Because it's pretty

And because I can:

nullam rem e nihilo gigni divinitus umquam.
quippe ita formido mortalis continet omnis,
quod multa in terris fieri caeloque tuentur,
quorum operum causas nulla ratione videre
possunt, ac fieri divino numine rentur.
quas ob res ubi viderimus nihil posse creari
de nihilo, tum quod sequimur iam rectius inde
perspiciemus, et unde queat res quaeque creari
et quo quaeque modo fiant opera sine divom.
nam si de nihilo fierent, ex omnibus rebus
omne genus nasci posset, nihil semine egeret.
e mare primum homines, e terra posset oriri
squamigerum genus et volucres erumpere caelo;
armenta atque aliae pecudes, genus omne ferarum,
incerto partu culta ac deserta tenerent;
nec fructus idem arboribus constare solerent
sed mutarentur; ferre omnes omnia possent.
quippe ubi non essent genitalia corpora cuique,
qui posset mater rebus consistere certa?
at nunc seminibus quia certis quaeque creantur,
inde enascitur atque oras in luminis exit,
materies ubi inest cuiusque et corpora prima.
atque hac re nequeunt ex omnibus omnia gigni,
quod certis in rebus inest secreta facultas.
praeterea cur vere rosam, frumenta calore,
vites autumno fundi suadente videmus,
si non, certa suo quia tempore semina rerum
cum confluxerunt, patefit quodcumque creatur,
dum tempestates adsunt et vivida tellus
tuto res teneras effert in luminis oras?

--De rerum natura, I, 150-179

In the context of one of the periodic Wars of (Ir)Religion over at Big Orange, I found myself in a philosophical argument with an atheist in the strange position of arguing that there need not necessarily be a particular cause for every thing or every event in the world. The foregoing is one of the things I quoted to him/her to refute that hypothesis. Since I know that not all of my legions of faithful readers are up to reading 1st century BCE Latin epic verse at sight, I'll translate below the fold.

No thing is ever brought forth from nothing by divine aid.
Of course, as has been said, fear paralyses all mortal beings,
Because they see that many things are done on earth and in heaven,
Whose causes they can in no way perceive,
And accordingly they think them done by divine powers.
On account of which fact, when we understand that nothing can
Be created out of nothing, then we shall perceive more accurately
That thing which we are seeking because of this, both from what each thing
May be created, and in what way they come to be without the help of the gods.
For if things could come into existence from nothing, every kind of
Thing could be born from all sorts of things, and no seeds would be required.
For the first time, men could arise from the sea; and from the earth, the
Species of scale-bearers; and birds could hatch from the sky;
Cattle and the other tamed animals, and all manner of wild beasts
Would possess, because of this uncertain generation, both the cultivated and
The wild places, nor would the fruit of the trees be accustomed to constancy,
But would change instead: everything would be able to bear any kind of fruit.
But since, in this case, there would not be generative bodies for everything,
How could an identical mother be assigned to all things?
But since because everything is created from immutable seeds,
And is born therefrom and thence goes out into the realms of light,
Where the raw material and primary bodies of each thing are contained,
For this reason, everything is unable to be born from just anything,
Because there is a special faculty inherent in specific objects.
Furthermore, why do we see the rose in spring, the grain in summer’s heat,
The vines flow when autumn has persuaded them,
If not because whatever is created comes to be revealed
When particular seeds of things have fused together at their proper time,
When favourable seasons are present and the vigorous earth
Safely sends forth young things into the realms of light?

(My translation from the standard Latin text after W. E. Leonard and S. B. Smith. Copyright © 1989)

Comments

[Andrea]

Show off ;)

[Michael]

Hey, I admitted up front I was doing it because I could. If I could make TypePad cooperate, I'd be posting a picture of a raspberry right about now. ;-9

So you've arrived safely in India, I take it?

[d.m.schiff]

Euge! magister bone. Lucretius bonissima auctoritas contra infidelem quia in Deo non credidit. Quoque dico Thomam Aquinatem offere bonas rationes pro semetipsa propositione in "Quinque viae" in Summa (ipse scit propositionem "creatio ex nihilo" de fide esse).