Chapter VII: Book V (2)

But Centaurs there have never been, nor yet
Ever can things exist of twofold nature
And double body moulded into one
From limbs of alien kind, whose faculties
And functions cannot be on either side
Sufficiently alike. That this is so,
The dullest intellect may be thus convinced.
Consider first that a horse after three years
Is in his flower of vigour, but a boy
By no means so: for often in sleep even then
Will he seek milk still from his mother’s breasts
Afterwards, when the horse’s lusty strength
Fails him in old age, and his limbs grow languid
As life ebbs, then first for a boy begins
The flowering time of youth, and clothes his cheeks
With soft down. Do not then believe that ever
From man’s and burden-bearing horse’s seed
Centaurs can be compounded and have being;
Nor yet Scyllas with half-fish bodies girdled
With raging dogs, and other suchlike things,
Whose limbs we see discordant with themselves,
Since neither do they reach their flower together,
Nor acquire bodily strength, nor in old age
Lose it at the same time: dissimilar
In each the love that burns them, and their modes
Of life incongruous: nor do the same things give
Their bodies pleasure. Thus we may often see
Bearded goats thrive on hemlock, which for man
Is virulent poison. Since moreover flame
Is wont to scorch and burn the tawny bodies
Of lions no less than every other kind
Of flesh and blood on earth, how could it be
That one, yet with a triple body, in front
A lion, behind a serpent, in the midst
Its goat’s self, a Chimaera should breathe forth
From such a body fierce flame at the mouth?
Therefore he who can fable that when earth
Was new and the sky young, such animals
Could have been propagated, resting alone
Upon this vain term, newness, he no doubt
Will babble out many follies in like fashion,
Will say that rivers then throughout the earth
Commonly flowed with gold, that trees were wont
To bloom with jewels, or that man was born
Of such huge bulk and force that he could wade
With giant strides across deep seas and turn
The whole heaven round about him with his hands.
For the fact that there were many seeds of things
Within the earth at that time when it first
Shed living creatures forth, is yet no proof
That beasts could have been born of mingled kinds,
Or limbs of different animals joined together;
Because the various families of plants,
The crops and thriving trees, which even now
Teem upward from the soil luxuriantly,
Can yet never be born woven together;
But each thing has its own process of growth:
All must preserve their mutual differences,
Governed by Nature’s irreversible law.

