Once more, we all from seed celestial spring, 
To all is that same father, from whom earth, 
The fostering mother, as she takes the drops 
Of liquid moisture, pregnant bears her broods- 
The shining grains, and gladsome shrubs and trees, 
And bears the human race and of the wild 
The generations all, the while she yields 
The foods wherewith all feed their frames and lead 
The genial life and propagate their kind; 
Wherefore she owneth that maternal name, 
By old desert. What was before from earth, 
The same in earth sinks back, and what was sent 
From shores of ether, that, returning home, 
The vaults of sky receive. Nor thus doth death 
So far annihilate things that she destroys 
The bodies of matter; but she dissipates 
Their combinations, and conjoins anew 
One element with others; and contrives 
That all things vary forms and change their colours 
And get sensations and straight give them o'er. 
And thus may'st know it matters with what others 
And in what structure the primordial germs 
Are held together, and what motions they 
Among themselves do give and get; nor think 
That aught we see hither and thither afloat 
Upon the crest of things, and now a birth 
And straightway now a ruin, inheres at rest 
Deep in the eternal atoms of the world. 

Why, even in these our very verses here 
It matters much with what and in what order 
Each element is set: the same denote 
Sky, and the ocean, lands, and streams, and sun; 
The same, the grains, and trees, and living things. 
And if not all alike, at least the most- 
But what distinctions by positions wrought! 
And thus no less in things themselves, when once 
Around are changed the intervals between, 
The paths of matter, its connections, weights, 
Blows, clashings, motions, order, structure, shapes, 
The things themselves must likewise changed be. 
Now to true reason give thy mind for us. 
Since here strange truth is putting forth its might 
To hit thee in thine ears, a new aspect 
Of things to show its front. Yet naught there is 
So easy that it standeth not at first 
More hard to credit than it after is; 
And naught soe'er that's great to such degree, 
Nor wonderful so far, but all mankind 
Little by little abandon their surprise. 
Look upward yonder at the bright clear sky 
And what it holds- the stars that wander o'er, 
The moon, the radiance of the splendour-sun: 
Yet all, if now they first for mortals were, 
If unforeseen now first asudden shown, 
What might there be more wonderful to tell, 
What that the nations would before have dared 
Less to believe might be?- I fancy, naught- 
So strange had been the marvel of that sight. 
The which o'erwearied to behold, to-day 
None deigns look upward to those lucent realms. 
Then, spew not reason from thy mind away, 
Beside thyself because the matter's new, 
But rather with keen judgment nicely weigh; 
And if to thee it then appeareth true, 
Render thy hands, or, if 'tis false at last, 
Gird thee to combat. For my mind-of-man 
Now seeks the nature of the vast Beyond 
There on the other side, that boundless sum 
Which lies without the ramparts of the world, 
Toward which the spirit longs to peer afar, 
Toward which indeed the swift elan of thought 
Flies unencumbered forth. 
Firstly, we find, 
Off to all regions round, on either side, 
Above, beneath, throughout the universe 
End is there none- as I have taught, as too 
The very thing of itself declares aloud, 
And as from nature of the unbottomed deep 
Shines clearly forth. Nor can we once suppose 
In any way 'tis likely, (seeing that space 
To all sides stretches infinite and free, 
And seeds, innumerable in number, in sum 
Bottomless, there in many a manner fly, 
Bestirred in everlasting motion there), 
That only this one earth and sky of ours 
Hath been create and that those bodies of stuff, 
So many, perform no work outside the same; 
Seeing, moreover, this world too hath been 
By Nature fashioned, even as seeds of things 
By innate motion chanced to clash and cling- 
After they'd been in many a manner driven 
Together at random, without design, in vain- 
And at last those seeds together dwelt, 
Which, when together of a sudden thrown, 
Should alway furnish the commencements fit 
Of mighty things- the earth, the sea, the sky, 
And race of living creatures. Thus, I say, 
Again, again, 'tmust be confessed there are 
Such congregations of matter otherwhere, 
Like this our world which vasty ether holds 
In huge embrace. 
Besides, when matter abundant 
Is ready there, when space on hand, nor object 
Nor any cause retards, no marvel 'tis 
That things are carried on and made complete, 
Perforce. And now, if store of seeds there is 
So great that not