And in the first place, since primordials be So far beneath our senses, and much less E'en than those objects which begin to grow Too small for eyes to note, learn now in few How nice are the beginnings of all things-That this, too, I may yet confirm in proof:
First, living creatures are sometimes so small That even their third part can nowise be seen;Judge, then, the size of any inward organ-What of their sphered heart, their eyes, their limbs, The skeleton?- How tiny thus they are!
And what besides of those first particles Whence soul and mind must fashioned be?- Seest not How nice and how minute? Besides, whatever Exhales from out its body a sharp smell-The nauseous absinth, or the panacea, Strong southernwood, or bitter centaury-If never so lightly with thy [fingers] twain Perchance [thou touch] a one of them . . . . . .
Then why not rather know that images Flit hither and thither, many, in many modes, Bodiless and invisible?
But lest Haply thou holdest that those images Which come from objects are the sole that flit, Others indeed there be of own accord Begot, self-formed in earth's aery skies, Which, moulded to innumerable shapes, Are borne aloft, and, fluid as they are, Cease not to change appearance and to turn Into new outlines of all sorts of forms;As we behold the clouds grow thick on high And smirch the serene vision of the world, Stroking the air with motions. For oft are seen The giants' faces flying far along And trailing a spread of shadow; and at times The mighty mountains and mountain-sundered rocks Going before and crossing on the sun, Whereafter a monstrous beast dragging amain And leading in the other thunderheads.
Now [hear] how easy and how swift they be Engendered, and perpetually flow off From things and gliding pass away....
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For ever every outside streams away From off all objects, since discharge they may;And when this outside reaches other things, As chiefly glass, it passes through; but where It reaches the rough rocks or stuff of wood, There 'tis so rent that it cannot give back An image. But when gleaming objects dense, As chiefly mirrors, have been set before it, Nothing of this sort happens. For it can't Go, as through glass, nor yet be rent- its safety, By virtue of that smoothness, being sure.
'Tis therefore that from them the images Stream back to us; and howso suddenly Thou place, at any instant, anything Before a mirror, there an image shows;Proving that ever from a body's surface Flow off thin textures and thin shapes of things.
Thus many images in little time Are gendered; so their origin is named Rightly a speedy. And even as the sun Must send below, in little time, to earth So many beams to keep all things so full Of light incessant; thus, on grounds the same, From things there must be borne, in many modes, To every quarter round, upon the moment, The many images of things; because Unto whatever face of things we turn The mirror, things of form and hue the same Respond. Besides, though but a moment since Serenest was the weather of the sky, So fiercely sudden is it foully thick That ye might think that round about all murk Had parted forth from Acheron and filled The mighty vaults of sky- so grievously, As gathers thus the storm-clouds' gruesome night, Do faces of black horror hang on high-Of which how small a part an image is There's none to tell or reckon out in words.
Now come; with what swift motion they are borne, These images, and what the speed assigned To them across the breezes swimming on-So that o'er lengths of space a little hour Alone is wasted, toward whatever region Each with its divers impulse tends- I'll tell In verses sweeter than they many are;Even as the swan's slight note is better far Than that dispersed clamour of the cranes Among the southwind's aery clouds. And first, One oft may see that objects which are light And made of tiny bodies are the swift;In which class is the sun's light and his heat, Since made from small primordial elements Which, as it were, are forward knocked along And through the interspaces of the air To pass delay not, urged by blows behind;For light by light is instantly supplied And gleam by following gleam is spurred and driven.
Thus likewise must the images have power Through unimaginable space to speed Within a point of time,- first, since a cause Exceeding small there is, which at their back Far forward drives them and propels, where, too, They're carried with such winged lightness on;And, secondly, since furnished, when sent off, With texture of such rareness that they can Through objects whatsoever penetrate And ooze, as 'twere, through intervening air.
Besides, if those fine particles of things Which from so deep within are sent abroad, As light and heat of sun, are seen to glide And spread themselves through all the space of heaven Upon one instant of the day, and fly O'er sea and lands and flood the heaven, what then Of those which on the outside stand prepared, When they're hurled off with not a thing to check Their going out? Dost thou not see indeed How swifter and how farther must they go And speed through manifold the length of space In time the same that from the sun the rays O'erspread the heaven? This also seems to be Example chief and true with what swift speed The images of things are borne about:
That soon as ever under open skies Is spread the shining water, all at once, If stars be out in heaven, upgleam from earth, Serene and radiant in the water there, The constellations of the universe-Now seest thou not in what a point of time An image from the shores of ether falls Unto the shores of earth? Wherefore, again, And yet again, 'tis needful to confess With wondrous...
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THE SENSES AND MENTAL PICTURES
Bodies that strike the eyes, awaking sight.
From certain things flow odours evermore, As cold from rivers, heat from sun, and spray From waves of ocean, eater-out of walls Around the coasts. Nor ever cease to flit The varied voices, sounds athrough the air.