But that first race of men in the open fields
Was hardier far, (small wonder, since hard Earth
Had brought it forth,) built too around a frame
Of bones more large and solid, knit together
By powerful sinews; nor was it easily
Impaired by heat or cold, nor by strange foods,
Nor yet by any bodily disease.
And during many revolving periods
Of the sun through the sky, they lived their lives
After the roving habit of wild beasts.
No one was then the bent plough’s stalwart guide,
None yet had knowledge how to till the fields
With iron, or plant young saplings in the soil,
Nor how to lop old boughs from the tall trees
With pruning-hooks. What suns and rains had given,
What of her own free will Earth had brought forth,
Was enough bounty to content their hearts.
’Neath acorn-bearing oak-trees their wont was
To alleviate their hunger; and those berries
Which now upon the arbutus you see
Ripening to scarlet hues in winter-time,
The Earth then bore more plentifully and larger
Than in these days. Moreover then the world’s
Luxuriant youth gave birth to many kinds
Of coarse food, ample enough for wretched men.
But to allay their thirst rivers and springs
Invited, as now waters, tumbling down
From the great mountains with clear-sounding plash,
Summon from far the thirsting tribes of beasts.
Furthermore in their roamings they would visit
Those renowned silvan precincts of the Nymphs,
Caverns wherefrom they knew that copious streams,
Gushing forth smoothly, bathed the dripping rocks,
(The dripping rocks, o’er green moss trickling down,)
Or sometimes welled up over the level plain.
As yet they knew not how to employ fire,
Or to make use of skins, and clothe their bodies
With spoils of wild beasts; but inhabiting
Woods, mountains, caves and forests, they would shelter
Their squalid limbs in thickets, when compelled
To shun the buffeting of winds and rains.
No regard could they have to a general good,
Nor did they know how to make use in common
Of any laws or customs. Whatsoever
Fortune might set before him, that would each
Take as his prize, cunning to thrive and live
As best might please him, each one for himself.
And in the woods Venus would join the bodies
Of lovers, whether a mutual desire,
Or the man’s violence and vehement lust
Had won the woman over, or a bribe
Of acorns, arbute-berries or choice pears.
Endowed with marvellous strength of hands and feet
They chased the forest-roaming tribes of beasts;
And many with flung stones and ponderous club
They overcame, some few they would avoid
In hiding-places. And like bristly swine
Just as they were they flung their savage limbs
Naked upon the ground, when night o’ertook them,
Enveloping themselves with leaves and boughs.
Nor did they call for daylight and the sun
Wandering terror-stricken about the fields
With loud wails through the shadows of the night,
But silently, buried in sleep they lay
Waiting until the sun with rosy torch
Brought light into the sky. For since from childhood
They had been wont to see darkness and light
Alternately begotten without fail,
Never could they feel wonder or misgiving
Lest night eternal should possess the earth
And the sun’s light for ever be withdrawn.
But ’twas a worse anxiety that wild beasts
Often made sleep unsafe for these poor wretches.
For driven from their homes in sheltering rocks
They fled at the entrance of a foaming boar
Or strong lion, yielding up at dead of night
Their leaf-strewn beds in panic to fierce guests.
Yet no more often in those days than now
Would mortal men leave the sweet light of life
With lamentation. Each one by himself
Would doubtless be more likely then than now
To be seized and devoured by wild beasts’ teeth,
A living food, and with his groans would fill
Mountains and forests, while he saw his own
Live flesh in a live monument entombed.
But those whom flight had saved with mangled body,
From that time forth would hold their trembling hands
Over their noisome scars, with dreadful cries
Invoking death, till agonising throes
Rid them of life, with none to give them aid,
Ignorant of what wounds required. But then
A single day did not consign to death
Thousands on thousands, marshalled beneath standards,
Nor did the turbulent waters of the deep
Shatter upon the rocks both ships and men.
At that time vainly, without aim or result
The sea would often rise up and turmoil;
Nor could the winsome wiles of the calm deep
Lure men on treacherously with laughing waves,
While reckless seamanship was yet unknown.
Moreover lack of food would then consign
Their fainting limbs to death: now rather plenty
Sinks men to ruin. Often for themselves
Would they pour poison out unwittingly:
To others now with subtler skill they give it.

Afterwards, when they had learnt the use of huts,
And skins, and fire; when woman, joined with man
In wedlock, dwelt apart in one abode,
And they saw offspring born out of themselves,
Then first the human race began to soften.
For fire made their chilly bodies now
Less able to endure the cold beneath
The roof of heaven: Venus impaired their strength:
And children easily by their blandishments
Broke down the haughty temper of their parents.
Then too neighbours began to join in bonds
Of friendship, wishing neither to inflict
Nor suffer violence: and for womankind
And children they would claim kind treatment, pleading
With cries and gestures inarticulately
That all men ought to have pity on the weak.
And though harmony could not everywhere
Be established, yet the most part faithfully
Observed their covenants, or man’s whole race
Would even then have perished, nor till now
Could propagation have preserved their kind.

