fight
with. In the same way we see that birds of very kind begin to trust their wings before they can fly. . Therefore to think that somebody handed out names to things and that this is how men first learned
to speak is idiotic: for if one man could so designate
objects, and make all the various sounds with his tongue, why could not others do the same thing at the
same time? Besides, if others too had not made use of words among themselves, how could they have
guessed words might be useful? And how could one man get
the idea in his mind in the first place and see what he
wanted to do? And one man could hardly force many to do as he
fancied, to see the point of learning the names of things. It isn’t easy to make the deaf understand what one wants to teach them; Those early men would not have stood for it nor see any reason to put up with all that noise being drummed into ears which naturally understood
none of it. . Lastly, what is there so strange about the fact that the human race, with a powerful voice and
tongue, should designate different impressions by different
sounds? Since even dumb cattle, to say nothing of wild
beasts, are in the habit of uttering different cries in fear or pain and when they are bursting with
joy. These are matters which you can learn by observation. . 1105 So from day to day they changed
their food and their way of living by new ways of using fire, which the most inventive and ingenious among them pointed out to the rest. Kings began to found cites and construct fortresses to serve as strong places and a refuge when necessary; They divided the land and cattle and gave them
out to those who were beautiful, strong or showed
intelligence. Beauty and strength were, both of them, much esteemed; Then wealth was discovered and soon after it was
gold which quickly became more honored than strength
or beauty. For men, however strong or beautiful, generally follow the train of a richer man. . But if anyone were to conduct his life by reason, he would find great riches in living a peaceful
life and being contented, one is never short of a little.
But men want always to be powerful and famous so that their fortune rests on a solid foundation and they can spend a placid life in opulence. There isn’t a hope of it; to attain great honors you have to struggle along a dangerous way and even when you reach the top there is envy which can strike you down like lightning into
Tartarus. For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at
the top or any point which sticks out form the ordinary
level. So it is better to submit and live in quiet than to want to be the master of several kingdoms. Let people wear themselves out, let them sweat
blood, struggling up the narrow road of ambition; Since they know no more than they hear from the
mouths of others and go for what they have heard, not what they
perceive; That is how things are and have been and will
be. . So the kings were killed and that was the end
of thrones in their pristine majesty, and of the pride of
scepters: The crowned head, covered in blood, was kicked
around by the feet of the mob and had cause for dusty
tears: It is pleasant to trample on something that we
have feared. Power then went to the lowest dregs of the mob, everyone fancied that he should be the top man. Then some men had the idea of setting up magistracies and establishing codes so that people could live
by law. For the human race had grown tired of anarchy with its hostilities and so more easily yielded of its own free will to live under legal restrictions; The vengeance which individuals exacted in anger was worse than is now enjoined under regular laws —one can understand why men were sick of anarchy. After that fear of punishment spoiled the prizes. Violence and wrong catch people in their own nets and those who start such things are most often
entangled. It is not easy to pass a peaceful life if you act in a way that disturbs the general
peace. Although you elude the gods and the human race you still must wonder whether your secret will
be kept forever. Are there not many people who talk in their sleep? Or might not some word escape you in a delirium? Crimes long concealed have come to light that
way before. . Now what is the reason for
the belief in the gods which has spread to all nations and filled their
cities with altars? What has given support to all those sacred rites so prominent everywhere on great occasions? What is the source of that deep-seated terror which has raised sanctuaries all over the world and has compelled men to celebrate holy days? It is not so difficult to explain all this. . Even in those times mortals would see the gods in imagination, even when awake, and in their dreams they were all the more impressive. They attributed feelings to them because they
saw their limbs move and heard them speak fine words suitable for such powerful and good-looking beings. They thought them immortal, because they were
always appearing and yet somehow their form remained the same; And because, after all, with all that strength
they had, one could hardly imagine anyone getting the better
of them. They thought them the most fortunate of beings because they could not be troubled by the idea
of death and because in their dreams they saw them do marvelous
things without showing even the faintest sign of fatigue. Besides, they saw the order of the celestial system and how the seasons came around without mistake; They did not guess at all how all that could happen so they took refuge in attributing it all to the
gods and supposed they did it by a nod of the head. . They assumed the sky was where the gods would
live because that was where the sun and the moon had
their residences, the moon, the day, the night, and the solemn nightly
