De Natura

1 Is the universe one connected whole, as it seems to us and to the wisest of the Greeks, Plato and Pythagoras and the Stoics and Heraclitus, or two, as perhaps someone supposed, or even many and infinite, as some others have thought, who, with many confused ideas and newly invented terms, have tried to break up the substance of the universe, and suppose it infinite and without an origin or providential care? 2 For some, calling them atoms, some imperishable and very small bodies, countless in number, and assuming an empty space of unlimited size, say that these atoms, carried at random in the void and spontaneously colliding with one another in a disorderly rush, and becoming entangled because, having many shapes, they take hold of one another, so produce the world and the things in it, or rather infinite worlds. 3 Of this opinion were Epicurus and Democritus; they differed only in that Epicurus supposed all atoms to be very small and therefore imperceptible, while Democritus supposed that some atoms are even very large. Both say that they are atoms, and so called because of their unbreakable solidity. 4 Others, renaming the atoms, say they are partless bodies, parts of the universe, from which, being indivisible, all things are composed and into which they are dissolved. And they say that Diodorus was the person who named these bodies without parts; but Heraclides, they say, gave them another name and called them ‘masses,’ from whom Asclepiades the physician also adopted the name.

1 How can we tolerate their claim that wise and therefore beautiful works are chance coincidences? Each of these, as it came into being by itself, was seen by him who commanded it to come into being to be good, and likewise all of them together. For ‘God saw,’ it says, ‘all things that he had made, and look, they were very good.’ 2 But they do not learn even from small, familiar, and everyday examples, from which they could learn that no work that is useful and beneficial is produced without design or by chance, but is fitted by handiwork for its proper service; and when it becomes useless and unprofitable, then it breaks up without order and is scattered at random, since the wisdom that held it together no longer manages or arranges it. 3 For a cloak is not woven without a weaver, as if the lengthwise threads could arrange themselves and the crosswise threads weave themselves in spontaneously; and if it is worn out, the torn rags are thrown away. And a house is built, and a city, not by some stones placing themselves in the foundations and others jumping up into the rows above, but the builder brings the well-fitted stones into place; and when it is thrown down, each stone falls and is dislodged as it happens. 4 And when a ship is being built, the keel did not lay itself down, nor did the mast set itself upright in the middle, and each of the other timbers take whatever position it happened to find on its own; nor were the so-called hundred timbers of a wagon each fixed in whatever empty place it found, but the carpenter brought each together at the right time. But if a ship breaks up at sea, or a wagon on its way on land, the timbers are scattered wherever it happens, some by the waves, others by the violence of the crash. 5 So they ought to say that the atoms too, remaining idle, unworked, and useless, are carried at random. Let them see the invisible atoms and think of the unthinkable ones, not like him who confesses to God what was revealed to him by God: ‘Your eyes saw my unformed substance.’ 6 And when they say that the well-woven fabrics they claim come from atoms are worked by them without wisdom and without perception, who can tolerate hearing atoms called weavers, when even the spider, working by itself with material from its own body, is wiser than they?