But it was Nature that constrained their tongues
To utter various sounds; and need struck out
The names of things, in the same way almost
As impotence of tongue is itself seen
To teach gesture to infants, prompting them
To point at things around them. For all creatures
Divine by instinct how far they can use
Their natural powers. Thus before horns are born
And stand out on the forehead of a calf,
When he is angry, he butts and charges with it.
Then panther cubs and lion whelps will fight
With claws and feet and teeth, even at a time
When teeth and claws have hardly yet been formed.
Also we see how the whole race of birds
Trusting their wings, will seek a fluttering succour
From new-fledged pinions. Therefore to suppose
That somebody once apportioned names to things,
And that from him men learnt to use words first,
Is mere folly. For why should this one man
Be able to denote all things by words
And with his tongue form varied sounds, yet others
At the same time be deemed incapable
To have done the like? Besides, if others too
Had not made use of words among themselves,
Whence was the preconception of their usefulness
Implanted in this man, and whence was given him
The primal power to know and comprehend
What he desired to do? Again, one man
Could not subdue by force the wills of many
And compel them to learn the names of things.
It is no easy labour to convince
Deaf men, and teach them what they ought to do;
Since not for long would they endure his voice,
Nor suffer unintelligible sounds
Fruitlessly to be dinned into their ears.
Lastly what should there be to wonder at
So much in this, that mankind, when their voice
And tongue were in full vigour, should name things
By different sounds as different feelings bade them,
Since dumb cattle, and even the wild beasts,
Are wont to emit distinct and varied sounds,
When they feel fear or pain, or when joy moves them.
This indeed may be learnt from manifest facts.
When the large soft mouths of Molossian dogs
Begin to growl, angrily laying bare
Their hard teeth, then far different is the tone
In which they threaten, savagely thus drawn back,
From the clear sound which, when they bark outright,
Fills the whole neighbourhood. And when they essay
In gentle mood to lick their cubs, or when
They toss them with their paws, and snapping at them
Tenderly make as though they would devour them
With half-closed teeth, thus fondling them they yelp
With a quite different sound from their deep bay
When left alone in houses, or from the whimper
With which crouching they shrink away from blows.
Furthermore does not a young stallion’s neigh
Seem different, when he rages among the mares
Pierced in his flower of age by winged love’s goads,
From when with wide-stretched nostrils he snorts out
The battle signal, or when at other times
Perchance he whinnies trembling in all his limbs?
Lastly the race of fowl and varied birds,
Hawks and ospreys and gulls that seek their living
In the salt waters of the ocean waves,
Utter at different times quite different cries
From those they make when they fight over food,
Or struggle with their prey. And some will change
Their harsh notes in accordance with the weather,
As do the long-lived tribes of crows, and flocks
Of rooks, when they are said to call for rain,
Or sometimes to be summoning wind-storms.
Since therefore various feelings can compel
Animals, speechless though they be, to utter
Such varying sounds, how much more natural
Is it that in those days men could denote
Dissimilar things by many different sounds!

In answer to your silent questioning here,
I say it was the lightning first brought fire
Down to the earth for men; and from that flame
All other flames have spread. Thus we behold
Many things blaze forth, lit by fire from heaven,
When the sky’s stroke has charged them with its heat.
Yet when a branching tree, tossed by the wind,
Chafing the branches of another tree,
Sways to and fro, then fire may be forced out
By violent stress of friction; and at times
Hot flames are kindled and flash forth from boughs
And stems rubbing together. Of these two chances
Either may first have given fire to men.
Next the sun taught them to cook food, heating
And softening it with flame; since they would note
Many things mellowing about the fields
Smitten and conquered by his scorching rays.

And more and more each day men who excelled
In subtlety and power of mind, would show them
How by new methods and by using fire
To improve their former means of livelihood.
Kings began to found cities and build forts
As refuges and strongholds for themselves,
Dividing cattle and lands, and portioning
To each his share according to his beauty,
His strength and intellect; for comeliness
Was much esteemed, and strength was paramount.
Afterwards property was devised, and gold
Discovered, which with ease robbed both the strong
And beautiful of their honours: for most men,
However brave and beautiful by birth,
Follow the fortunes of the richer man.
But whosoever by true reason’s rule
Governs his days, for him plain frugal living
And a contented spirit is mighty wealth;
For of a little never is there lack.
Yet men wished to become renowned and powerful,
That so their fortunes on a stable base
Might rest, and they, being wealthy, might have power
To lead a tranquil life: in vain! For while
They strove to mount to the highest pitch of honour
Their path was perilous: and even although
They have reached the summit, envy will sometimes
Strike like a thunderbolt and hurl men down
Contemptuously to noisome Tartarus:
Since highest things, lifted above all else,
Are most wont as by lightning to be blasted
By envy; so that quietly to obey
Is better than to crave sovereign power
And lordship over realms. Therefore let men
Sweat drops of blood, wearying themselves in vain,
Struggling along ambition’s narrow road;
Since from the mouths of others comes their wisdom,
And ’tis from hearsay rather than their own
Authentic feelings, they pursue such aims:
Nor does this happen now, nor will it happen
Hereafter any more than once it did.