stars, the meteors that wander by night, the flying flames, clouds, dew, rain, snow; the winds and lightning
and hail; The sudden rumblings and threatening murmurs of
thunder. Oh miserable human race, to ascribe such acts to the gods and then to suppose them bitterly
angry! What troubles they made for themselves, what harm
they did us, what tears we shall leave behind for our descendants! . It is not piety to be repeatedly seen turning a veiled head towards a piece of stone and making sure you visit all the altars with the blood of animals and a procession of
prayers, but to look on everything with a mind at peace. When we look up to the temples of the sky and the ether fast above all the glittering stars and as we think of the course of the sun and the
moon, then to add to the other ills which weigh us down, this fear also begins to raise its head: That the power of the gods may be unlimited and it may be that which sets the stars in motion. It is this poverty of reason which troubles the
mind and we wonder about the origins of the world and whether it may not end, and if the walls of
the world may not be able to stand this motion much longer; Or whether, the gods having rendered them eternal, they might go gliding on and on forever, defying forever the strong power of time. . Besides, whose mind is not contracted with fear because of the gods? Whose body is not afraid when the parched earth trembles under the lightning and great rumblings of thunder cross the sky? Are not whole nations terrified? Kings may be
proud, but they stoop quickly enough when they fear the
gods, afraid that for some one crime or even a word the day of reckoning may suddenly have come. When wind and waves exhibit all their violence and sweep before them the commander of the fleet, to say nothing of his legions and elephants, does he not seek the mercy of the gods and timidly ask for a lull and favorable winds? It does no good, for the fierce hurricane often carries him to the shallows of death all
the same: So much a secret force kicks men around and tramples on all the splendid rods and axes which it seems to treat with something less than
respect. And finally, when the whole world rocks under
our feet and cities are shaken and fall or threaten to
do so, what wonder if human beings abase themselves and hand over everything which happens here to the power of the gods and let them rule everything? . Next, copper and gold and iron were discovered, lumps of silver, and what could be done with lead, when fire consumed huge forests in a blaze on high mountains, either started by lightning, or because, when they were waging war in the woods, men brought in fire to terrify their enemies; Or because, seeing the soil was fertile, they
wanted to open up new fields or make new pastures; Or perhaps to drive out beasts and grow rich on
the spoil, for pits and fires were certainly used in hunting long before men had snares and packs of hounds. However it happened, and whatever the cause of
flames, when the forests were crackling up from their
very roots so that the earth beneath was baked deep down, out of its burning veins there trickled a stream of silver and gold and copper and lead, and collected in hollow places: and when men saw it set, when the fire had gone, and shine with its brilliant
colors they were taken with it and picked up the smooth
shining pieces and found they had taken the shape of the dips
they had run in. Then it occurred to men that they could melt metals and let them run into any mold they liked; After which they could be made as sharp and fine
as they pleased by hammering and drawing out the points; So they made tools with which they could cut down
forests, trim the wood and smooth it into planks and finally pierce it and bore holes. . At first they set about using silver and gold as well as the much stronger metal, copper: They proved no good, it was found that they simply
bent and could not stand up half as well to the work. Then copper was more valued and gold neglected as something useless you couldn’t put a good point
on: Now copper has gone down and what men honor is
gold. So time, as it runs on, changes every fashion and what was once valued attracts no honor at
last. Then something else comes along, which was disregarded but now is more sought after from day to day and everyone praises that and says it is marvelous. . It is easy now, Memmius, to find out for yourself in what way the nature of iron was discovered. The original weapons were hands and nails and
teeth and stones and pieces of broken wood from the
forest and flames and fire, once the use of them was
known. The value of iron came to light after that of
copper which is easier to work and found in greater abundance. It was with copper men plowed, it was with copper
men threw themselves into battle and dealt out
wounds, acquired cattle and fields as well: for those
who are naked and have no arms give way to those who are armed. Gradually the iron sword became popular and a sickle of copper became ridiculous; It was with iron that men tore up the ground and its general use made chances in war more equal. . The habit of armed men mounting on horseback and guiding the horse with one hand while they
fight with the other is older than risking the battle from a two-horsed
chariot, and two-horsed chariots came before chariots-of-four where the armed man is protected by scythes on
the wheels. Later came elephants with towers on their backs and trunks like snakes: the Carthaginians trained
them to take wounds calmly and make the enemy panic. Discord invented one device after another to make war ghastly to the nations engaged in
it; From day to day the horrors of war increased. Men even tried to use bulls as part of the army and to loose fierce boars into the midst of the
