Lucretius: On the nature of things by Lucretius Carus Titus & Epictetus. Discourses. 1955 & Marcus Aurelius Emperor of Rome 121-180. Meditations. 1955 & Munro H. A. J. (Hugh Andrew Johnstone) 1819-1885 & Long George 1800-1879

Author:Lucretius Carus, Titus & Epictetus. Discourses. 1955 & Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, 121-180. Meditations. 1955 & Munro, H. A. J. (Hugh Andrew Johnstone), 1819-1885 & Long, George, 1800-1879
Language: eng, lat
Format: epub
Tags: Didactic poetry, Latin, Philosophy, Ancient
Publisher: Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica
Published: 1955-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

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606-661] LUCRETIUS 145

is pleasant and nutritious for different creatures; also why that which to some is nauseous and bitter, may yet to others seem passing sweet; and why in these matters the difference and discrepancy is so great ^^ that what to one man is food, to another is rank poison; and there is actually a serpent which on' being touched by a man's spittle wastes away and destroys itself by gnawing its body. Again hellebore for us is rank poison, but helps to fatten goats and quails. That you may know how this comes to pass, first of all you must remember what we have said before, that the seeds which are contained in things are mixed up in manifold ways. Again all living creatures soever which take food, even as they are unlike on the outside, and, differing in each after its kind, an exterior contour of limbs bounds them, so likewise are they formed of seeds of varying shape. Again since the seeds differ, there must be a discrepancy in the spaces between and the passages, which we name openings, in all the limbs and mouth and palate as well. Some openings therefore must be smaller, some larger; some things must have them three-cornered, others square; many must be round, some many-angled after many fashions. For as the relation between the shapes of seeds and their motions require, the openings also must differ accordingly in their shapes ; and the passages must vary, as varies the texture formed by the seeds which bound them. For this reason when that which is sweet to some becomes bitter to others, for that creature to whom it is sweet the smoothest bodies must enter the cavities of the palate with power to feel them all over; but on the otVv^i Vv^Xkdi vcw'

case of those to whom the same thing is bitter within, rough and barbed seeds sure enough pass down the throat It is easy now from these principles to understand all particular cases: thus when a fever has attacked any one from too great a flow of bile, or a violent disease has been excited in any other way, thereupon the whole body is disordered and all the arrangements of particles then and there changed; the consequence of which is that the bodies which before were suited to excite sensation, suit no more; and those fit it better, which are able to make their way in and beget a bitter sense. Both kinds for instance are mixed up in the flavour of honey: a point we have often proved before.

Now mark me, and I will discuss^ the way in which the contact of smell affects the nostrils: and first there must be many things from which a varied flow of smells streams and rolls on; and we must suppose that they thus stream and discharge and disperse themselves among all things alike; but one smell fits itself better to one creature, another to another on account of their unlike