Kings therefore being slain, the ancient majesty
Of thrones and haughty sceptres was laid low.
The glorious symbol of the sovereign head,
Trodden bloodstained beneath the people’s feet,
Mourned its proud honour lost; for that is greedily
Trampled down which before was too much feared.
Thus to the very lees of anarchy
The whole state was reduced, while each man grasped
At lordship and dominion for himself.
Then some among them taught how to create
Magistrates, and established codes, that all
Might learn to obey laws. For now mankind,
Utterly wearied of a violent life,
Lay languishing by reason of its feuds.
Therefore the sooner of its own free will
Did it submit to laws and stringent codes.
For seeing that each, when anger prompted him,
Strove more severely to avenge himself
Than just laws now permit, for this cause men
Grew tired of a life of violence.
Thenceforward fear of punishment infects
The enjoyment of life’s prizes: for the nets
Of violence and wrong entangle all those
Who inflict them, and most often they recoil
On such as used them first: nor is it easy
For him to pass a quiet and peaceful life,
Whose deeds transgress the bonds of public peace.
For though he should elude both gods and men,
Yet he must needs mistrust whether his guilt
Will remain veiled for ever, since ’tis said
That many often by talking in their dreams,
Or in delirious sickness have betrayed
Their secrets, and revealed long-hidden crimes.
Now what may be the cause that has spread wide
The cult of deities over mighty nations,
And filled cities with altars, and prescribed
The observance of such sacred rites as now
At solemn times and places are performed,
Whence even now is implanted in men’s minds
Religious awe, that over the whole earth
Raises new temples to the gods, and prompts
Worshippers to frequent them on feast-days--
Why this should be, ’tis easy to explain.
For in those early times mortals would see
With waking mind the glorious images
Of deities and behold them in their sleep
Of size yet more gigantic. To these then
They would attribute sense, because they seemed
To move their limbs and utter stately speech
Worthy of their noble aspect and great powers.
Also they deemed eternal life was theirs,
Because their images continually
Would reappear, and their form did not change,
But most because they could not well conceive
How beings who seemed gifted with such powers
Could lightly be subdued by any force.
And they believed that their felicity
Must be beyond compare, since none of them
Was ever troubled by the fear of death,
Because moreover in sleep they beheld them
Performing without effort many miracles.
Again they saw how the orderings of heaven
And the year’s varying seasons would return
According to fixed law, yet could they not
Discover from what causes this took place.
Therefore they found a refuge from such doubts
In handing all things over to the deities
And deeming all to be guided by their nod.
The abodes of their divinities they placed
In heaven, because they saw night and the moon
Progressing through the sky, moon day and night,
The severe constellations of the night,
The sky’s night-wandering meteors and gliding fires,
Clouds sun and snow, lightning and winds and hail,
Thunder’s swift crash and mightily threatening murmurs.