enemy; Some went to battle preceded by powerful lions with armed trainers to keep them under control who were supposed to guide and hold them in leash. It didn’t work; they got excited by carnage and caused confusion a little too indiscriminately and their fearful manes popped up in unsuitable
places: There was no controlling the horses, and no certainty that they would continue to advance on the enemy. The lionesses threw their excited bodies in all directions and would attack whomever they
met, while others they would unexpectedly take from
the rear and pin them down to the ground or leave them
wounded, or fasten them with their teeth and claws. The bulls would toss and trample on their owners and rip the bellies of horses from below or at least churn up the ground and look very
threatening. The boars would tear up their allies with their
tusks, dyeing with blood the weapons broken upon them and shaking up both infantry and cavalry. For the horses would shy away from the side where
the tusk was or stand on their hind legs and try to take to
the air: That didn’t work either, for their tendons were
often snapped and they came tumbling down in a heavy fall. These animals which they though so domesticated got a little heated with all that was going on, the wounding, the shouting, the flight, the terror,
the tumult; It was quite impossible to collect even a few
of them, the whole menagerie flew in various directions as elephants now when they are deeply wounded will bolt and often damage their own side. That was how things were managed: but I find it
hard to believe that men could not have see there would be trouble before they brought so much of it on themselves: But they did what they did no so much in the hope
of winning as to make their enemies suffer and die in the
process when they themselves had too few men and perhaps
inferior weapons. . 1379 The imitation of birdsong by the voice came long before the singing of measured verses which men in time learned to make to please their
ears. The whistling of breezes through the hollow reeds taught country people to blow into hollow stalks; Bit by bit they learned to make the plaintive
sounds which came from the pipe when the fingers bring
it to life; A discovery of secluded groves and woods and the pastures where shepherds spent their empty
days. These things they would find soothing and delightful when full of food: for then all things are pleasant. Often they lay stretched out on the soft grass beside a stream and under the shade of a tree. They took their pleasures at very little costs, especially when the weather was good and the season
provided them with a suitable carpet of flowers There were games then and talk and friendly laughter; It was then that the country muse was at her best. Head and shoulders were decorated with garlands of flowers and leaves, which prompted various
amusements including some clumsy dancing out of time and heavy feet stamping rather hard on the earth, the occasion of smiles and a great deal of laughter —for everything was new, and that is exhilarating. There was consolation for the absence of sleep in the miscellaneous voices getting the song wrong as someone ran his crooked lip over the pipes. We have these amusements ourselves still in the
evenings but have learned to keep better time though that
does not make us listen to what we hear with any more pleasure than those country people got from their entertainments. . For whatever we have, if we haven’t known anything
pleasanter, will seem to us absolutely the best there is; Yet generally, with the discovery of something
better, it loses its value and our feelings about it change. So acorns came to be scorned; and nobody wanted
a bed of grass and leaves such as was once thought comfortable. Garments made of skins were sneered at in time although I think the invention of them was envied and probably cost the original wearer his life; Though, torn to pieces and covered with blood
by the murderers, the garment they stole probably wasn’t much use
to them. . Then it was skins, now it is gold and purple people think so much of that they will go to war
for it: In my opinion the current error is worse. Cold was torture to naked men and a sheepskin did something for them: but there is no disadvantage in managing without purple or gold or patterns since ordinary clothes give all the cover we need. It seems the human race likes to labor for nothing and always to spend its time in empty cares. Why? Because people don’t understand that possession
is limited and that there is pleasure in it only up to a
point. It is this which has carried people drifting along until they have stirred up all the storms of war. . But those vigilant watchers of the turning sky, the sun and the moon, filling all with their light, taught men the seasons came around always in order and that everything happens in accordance with
a pattern. . People had long learned to build themselves strong
places and long divided up and tilled the land; They and made the sea blossom with ships under
sail and found out all about allies and making treaties —all this before the poets began to hand things down, writing had only must been
invented: That is why we cannot look back very far except so far as reasoning allows us inferences. . Navigation, the cultivation of fields, defenses, laws, arms, roads, clothes, all the
rest, even to all the elegances of life, poems, pictures, marvelous statues, all are the
outcome of practice and indefatigable minds for all have been achieved little by little. So it is time produces different discoveries and reason gradually brings them into the daylight. So step by step the mind of man grew clearer until the arts reached their perfection.
|