If you learn well and keep these truths in mind, Nature, forthwith enfranchised and released From her proud lords, is seen then to be acting In all things of herself spontaneously Without the interference of the gods. For by the holy breasts of those divinities, Who in calm peace are passing tranquil days Of life untroubled, who, I ask, has power To rule the sum of space immeasurable? Or who to hold in his controlling hand The strong reins of the deep? Who can at once Make all those various firmaments revolve And with the fires of aether warm each one Of all those fruitful earths, or at all times Be present in all places, so to cause Darkness by clouds, and shake the calms of heaven With thunder, to hurl lightnings, and ofttimes Shatter down his own temples, or withdraw To desert regions, there to spend his fury And exercise his bolt, which often indeed Passes the guilty by, and strikes with death The unoffending who deserve it least. Now since the birth-time of the world, since sea And earth’s first natal day and the sun’s origin, Many atoms have been added from without, Many seeds from all round, which, shooting them Hither and thither, the great universe Has brought together: and by means of these Sea and land have been able to increase; Thus too the mansion of the sky has gained New spaciousness, and lifted its high roof Far above earth, and the air has risen with it. For to each thing its own appropriate atoms Are all distributed by blows from all Regions of space, so that they separate Into their proper elements. Moisture joins With moisture: earth from earthy substance grows; Fires generate fire, and ether ether, Till Nature, the creatress, consummating Her labour, has brought all things to their last Limit of growth; as happens, when at length That which is entering the veins of life Is now no more than what is flowing away And ebbing thence. In all things at this point The age of growth must halt: at this point nature Curbs increase by her powers. For all such things As you may see waxing with joyous growth, And climbing step by step to matured age Receive into themselves more particles Than they discharge, so long as food is passing Easily into all their veins, and while They are not so widely spread as to throw off Too many atoms and to cause more waste Than what their life requires for nourishment. For we must surely grant that many atoms Are flowing away from things and leaving them: But still more must be added, till at length They have attained the highest pitch of growth. Then age little by little breaks their powers And their mature strength, as it wastes away On the worse side of life. And out of doubt The bulkier and the wider a thing is,