O unhappy race of men, that could assign
Such functions to the deities, and thereto
Add cruel wrath! What groans then for themselves
Did they beget, what wounds for us, what tears
For our children’s children! ’Tis no piety
To be seen often with veiled head to turn
Towards a stone, visiting every altar,
Nor to fall grovelling with outspread palms
Prostrate before the temples of the gods,
Nor sprinkling altars with much blood of beasts
To add to votive offering votive offering;
But this rather is piety, to have power
To survey all things with a tranquil mind.
For when we lift our eyes to the celestial
Temples of the great universe, and the aether
Studded with glittering stars, and contemplate
The paths of sun and moon, then in our breasts,
Burdened with other evils, this fear too
Begins to lift its reawakened head,
Lest perchance it be true that with the gods
Resides a boundless power, which can move
Upon their various courses the bright stars.
For ignorance of cause troubles the mind,
So that it doubts whether there ever was
A birth-time and beginning for the world,
And likewise whether there shall be an end;
How far the world’s walls can endure this strain
Of restless motion, or whether by the gods
With eternal stability endowed
They may glide on through endless lapse of time,
Defying the strong powers of infinite age.
Again whose mind shrinks not with awe of gods,
Whose limbs creep not for terror, when beneath
The appalling stroke of thunder the parched earth
Shudders, and mutterings run through the vast sky?
Do not the peoples and the nations quake,
And proud kings, stricken with religious dread
Sit quailing, lest for any wicked deed
Or overweening word, the heavy time
Of reckoning and punishment be ripe?
Also when the full violence of a wind
Raging across the sea, sweeps o’er the waves
The high commander of a fleet, with all
His powerful legions and his elephants,
Does he not supplicate the gods with vows
For mercy, and with craven prayers entreat them
To lull the storm and grant propitious gales?
But all in vain; since often none the less,
Seized by the violent hurricane, he is whirled
Onto the shoals of death. Thus evermore
Some hidden power treads human grandeur down,
And seems to make its sport of the proud rods
And cruel axes, crushed beneath its heel.
Lastly, when the whole earth rocks under them,
And cities tumble with the shock, or stand
In doubt, threatening to fall, what wonder is it
That mortal creatures should abase themselves,
Assigning vast dominion to the gods,
And wondrous powers to govern all below?

Now must be told how copper gold and iron,
And weighty silver also, and solid lead
Were first discovered when on the great hills
Fire had consumed huge forests with its heat,
Kindled either by lightning from the sky,
Or because men waging some forest war
Had carried fire among their enemies
For terror’s sake; or else because, drawn on
By the soil’s goodness, they would wish to clear
Fat lands and turn them unto pasturage,
Or to kill beasts and grow rich with the spoils.
For hunting with the pitfall and with fire
Came into use before woods were enclosed
With nets or drawn by dogs. Howe’er that be,
From whatsoever cause the heat of flame
With terrible crackling had devoured whole forests
Down to their deepest roots, and throughly baked
The soil with fire, forth from the burning veins
There would ooze and collect in cavities
Streams of silver and gold, of copper too,
And lead. When afterwards men found these metals
Cooled into masses glittering on the ground
With brilliant colours, they would pick them up,
Attracted by their bright smooth loveliness;
And they would then observe how each was formed
Into a shape similar to the imprint
Of the hole where it lay. Next it would strike them
That, melted down by heat, these could be made
To run into any form and mould they pleased,
And further could by hammering be wrought
Into points tapering as sharp and fine
As they might need, so furnishing themselves
With tools wherewith to cut down woods, hew timber
And plane planks smooth, to drill and pierce and bore.
And this they would attempt with silver and gold
No less than with stout copper’s mighty strength.
But in vain, since their yielding force would fail,
Being proved less fit to endure toil and strain.
In those days copper was more highly esteemed;
Gold lay despised as useless with its dull
And blunted edge: now copper lies neglected,
Whereas gold has attained the pitch of honour.
Thus Time as it revolves is ever changing
The seasons of things. What was once esteemed
Becomes at length of no repute; whereon
Some other thing, issuing from contempt,
Mounts up and daily is coveted more and more,
And, once discovered, blossoms out in praises,
Rising to wondrous honour among men.

