On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) by Ronald Melville, Don, Peta Fowler

certainly
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They must be endowed with nature imperishable.
 
Therefore things cannot ever return to nothing.
 
Again, all things alike would be destroyed
 
By the same force and cause, were they not held fast
 
By matter everlasting, fastened together
 
More or less tightly in its framing bonds.
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A touch would be enough to cause destruction,
 
Since there would be no eternal elements
 
Needing a special force to break them up.
 
But as it is, since the bonds which bind the elements
 
Are various and their matter is everlasting
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They stay intact, until they meet a force
 
Found strong enough to break their textures down.
 
Therefore no single thing returns to nothing
 
But at its dissolution everything
 
Returns to matter’s primal particles.
 
Lastly, showers perish when father ether
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Has cast them into the lap of mother earth.
 
But bright crops rise, and branches in the trees
 
Grow green, trees grow and ripe fruit burdens them.
 
Hence food comes for our kind and for wild beasts,
 
Hence we see happy cities flower with children,
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And leafy woods all singing with young birds,
 
Hence cattle wearied by their swollen weight
 
Lie down across rich pastures, and the white milky stream
 
Flows from their udders. Hence the young progeny
 
Frisk with weak limbs on the soft grass, their youthful minds
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Intoxicated by the strong fresh milk.
 
Therefore all things we see do not utterly perish
 
Since nature makes good one thing from another,
 
And does not suffer anything to be born
 
Unless it is aided by another’s death.
 
Well now, since I have taught that things cannot be created
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From nothing, nor, once born, be summoned back to nothing,
 
Lest you begin perchance to doubt my words,
 
Because our eyes can’t see first elements,
 
Learn now of things you must yourself admit
 
Exist, and yet remain invisible.
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The wind, its might aroused, lashes the sea
 
And sinks great ships and tears the clouds apart.
 
With whirling tempest sweeping across the plains
 
It strews them with great trees, the mountain tops
 
It rocks amain with forest-felling blasts,
 
So fierce the howling fury of the gale,
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So wild and menacing the wind’s deep roar.
 
Therefore for sure there are unseen bodies of wind
 
Which sweep the seas, the lands, the clouds of heaven,
 
With sudden whirlwinds tossing, ravaging.
 
They stream and spread their havoc just as water
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So soft by nature suddenly bursts out
 
In spate when heavy rains upon the mountains
 
With huge cascades have swollen a mighty flood,
 
Hurling together wreckage from the woods
 
And whole trees too; nor can strong bridges stand
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The sudden force of water coming on,
 
So swirling with great rains the river rushes
 
With all its mighty strength against the piers.
 
It roars and wrecks and rolls huge rocks beneath its waves
 
And shatters all that stands in front of it.
 
So also must be the motion of the wind
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When it blasts onward like a rushing river.
 
Wherever it goes it drives on all before it,
 
Sweeps all away with blow on blow, or else
 
In twisting eddy seizes things, and then
 
With rapid whirlwind carries them away.
 
Wherefore again and yet again I say
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That winds have hidden bodies, since they rival
 
In character and action mighty rivers
 
Possessed of bodies plain for all to see.
 
Consider this too: we smell different odours
 
But never see them coming to our nostrils.
 
We can’t see scorching heat, nor set our eyes
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On cold, nor can we see the sound of voices.
 
Yet all these things must needs consist of bodies
 
Since they are able to act upon our senses.
 
For nothing can be touched or touch except body.
 
And clothes hung up beside a wave-tossed shore
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Grow damp, but spread out in the sun they dry.
 
But how the moisture first pervaded them
 
And how it fled the heat, we do not see.
 
The moisture therefore is split up into tiny parts
 
That eyes cannot perceive