Lucretius On the nature of things : a philosophical poem, in six books by Lucretius Carus Titus

Author:Lucretius Carus, Titus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: London : H. G. Bohn
Published: 1851-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

goats often grow fat on hemlock, which to men is rank poison.

Since, too, the flame of fire is accustomed to scorch and burn up the tawny bodies of lions, as well as every kind of creature on earth that consists of flesh and blood, how was it possible that a Chimrera, one animal compounded of three bodies, the fore part a lion, the hinder a dragon, the middle a goat, 1 could blow abroad at its mouth a fierce flame out of its body ?

For which reason, he who supposes that such animals might have been produced, even when the earth Avas new and the air fresh, (leaning for argument only on this empty term of newness,) may babble, with equal reason, many other hypo theses of a like nature. He may say that rivers of gold then flowed every where over the earth, and that the groves were accustomed to blossom with jewels ; or that men were formed with such power and bulk of limbs, that they could ex tend their steps over the deep seas, and turn the whole heaven around them with their hands. For though, at the time when the earth first produced animal life, there were in numerable seeds of things in the ground, this is yet no proof that creatures could have been generated of mixed natures, and that heterogeneous members of animals could have been blended together. Since the various kinds of herbs, and fruits, and rich groves, which even now spring-up-exuberantly from the earth, can nevertheless not be produced with a union of different kinds. But they can readily be produced, if each proceeds in its own order, and all preserve their distinctions according to the fixed law of nature.

And that early race of men upon the earth was much more hardy; as it was natural that they should be, for the hard earth herscffbore. them. They were internally sustained with bones both larger and more solid, and furnished with strong nerves throughout their bodies; nor were they a race that could easily be injured by heat or cold, or by change of food, or by any corporeal malady.

And during many lustres of the sun, revolving through the heaven, they prolonged their lives after the roving manner of wild beasts. No one was either a driver of the crooked

1 The middle a goat.] Vcr. 903. Media ipsa. Chimtcra (\ifinipa) signifies a goat.

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