Now, Memmius, you will easily of yourself
Understand in what way were first discovered
The properties of iron. Man’s earliest weapons
Were hands nails teeth and stones, and boughs torn off
From forest trees, and flame and fire, as each
Became known. Afterwards the force of iron
And copper was discovered. And the use
Of copper was known earlier than of iron,
Since it was easier to be worked, and found
More copiously. With copper they would till
The soil of earth, with copper they stirred up
The waves of war, and dealt wide-gaping wounds,
And seized on lands and cattle: for all else,
Being naked and unarmed, would yield to those
Who carried weapons. Then by slow degrees
The sword of iron made progress, while the type
Of the copper sickle came to be despised.
With iron they began to cleave the soil,
And through its use wavering war’s conflicts
Were rendered equal. Earlier was the custom
Of mounting armed upon a horse’s back
And guiding it with reins, and dealing blows
With the right arm, long before men dared tempt
The risks of battle in the two-horsed car.
And they would learn the art to yoke two steeds
Earlier than to yoke four, or to mount armed
Upon scythed chariots. Next the Poeni taught
The uncouth Lucanian kine,[H] with towered backs
And snake-like hands, to endure the wounds of war,
And rout great troops of martial chivalry.
Thus miserable discord brought to birth
One thing after another, to appal
Mankind’s embattled nations, every day
Making addition to war’s frightfulness.

Also in warfare they made trial of bulls,
And sought to drive fierce boars against the foe.
And some sent mighty lions in their van
With armed trainers and savage guardians
To govern them and hold them in with chains;
In vain, for heated with promiscuous carnage
They put to flight whole squadrons in their rage
Without distinction, tossing on every side
Their terrible crests; nor could the horsemen calm
Their horses, panic-stricken by the roaring,
Or turn them by the bridle against their foes.
The she-lions would spring fiercely on all sides
Right in the faces of their adversaries,
Or from behind seizing them off their guard
Would clasp and tear them wounded down to the earth,
Gripping them with their strong teeth and hooked claws.
The bulls would toss and trample underfoot
Their own friends, goring the horses from beneath
In belly and flank, tearing the soil up savagely.
Fierce boars would rend their allies with strong tusks.
Staining the broken weapons with their blood,
And put to rout both horse and foot together.
The steeds, to escape from the tusk’s cruel push,
Would swerve aside or rearing paw the air,
In vain, for with severed tendons they would crash
Heavily down to the earth and lie stretched out.
Beasts, by the keepers deemed to have been tamed
Sufficiently at home, they now would see
Heated to madness in the hour of battle,
By wounds and shouts, flight panic and uproar.
No portion of all the different kinds of beasts,
Once scattered in wild flight, could they recall.
So often nowadays the Lucanian kine,
Gashed cruelly with the steel, will fly dispersed,
Inflicting ruinous havoc on their friends.
Thus might these men have acted: yet I scarce
Can think they were not able to foresee
And calculate how horrible a disaster
Was certain to befall both sides alike.
But men chose to act thus, not in the hope
Of victory so much, as from the wish,
Though they themselves perished, to give their foes
Cause to lament, being desperate through mistrust
Of their own numbers, or through lack of arms.

The plaited garment came before the dress
Of woven stuff. Weaving comes after iron,
Since weaving tools need iron to fashion them.
By no means else can such smooth things be made
As heddles, spindles, shuttles and clattering yarn-beams.
Men before womankind did Nature prompt
To work wool; for in general the male sex
Is by far the more skilful and ingenious:
Till the rough peasants chided them so sternly
That at length they consented to resign
Such lighter tasks into the hands of women,
And themselves took their share in heavier toils,
Hardening with hard labour limbs and hands.

But Nature, the creatress, herself first
Taught men to sow and prompted them to graft.
For berries and acorns dropping from the trees
Would put forth in due season underneath
Swarms of seedlings: and hence the fancy came
To insert grafts upon the boughs, and plant
Young saplings in the soil about the fields.
Next they would try another and yet another
Method of tilling their loved piece of land,
And so could watch how kindly fostering culture
Helped the earth to improve its own wild fruits.
And they would force the forests day by day
To retreat higher up the mountain-sides
And yield the ground below to husbandry,
That so meadows and ponds, rivulets, crops,
And glad vineyards might cover hill and plain,
While grey-green boundary strips of olive trees
Might run between the fields, stretching far out
O’er hillock, valley and plain; as now we see
Whole countrysides glowing with varied beauty,
Adorned with rows of sweet fruit-bearing trees,
And enclosed round about with joyous groves.

