"What is so passing bitter," we should ask, "If life be rounded by a rest and sleep, That one should pine in never-ending grief?"
Universal nature has a rebuke for the coward that is afraid to die. There are no punishments beyond. Hell and hell's tortures are in this life. It is the victim of passion or of gnawing cares that is the real victim of torment.
IV—The World's Origin and Its Growth
Not by design did primal elements Find each their place as 'twere with forethought keen, Nor bargained what their movements were to be; But since the atom host in many ways Smitten by blows for infinite ages back, And by their weight impelled, have coursed along, Have joined all ways, and made full test of all The types which mutual unions could create, Therefore it is that through great time dispersed, With every kind of blend and motion tried, They meet at length in momentary groups Which oft prove rudiments of mighty things— Of earth, and sea, and sky, and living breeds.
Amidst this primeval medley of warring atoms there was no sun-disk to be discerned climbing the vault, no stars, or sea, or sky, or earth, or air—nothing, in fact, like what now exists. The next stage came when the several parts began to fly asunder, and like to join with like, so that the parts of the world were gradually differentiated. Heavier bodies combined in central chaos and forced out lighter elements to make ether. Thus earth was formed by a long process of condensation.
Daily, as ever more the ether-fires And sun-rays all around close pressed the earth With frequent blows upon its outer crust, Each impact concentrating it perforce, So was a briny sweat squeezed out the more With ooze to swell the sea and floating plains.
PRIMEVAL FERTILITY OF THE EARTH
At first the earth produced all kinds of herbs And verdant sheen o'er every hill and plain; The flowery meadows gleamed in hues of green, And soon the trees were gifted with desire To race unbridled in the lists of growth; As plumage, hair, and bristles are produced On limbs of quadrupeds or frame of birds, So the fresh earth then first put forth the grass And shrubs, and next gave birth to mortal breeds, Thick springing multiform in divers ways. The name of "Mother," then, earth justly won, Since from the earth all living creatures came. Full many monsters earth essayed to raise, Uprising strange of look and strange of limb, Hermaphrodites distinct from either sex, Some robbed of feet, and others void of hands, Or mouthless mutes, or destitute of eyes, Or bound by close adhesion of their limbs So that they could do naught nor move at all, Nor shun an ill, nor take what need required. All other kinds of portents earth did yield— In vain, since nature drove increase away, They could not reach the longed-for bloom of life, Nor find support, nor link themselves in love.