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第4章

of the nature of things-第4章

小说: of the nature of things 字数: 每页4000字

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Are partly primal germs of things; and partly
Unions deriving from the primal germs。
And those which are the primal germs of things
No power can quench; for in the end they conquer
By their own solidness; though hard it be
To think that aught in things has solid frame;
For lightnings pass; no less than voice and shout;
Through hedging walls of houses; and the iron
White…dazzles in the fire; and rocks will burn
With exhalations fierce and burst asunder。
Totters the rigid gold dissolved in heat;
The ice of bronze melts conquered in the flame;
Warmth and the piercing cold through silver seep;
Since; with the cups held rightly in the hand;
We oft feel both; as from above is poured
The dew of waters between their shining sides:
So true it is no solid form is found。
But yet because true reason and nature of things
Constrain us; come; whilst in few verses now
I disentangle how there still exist
Bodies of solid; everlasting frame…
The seeds of things; the primal germs we teach;
Whence all creation around us came to be。
First since we know a twofold nature exists;
Of things; both twain and utterly unlike…
Body; and place in which an things go on…
Then each must be both for and through itself;
And all unmixed: where'er be empty space;
There body's not; and so where body bides;
There not at all exists the void inane。
Thus primal bodies are solid; without a void。
But since there's void in all begotten things;
All solid matter must be round the same;
Nor; by true reason canst thou prove aught hides
And holds a void within its body; unless
Thou grant what holds it be a solid。 Know;
That which can hold a void of things within
Can be naught else than matter in union knit。
Thus matter; consisting of a solid frame;
Hath power to be eternal; though all else;
Though all creation; be dissolved away。
Again; were naught of empty and inane;
The world were then a solid; as; without
Some certain bodies to fill the places held;
The world that is were but a vacant void。
And so; infallibly; alternate…wise
Body and void are still distinguished;
Since nature knows no wholly full nor void。
There are; then; certain bodies; possessed of power
To vary forever the empty and the full;
And these can nor be sundered from without
By beats and blows; nor from within be torn
By penetration; nor be overthrown
By any assault soever through the world…
For without void; naught can be crushed; it seems;
Nor broken; nor severed by a cut in twain;
Nor can it take the damp; or seeping cold
Or piercing fire; those old destroyers three;
But the more void within a thing; the more
Entirely it totters at their sure assault。
Thus if first bodies be; as I have taught;
Solid; without a void; they must be then
Eternal; and; if matter ne'er had been
Eternal; long ere now had all things gone
Back into nothing utterly; and all
We see around from nothing had been born…
But since I taught above that naught can be
From naught created; nor the once begotten
To naught be summoned back; these primal germs
Must have an immortality of frame。
And into these must each thing be resolved;
When comes its supreme hour; that thus there be
At hand the stuff for plenishing the world。
       。     。     。     。     。     。
So primal germs have solid singleness
Nor otherwise could they have been conserved
Through aeons and infinity of time
For the replenishment of wasted worlds。
Once more; if nature had given a scope for things
To be forever broken more and more;
By now the bodies of matter would have been
So far reduced by breakings in old days
That from them nothing could; at season fixed;
Be born; and arrive its prime and top of life。
For; lo; each thing is quicker marred than made;
And so whate'er the long infinitude
Of days and all fore…passed time would now
By this have broken and ruined and dissolved;
That same could ne'er in all remaining time
Be builded up for plenishing the world。
But mark: infallibly a fixed bound
Remaineth stablished 'gainst their breaking down;
Since we behold each thing soever renewed;
And unto all; their seasons; after their kind;
Wherein they arrive the flower of their age。
    Again; if bounds have not been set against
The breaking down of this corporeal world;
Yet must all bodies of whatever things
Have still endured from everlasting time
Unto this present; as not yet assailed
By shocks of peril。 But because the same

Are; to thy thinking; of a nature frail;
It ill accords that thus they could remain
(As thus they do) through everlasting time;
Vexed through the ages (as indeed they are)
By the innumerable blows of chance。
  So in our programme of creation; mark
How 'tis that; though the bodies of all stuff
Are solid to the core; we yet explain
The ways whereby some things are fashioned soft…
Air; water; earth; and fiery exhalations…
And by what force they function and go on:
The fact is founded in the void of things。
But if the primal germs themselves be soft;
Reason cannot be brought to bear to show
The ways whereby may be created these
Great crags of basalt and the during iron;
For their whole nature will profoundly lack
The first foundations of a solid frame。
But powerful in old simplicity;
Abide the solid; the primeval germs;
And by their combinations more condensed;
All objects can be tightly knit and bound
And made to show unconquerable strength。
Again; since all things kind by kind obtain
Fixed bounds of growing and conserving life;
Since Nature hath inviolably decreed
What each can do; what each can never do;
Since naught is changed; but all things so abide
That ever the variegated birds reveal
The spots or stripes peculiar to their kind;
Spring after spring: thus surely all that is
Must be composed of matter immutable。
For if the primal germs in any wise
Were open to conquest and to change; 'twould be
Uncertain also what could come to birth
And what could not; and by what law to each
Its scope prescribed; its boundary stone that clings
So deep in Time。 Nor could the generations
Kind after kind so often reproduce
The nature; habits; motions; ways of life;
Of their progenitors。
                              And then again;
Since there is ever an extreme bounding point
       。     。     。     。     。     。
Of that first body which our senses now
Cannot perceive: That bounding point indeed
Exists without all parts; a minimum
Of nature; nor was e'er a thing apart;
As of itself;… nor shall hereafter be;
Since 'tis itself still parcel of another;
A first and single part; whence other parts
And others similar in order lie
In a packed phalanx; filling to the full
The nature of first body: being thus
Not self…existent; they must cleave to that
From which in nowise they can sundered be。
So primal germs have solid singleness;
Which tightly packed and closely joined cohere
By virtue of their minim particles…
No compound by mere union of the same;
But strong in their eternal singleness;
Nature; reserving them as seeds for things;
Permitteth naught of rupture or decrease。
  Moreover; were there not a minimum;
The smallest bodies would have infinites;
Since then a half…of…half could still be halved;
With limitless division less and less。
Then what the difference 'twixt the sum and least?
None: for however infinite the sum;
Yet even the smallest would consist the same
Of infinite parts。 But since true reason here
Protests; denying that the mind can think it;
Convinced thou must confess such things there are
As have no parts; the minimums of nature。
And since these are; likewise confess thou must
That primal bodies are solid and eterne。
Again; if Nature; creatress of all things;
Were wont to force all things to be resolved
Unto least parts; then would she not avail
To reproduce from out them anything;
Because whate'er is not endowed with parts
Cannot possess those properties required
Of generative stuff… divers connections;
Weights; blows; encounters; motions; whereby things
Forevermore have being and go on。

CONFUTATION OF OTHER PHILOSOPHERS

  And on such grounds it is that those who held
The stuff of things is fire; and out of fire
Alone the cosmic sum is formed; are seen
Mightily from true reas

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