But the art of imitating with their mouths
The liquid notes of birds, came long before
Men could delight their ears by singing words
To smooth tunes; and the whistlings of the zephyr
In hollow reeds first taught the husbandman
To blow through hollow stalks. Then by degrees
They learnt those sweet sad ditties, which the pipe,
Touched by the fingers of the melodist,
Pours forth, such as are heard ’mid pathless woods,
Forests and glades, or in the lonely haunts
Of shepherds, and the abodes of magic calm.
Thus would they soothe and gratify their minds,
When satiate with food; for all such things
Give pleasure then. So often, couched together
On the soft grass, beside a waterbrook
Beneath a tall tree’s boughs, at no great cost
They would regale their bodies joyously,
At those times chiefly when the weather smiled,
And the year’s seasons painted the green herbage
With flowers. Then went round the jest, the tale,
The merry laugh, for then the rustic muse
Was in full force: then frolick jollity
Would prompt them to enwreathe their heads and shoulders
With plaited garlands woven of flowers and leaves,
Or dancing out of measure to move their limbs
Clumsily, and with clumsy foot to beat
Their mother earth; whence smiles and jovial laughter
Would rise; since the more novel then and strange
All such sports seemed, the more they were admired.
And they would find a salve for wakefulness
In giving voice to many varied tones
Of winding melody, running with curved lip
Over the reed-pipes: and from them this custom
Is handed down to watchmen nowadays,
Who, though they have better learnt to observe time,
Yet not one whit more pleasure do they enjoy
Than once that silvan race of earth-born men.
For what is present, if we have never known
Anything more delightful, gives us pleasure
Beyond all else, and seems to be the best;
But if some better thing be afterwards
Discovered, this will often spoil for us all
That pleased us once, and change our feelings towards it.
Thus it was acorns came to be disliked:
Thus were abandoned those beds of strewn grass
And heaped leaves: the dress too of wild beast’s skin
Fell thus into contempt. Yet I suppose
That when it was invented it would rouse
Such envy, that the man who wore it first
Would be waylaid and slain: yet after all
It would be torn to pieces among the thieves
And with much bloodshed utterly destroyed,
So that it never could be turned to use.
Therefore skins then, now gold and purple vex
Men’s lives with cares and wear them out with war.
And here, I think, the greater guilt is ours;
For the cold would torment these earth-born men
Naked without their skins; but us no harm
Whatever can it cause to go without
A purple robe broidered with large designs
In gold thread, so we have but on our backs
A plain plebeian cloak to keep us warm.
Therefore mankind is always toiling vainly,
Fruitlessly wasting life in empty cares,
Doubtless because they will not recognise
The limits of possession, nor the bounds
Beyond which no true pleasure can increase.
And so by slow degrees this ignorance
Has carried life out into the deep seas,
And from the bottom stirred up war’s huge waves.

But those vigilant watchers, sun and moon,
That circling round illumine with their light
The vast revolving temple of the sky,
Taught mankind how the seasons of the year
Return, and how all things are brought to pass
According to fixed system and fixed law.

And now men dwelt securely fenced about
By strong towers, and the land was portioned out
And marked off to be tilled. Already now
The sea was white with flitting sails, and towns
Were joined in league of friendship and alliance.
Then first poets made record in their songs
Of men’s deeds: for not long before this time
Letters had been invented. For which cause
Our age cannot look backward to things past,
Save where reason reveals some evidence.

Shipping and agriculture, city-walls,
Laws, arms, roads, robes and other suchlike things,
Moreover all life’s prizes and refinements,
Poems and pictures, and the chiselling
Of fine-wrought statues, every one of these
Long practice and the untiring mind’s experience
Taught men by slow degrees, as they progressed
Step after step. Thus time little by little
Brings forth each several thing, and reason lifts it
Into the borders of the light; for first
One thing and then another must in turn
Rise from obscurity, until each art
Attains its highest pitch of excellence.