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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=450284" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Book I - Part 07 - The Infinity Of The Universe</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now learn of what remains! More keenly hear! <br>And for myself, my mind is not deceived <br>How dark it is: But the large hope of praise <br>Hath strook with pointed thyrsus through my heart; <br>On the same hour hath strook into my breast <br>Sweet love of the Muses, wherewith now instinct, <br>I wander afield, thriving in sturdy thought, <br>Through unpathed haunts of the Pierides, <br>Trodden by step of none before. I joy <br>To come on undefiled fountains there, <br>To drain them deep; I joy to pluck new flowers, <br>To seek for this my head a signal crown <br>From regions where the Muses never yet <br>Have garlanded the temples of a man: <br>First, since I teach concerning mighty things, <br>And go right on to loose from round the mind <br>The tightened coils of dread religion; <br>Next, since, concerning themes so dark, I frame <br>Songs so pellucid, touching all throughout <br>Even with the Muses' charm- which, as 'twould seem, <br>Is not without a reasonable ground: <br>But as physicians, when they seek to give <br>Young boys the nauseous wormwood, first do touch <br>The brim around the cup with the sweet juice <br>And yellow of the boney, in order that <br>The thoughtless age of boyhood be cajoled <br>As far as the lips, and meanwhile swallow down <br>The wormwood's bitter draught, and, though befooled <br>Be yet not merely duped, but rather thus <br>Grow strong again with recreated health: <br>So now I too (since this my doctrine seems <br>In general somewhat woeful unto those <br>Who've had it not in hand, and since the crowd <br>Starts back from it in horror) have desired <br>To expound our doctrine unto thee in song <br>Soft-speaking and Pierian, and, as 'twere, <br>To touch it with sweet honey of the Muse- <br>If by such method haply I might hold <br>The mind of thee upon these lines of ours, <br>Till thou see through the nature of all things, <br>And how exists the interwoven frame. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But since I've taught that bodies of matter, made <br>Completely solid, hither and thither fly <br>Forevermore unconquered through all time, <br>Now come, and whether to the sum of them <br>There be a limit or be none, for thee <br>Let us unfold; likewise what has been found <br>To be the wide inane, or room, or space <br>Wherein all things soever do go on, <br>Let us examine if it finite be <br>All and entire, or reach unmeasured round <br>And downward an illimitable profound. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus, then, the All that is is limited <br>In no one region of its onward paths, <br>For then 'tmust have forever its beyond. <br>And a beyond 'tis seen can never be <br>For aught, unless still further on there be <br>A somewhat somewhere that may bound the same- <br>So that the thing be seen still on to where <br>The nature of sensation of that thing <br>Can follow it no longer. Now because <br>Confess we must there's naught beside the sum, <br>There's no beyond, and so it lacks all end. <br>It matters nothing where thou post thyself, <br>In whatsoever regions of the same; <br>Even any place a man has set him down <br>Still leaves about him the unbounded all <br>Outward in all directions; or, supposing <br>moment the all of space finite to be, <br>If some one farthest traveller runs forth <br>Unto the extreme coasts and throws ahead <br>A flying spear, is't then thy wish to think <br>It goes, hurled off amain, to where 'twas sent <br>And shoots afar, or that some object there <br>Can thwart and stop it? For the one or other <br>Thou must admit; and take. Either of which <br>Shuts off escape for thee, and does compel <br>That thou concede the all spreads everywhere, <br>Owning no confines. Since whether there be <br>Aught that may block and check it so it comes <br>Not where 'twas sent, nor lodges in its goal, <br>Or whether borne along, in either view <br>'Thas started not from any end. And so <br>I'll follow on, and whereso'er thou set <br>The extreme coasts, I'll query, &quot;what becomes <br>Thereafter of thy spear?&quot; 'Twill come to pass <br>That nowhere can a world's-end be, and that <br>The chance for further flight prolongs forever <br>The flight itself. Besides, were all the space <br>Of the totality and sum shut in <br>With fixed coasts, and bounded everywhere, <br>Then would the abundance of world's matter flow <br>Together by solid weight from everywhere <br>Still downward to the bottom of the world, <br>Nor aught could happen under cope of sky, <br>Nor could there be a sky at all or sun- <br>Indeed, where matter all one heap would lie, <br>By having settled during infinite time. <br>But in reality, repose is given <br>Unto no bodies 'mongst the elements, <br>Because there is no bottom whereunto <br>They might, as 'twere, together flow, and where <br>They might take up their undisturbed abodes. <br>In endless motion everything goes on <br>Forevermore; out of all regions, even <br>Out of the pit below, from forth the vast, <br>Are hurtled bodies evermore supplied. <br>The nature of room, the space of the abyss <br>Is such that even the flashing thunderbolts <br>Can neither speed upon their courses through, <br>Gliding across eternal tracts of time, <br>Nor, further, bring to pass, as on they run, <br>That they may bate their journeying one whit: <br>Such huge abundance spreads for things around- <br>Room off to every quarter, without end. <br>Lastly, before our very eyes is seen <br>Thing to bound thing: air hedges hill from hill, <br>And mountain walls hedge air; land ends the sea, <br>And sea in turn all lands; but for the All <br>Truly is nothing which outside may bound. <br>That, too, the sum of things itself may not <br>Have power to fix a measure of its own, <br>Great Nature guards, she who compels the void <br>To bound all body, as body all the void, <br>Thus rendering by these alternates the whole <br>An infinite; or else the one or other, <br>Being unbounded by the other, spreads, <br>Even by its single nature, ne'ertheless <br>Immeasurably forth.... <br>Nor sea, nor earth, nor shining vaults of sky, <br>Nor breed of mortals, nor holy limbs of gods <br>Could keep their place least portion of an hour: <br>For, driven apart from out its meetings fit, <br>The stock of stuff, dissolved, would