1 Or can we tolerate the claim that this great house, composed of heaven and earth, and called kosmos, “order,” because of the greatness and abundance of the wisdom shown in it, was ordered by atoms moving without any order, and that disorder became order? 2 And how are orderly motions and courses produced from a disorderly rush? And how does the all-harmonious dance of the heavenly bodies sing in concert from unmusical and unharmonious instruments? 3 And how, if all atoms share the same substance and imperishable nature, differing only in size and shape, as they say, are some bodies divine, pure, and eternal, as they would call them, or at least long-lived, to use the term someone gave them? These include both visible and invisible bodies: visible, the sun and moon and stars and earth and water; invisible, gods and daimones and souls? For these they cannot deny exist, even if they wanted to. 4 Then there are the longest-lived animals and plants: of living things among birds, as they say, are eagles, ravens, and phoenixes; among land animals, deer and elephants and serpents; among water creatures, whales; of trees, palms and oaks and persea trees; and of trees some are evergreen, which someone counted and said were fourteen; others flower and shed their leaves in season; but most of the things that grow and are born are short-lived and soon ended, and human beings are among them, as a holy Scripture said about him: ‘Man, born of woman, is short-lived.’ 5 But they will say that differing bonds of the atoms are the cause of the difference in duration. For some, they say, are packed close and squeezed together by them, so that they have become felted masses that are very hard to separate; in others the atoms are connected more or less loosely, so that they part from their cohesion either quickly or not long after; and some are compounded of atoms of such a kind and shaped in such a way, others of other atoms arranged differently. 6 Who, then, is the one who sorts them by kinds, gathers and pours them out, and arranges some in one way to make the sun, and others in another way to make the moon, and brings each together to suit the light of each star? For neither would the solar atoms, so many and such and united in such a way, have lowered themselves to making the moon, nor have the coils of lunar atoms ever become a sun; nor would Arcturus, bright as he is, ever boast of having the atoms of the morning star, nor the Pleiades those of Orion. For Paul distinguished well when he said, ‘There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.’ 7 And if they joined together without awareness because they have no souls, they needed a knowing craftsman; and if they came together without choice and by necessity because they have no reason, some wise herdsman must have directed and driven them together; and if they have come together to work willingly, some remarkable master builder must have led them and assigned their work; or, like a general who values good order, he did not leave the army confused and all mixed together, but arranged the cavalry in one part, the heavy infantry by themselves, the javelin throwers by themselves, the archers apart, and the slingers where they were needed, so that those equipped alike might fight together. 8 But if they think this example a joke because I make a comparison of large bodies with the smallest, we will turn to the smallest. 9 But if no command, decision, or order from a ruler was imposed on them, but they themselves of their own accord directed themselves out of the great turmoil in their flow, and passed through the great uproar of collisions, and similar atoms were led to similar atoms not by God, as the poet says, but ran together and herded together recognizing their kin, then the democracy of the atoms is remarkable indeed, friends greeting and embracing one another and hurrying to live together in one home; some of their own accord turned into the sun, a great light, to make the day; others perhaps blazed up into many pyramids of stars, to crown the whole heaven; others formed a circle to make the ether solid and randomly shape it into a vault supporting the lights; and the confederacies of the common atoms chose dwellings for themselves and divided heaven by lot into houses and stations for themselves. 10 But these people do not even see what is visible, much less perceive what is invisible. For they seem not to observe the ordered risings and settings either of the others or the most conspicuous ones of the sun, nor to use the help they give people, the day kindled for work and the night overshadowing for rest. For ‘a person will go out,’ it says, ‘to his work and to his labor until evening.’ 11 Nor do they observe its other revolution, by which it brings about fixed seasons, timely periods, and regular changes of course, guided by the atoms of which it consists. But even if these miserable people refuse to accept what the righteous believe, ‘great is the Lord who made it, and at his command it hurried on its course.’ 12 Do the atoms, you blind people, bring you rains too, so that the earth can produce food for you and all living things on it? And do they bring summer, so that you can enjoy the fruit from the trees? And why do you not worship the atoms and sacrifice to the fruit-bearing ones? How ungrateful you are, not dedicating even a few first fruits from the many gifts you receive from them! 13 And the great, diverse population of the stars, whom the much-wandering and ever-scattered atoms put together, divided territories among themselves by agreement, as though establishing a colony or settlement, without a founder or head of the household in charge; and they keep their neighborly relations with those next to them under oath and in peace, not overstepping the boundaries they took at the beginning, as though royal atoms had made laws for them. 14 But those atoms do not rule. How could they, when they do not even exist? But listen to the divine words: ‘The Lord governs his works by his judgment. From the beginning and from their making he distinguished their portions; he ordered his works forever, and their beginnings throughout their generations.’ 15 Or what phalanx so well ordered ever marched across a level plain, with none running ahead, none turning aside, none blocking the way, and none falling behind those marching beside him, as the continuous and unbroken, untroubled and unhindered army of the stars advances always in even ranks with locked shields? 16 Some of their turns are hidden from view because they tilt and move sideways. Yet observers say that they always keep their appointed times and return to the places where each first appeared. Let the cutters of the atoms, then, and the dividers of the partless, and those who combine what cannot be combined, and the comprehenders of the infinite tell us where the circular motion and revolution of the heavenly bodies comes from, not one mass of atoms thrown around without reason, but this enormous circular dance, stepping in rhythm and turning together; how such a countless crowd of fellow travelers, without order or choice or knowledge of one another, came to turn together. The prophet rightly included even two strangers traveling together among things that are impossible and cannot be demonstrated: ‘Will two walk together,’ he says, ‘unless they know one another?’

