On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus

Author:Titus Lucretius Carus [Lucretius Carus, Titus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy, Classical literature, Ancient, Didactic poetry, Latin -- Translations into English
Published: 1997-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

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Indeed, where one from o'er-abundant bile

Is stricken with fever, or in other wise

Feels the roused violence of some malady,

There the whole frame is now upset, and there

All the positions of the seeds are changed,—

So that the bodies which before were fit

To cause the savour, now are fit no more,

And now more apt are others which be able

To get within the pores and gender sour.

Both sorts, in sooth, are intermixed in honey—

What oft we've proved above to thee before.

Now come, and I will indicate what wise

Impact of odour on the nostrils touches.

And first, 'tis needful there be many things

From whence the streaming flow of varied odours

May roll along, and we're constrained to think

They stream and dart and sprinkle themselves about

Impartially. But for some breathing creatures

One odour is more apt, to others another—

Because of differing forms of seeds and pores.

Thus on and on along the zephyrs bees

Are led by odour of honey, vultures too

By carcasses. Again, the forward power

Of scent in dogs doth lead the hunter on

Whithersoever the splay-foot of wild beast

Hath hastened its career; and the white goose,

The saviour of the Roman citadel,

Forescents afar the odour of mankind.

Thus, diversly to divers ones is given

Peculiar smell that leadeth each along

To his own food or makes him start aback

From loathsome poison, and in this wise are

The generations of the wild preserved.

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