be borne <br>Along the illimitable inane afar, <br>Or rather, in fact, would never have once combined <br>And given a birth to aught, since, scattered wide, <br>It could not be united. For of truth <br>Neither by counsel did the primal germs <br>'Stablish themselves, as by keen act of mind, <br>Each in its proper place; nor did they make, <br>Forsooth, a compact how each germ should move; <br>But since, being many and changed in many modes <br>Along the All, they're driven abroad and vexed <br>By blow on blow, even from all time of old, <br>They thus at last, after attempting all <br>The kinds of motion and conjoining, come <br>Into those great arrangements out of which <br>This sum of things established is create, <br>By which, moreover, through the mighty years, <br>It is preserved, when once it has been thrown <br>Into the proper motions, bringing to pass <br>That ever the streams refresh the greedy main <br>With river-waves abounding, and that earth, <br>Lapped in warm exhalations of the sun, <br>Renews her broods, and that the lusty race <br>Of breathing creatures bears and blooms, and that <br>The gliding fires of ether are alive- <br>What still the primal germs nowise could do, <br>Unless from out the infinite of space <br>Could come supply of matter, whence in season <br>They're wont whatever losses to repair. <br>For as the nature of breathing creatures wastes, <br>Losing its body, when deprived of food: <br>So all things have to be dissolved as soon <br>As matter, diverted by what means soever <br>From off its course, shall fail to be on hand. <br>Nor can the blows from outward still conserve, <br>On every side, whatever sum of a world <br>Has been united in a whole. They can <br>Indeed, by frequent beating, check a part, <br>Till others arriving may fulfil the sum; <br>But meanwhile often are they forced to spring <br>Rebounding back, and, as they spring, to yield, <br>Unto those elements whence a world derives, <br>Room and a time for flight, permitting them <br>To be from off the massy union borne <br>Free and afar. Wherefore, again, again: <br>Needs must there come a many for supply; <br>And also, that the blows themselves shall be <br>Unfailing ever, must there ever be <br>An infinite force of matter all sides round. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And in these problems, shrink, my Memmius, far <br>From yielding faith to that notorious talk: <br>That all things inward to the centre press; <br>And thus the nature of the world stands firm <br>With never blows from outward, nor can be <br>Nowhere disparted- since all height and depth <br>Have always inward to the centre pressed <br>(If thou art ready to believe that aught <br>Itself can rest upon itself ); or that <br>The ponderous bodies which be under earth <br>Do all press upwards and do come to rest <br>Upon the earth, in some ways upside down, <br>Like to those images of things we see <br>At present through the waters. They contend, <br>With like procedure, that all breathing things <br>Head downward roam about, and yet cannot <br>Tumble from earth to realms of sky below, <br>No more than these our bodies wing away <br>Spontaneously to vaults of sky above; <br>That, when those creatures look upon the sun, <br>We view the constellations of the night; <br>And that with us the seasons of the sky <br>They thus alternately divide, and thus <br>Do pass the night coequal to our days, <br>But a vain error has given these dreams to fools, <br>What they've embraced with reasoning perverse <br>For centre none can be where world is still <br>Boundless, nor yet, if now a centre were, <br>Could aught take there a fixed position more <br>Than for some other cause 'tmight be dislodged. <br>For all of room and space we call the void <br>Must both through centre and non-centre yield <br>Alike to weights where'er their motions tend. <br>Nor is there any place, where, when they've come, <br>Bodies can be at standstill in the void, <br>Deprived of force of weight; nor yet may void <br>Furnish support to any,- nay, it must, <br>True to its bent of nature, still give way. <br>Thus in such manner not all can things <br>Be held in union, as if overcome <br>By craving for a centre. <br>But besides, <br>Seeing they feign that not all bodies press <br>To centre inward, rather only those <br>Of earth and water (liquid of the sea, <br>And the big billows from the mountain slopes, <br>And whatsoever are encased, as 'twere, <br>In earthen body), contrariwise, they teach <br>How the thin air, and with it the hot fire, <br>Is borne asunder from the centre, and how, <br>For this all ether quivers with bright stars, <br>And the sun's flame along the blue is fed <br>(Because the heat, from out the centre flying, <br>All gathers there), and how, again, the boughs <br>Upon the tree-tops could not sprout their leaves, <br>Unless, little by little, from out the earth <br>For each were nutriment... </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lest, after the manner of the winged flames, <br>The ramparts of the world should flee away, <br>Dissolved amain throughout the mighty void, <br>And lest all else should likewise follow after, <br>Aye, lest the thundering vaults of heaven should burst <br>And splinter upward, and the earth forthwith <br>Withdraw from under our feet, and all its bulk, <br>Among its mingled wrecks and those of heaven, <br>With slipping asunder of the primal seeds, <br>Should pass, along the immeasurable inane, <br>Away forever, and, that instant, naught <br>Of wrack and remnant would be left, beside <br>The desolate space, and germs invisible. <br>For on whatever side thou deemest first <br>The primal bodies lacking, lo, that side <br>Will be for things the very door of death: <br>Wherethrough the throng of matter all will dash, <br>Out and abroad. <br>These points, if thou wilt ponder, <br>Then, with but paltry trouble led along... </div><div style="margin:10px 0">For one thing after other will grow clear, <br>Nor shall the blind night rob thee of the road, <br>To hinder thy gaze on Nature's Farthest-forth. <br>Thus things for things shall kindle torches new.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Lucretius">Lucretius</a><div class=q>
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And for myself, my mind is not deceived 
How dark it is: But the large hope of praise 
Hath strook with pointed thyrsus through my heart; 
On the same hour hath strook into my breast 
Sweet love of the..."></div>
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