1 And they see neither themselves nor their own nature. For if any of the founders of this impious doctrine had considered who he is and where he comes from, he would have reasoned as someone who understands himself, and would have said not to the atoms but to his Father and Maker, ‘Your hands formed me and made me’; and he would have gone on to describe the wonderful manner of his making: ‘Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews; you granted me life and mercy, and your care has preserved my spirit.’ 2 For how many atoms, and of what kind, did Epicurus’ father pour out of himself when he fathered Epicurus? And how, once deposited in his mother’s womb, were they joined together, shaped, formed, set in motion, and made to grow? And how many atoms of Epicurus did the little drop call to itself, clothing some with skin and flesh, supporting him with others that became bone, and binding him together with still others that formed sinews? 3 And how did it fit together the many other limbs, internal parts, intestines, and sense organs, some inside and others outside, that gave the body life? None of these was added without a function or purpose, not even the smallest, neither hair nor nails; but all contribute, some to the benefit of the structure, others to the beauty of its appearance. 4 For providence takes care not only of need but also of beauty. The hair is a defense and covering of the head for all, and the beard makes the philosopher look dignified. And it fitted together the nature of the whole human body from all necessary parts, and connected all the parts to one another and measured out each part’s supply from the whole. 5 Experience makes the main functions of these parts clear even to ordinary people: the sovereignty of the head, and around the brain, as round a ruler in a citadel, the bodyguard of the senses: the eyes coming forward, the ears reporting, taste like a tax collector, smell like one tracking and searching out, and touch handling everything under its control. 6 (For we will now briefly review a few works of all-wise providence and shortly, God willing, examine them more precisely, when we address the one who is thought more learned.) 7 The service of the hands, by which work of every kind and arts of many devices are accomplished, their different abilities joined in a common task; the burden-bearing of the shoulders, the grip of the fingers, the bending of the elbows, turning inward to the body and outward away from it, so that they can draw toward and push away; the service of the feet, by which the whole creation on earth lies subject to us, making the earth walkable, the sea navigable, and the rivers crossable, and allowing everyone to communicate with everyone else; the belly, a storehouse of food, distributing from itself in measure their share to all the parts connected with it and putting out the excess; and the other things by which the maintenance of human life has clearly been planned, of which the wise and the foolish alike enjoy the use, though not the same understanding. 8 For some refer this organization, supremely knowledgeable about everything and supremely beneficial to them to whatever deity they suppose, trusting it to be the work of a higher and truly divine wisdom and power; others attribute the most wonderful craftsmanship aimlessly to the chance meeting and collision of atoms. 9 Physicians have examined these things and the arrangement of the internal parts still more effectively and precisely, and in their astonishment have made nature a god. We will consider their views later, as far as we can, even if only briefly. 10 To sum up the general point, who built this whole tent of our body, tall, upright, well proportioned, keen of sense, nimble, active, able to do all things? The irrational multitude of atoms, they say. But those, coming together, could not mold even a clay image, nor carve a stone statue, nor cast and produce an idol of silver or gold; 11 but the arts and handicrafts for these, which shape the likeness of bodies, have been discovered by people. And if likenesses and sketches of these could not come about without wisdom, how did the actual originals come into being on their own? 12 And from where did soul and mind and reason come to be in the philosopher? Did he collect them from soulless and mindless and unreasoning atoms, and did each of them breathe into him some thought and doctrine? 13 And as Hesiod’s myth says Pandora was completed by the gods, so was the man’s wisdom completed by the atoms? And will the Greeks no longer say that all poetry, music, astronomy, geometry, and the other sciences, are discoveries and teachings of the gods, but that the atom-Muses alone have become skilled and wise in all things? 14 For Epicurus’s account of gods born from atoms is banished from the infinite worlds and exiled into the infinite disorder.

