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. BOOK VI, lines 1-95