1 Working and governing and doing good and planning ahead and such things are perhaps burdensome to the idle and foolish and weak and wicked, among whom Epicurus enrolled himself by thinking such things of the gods; but to the earnest and able and intelligent and self-controlled, such as philosophers must be (how much more the gods?), these things are not unpleasant or tiresome at all, but the most delightful and welcome activities of all; to them neglect and delay in doing any good thing is a disgrace, as the poet reminds them, advising, ‘Do not put off till tomorrow’; and threatening besides, ‘The man who puts off work always wrestles with ruin.’ 2 And a prophet teaches us more solemnly, saying that the works of virtue are truly worthy of God, and that he who neglects them is cursed: ‘For cursed,’ he says, ‘is he who does the works of the Lord carelessly.’ 3 People who do not know a craft and have less skill grow tired in their attempts because they lack experience and practice. But those making progress, and even more those fully skilled, take joy in doing their tasks easily. They would rather complete and perfect their familiar work than possess every human good. 4 Democritus himself, at any rate, as they say, used to say that he would rather find a single causal explanation than become king of the Persians; Yet he offered causal explanations pointlessly and without a basis, starting from an empty principle and an uncertain hypothesis, failing to see the root and common necessity in the nature of things, while treating knowledge of things that happen without wisdom or reason as the greatest wisdom, and setting chance as mistress and queen over things universal and divine, and declaring that all things come about according to it, while banishing it from human life and refuting those who honor it as foolish. 5 Beginning his Precepts, at least, he says: “Men fashioned an image of chance as an excuse for their own folly. For by nature judgment fights against chance; and this very thing, most hostile to wisdom, they said rules it; or rather, doing away with wisdom altogether and abolishing it, they set chance up in its place. For they do not praise wisdom as fortunate, but chance as most wise.” 6 Those in charge of works useful to life take pride in their help to their fellow human beings, and long for praise and glory for the work they do for them, some by feeding, others by piloting, others by healing, others by governing; and philosophers are especially proud of attempting to educate people. 7 Or will Epicurus or Democritus dare to say that they are distressed when they philosophize? They would place no other pleasure above this. For even if they think the good is pleasure, they will be ashamed not to say that philosophy gives them greater pleasure. 8 But the gods, whom their poets sing as ‘givers of good things,’ these philosophers praise with mockery as ‘gods neither givers of any good things nor sharers in them.’ And in what way do they prove that there are gods, when they neither see them present and doing something (as those who admired the sun and moon and stars said they were called gods from their running, theein), nor assign them any creation or construction, so as to make them gods from tithenai, that is, ‘to make’ (for in this sense in truth the Maker and Creator of all is alone God), nor describe any rule, judgment, or kindness they show to people, so that, owing them fear or honor, we might worship them? 9 Or did Epicurus, peeping out of the world and passing beyond the heavenly enclosure, or going out through some secret gates which he alone knows, see the gods in the void and bless their great luxury; and from there, developing a desire for pleasure and a wish to imitate life in the void, does he so invite all to share in this blessedness, to be made like those gods, preparing a blessed banquet for them, not in heaven or Olympus, as the poets do, but in the void, serving them ambrosia made of atoms and toasting them with nectar made of the same atoms? 10 And indeed, by those gods who are nothing to us he writes countless oaths and solemn appeals in his books, continually swearing ‘No, by Zeus’ and ‘Yes, by Zeus,’ and solemnly appealing to those reading his books and those he talked with ‘by the gods,’ not at all fearing perjury himself or for them, but adding this as an empty, false, idle, and meaningless appendage to his words, as if he cleared his throat and spat, or turned his face or moved his hand. Such a thoughtless and empty pretense was his naming of the gods. 11 But this is clear: after Socrates’s death, afraid of the Athenians recognizing him for what he was, an atheist, he invented empty shadows of nonexistent gods for them and told marvelous tales. For he did not look up to heaven with the eyes of the mind to hear the clear voice from above, which the attentive observer heard and testified that ‘the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of his hands’; nor did he look down in thought to the ground; for he would have learned that ‘the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord,’ and that ‘the earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.’ For after this it says, ‘The Lord looked upon the earth and filled it with his good things; he covered its surface with every kind of living creature.’ 12 If they are not blind, let them consider the many-colored multitude of living things, those on land, those that fly, those in the water, and understand that the testimony of the Master at the judgment of all things was true, and that all things appeared good according to his command.