Unde etiam libitum 'st stirpeis committere ramis :
Et nova defodere in terram virgulta per agros:
Inde aliam, atque aliam culturam dulcis agelli
Tentabant, fructusque feros mansuescere terra
Cernebant indulgendo, blandèque colendo.
Inque dies magis in montem succedere sylvas
Cogebant, infraque locum concedere cultis :
Prata, lacus, rivos, segetes, vinetaque læta
Collibus, et campis ut haberent, atque olearum
Cærula distinguens inter plaga currere posset
Per tumulos, et convalleis, camposque profusa :
Ut nunc esse vides vario distincta lepore
Omnia, quæ pomis intersita dulcibus ornant:
Arbustisque tenent felicibus obsita circùm.
At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore
Antè fuit multo, quam lævia carmina cantu
Concelebrare homines possent, aureisque juvare.
Et Zephyri cava per calamorum sibila primum
Agresteis docuere cavas inflare cicutas,
Inde minutatim dulceis didicere querelas,
Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum,
Avia per nemora, ac sylvas saltusque reperta,
Per loca pastorum deserta, atque otia dia :
Sic unum quicquid paullatim protrahit ætas
In medium, ratioque in luminis eruit oras.
But nature's self the race of man first taught
To sow, to graft; for acorns ripe they saw,
And purple berries, shattered from the trees,
Soon yield a lineage like the trees themselves.
Whence learn'd they, curious, thro' the stem mature
To thrust the tender slip, and o'er the soil
Plant the fresh shoots that first disorder'd sprang.
Then, too, new cultures tried they, and, with joy,
Mark'd the boon earth, by ceaseless care caress'd,
Each vagrant fruitage sweeten, and enlarge.
So loftier still, and loftier, up the hills
Drove they the woodlands daily, broadening thus
The cultur'd landscape, that the sight might trace
Meads, corn-fields, rivers, lakes, and vineyards gay,
O'er hills and mountains thrown; while wound below
The purple scene of olives; as ourselves
Still o'er the grounds mark every graceful hue
Where blooms the dulcet apple, and around
Trees of like lustre spread their loaded arms.
And from the liquid warblings of the birds
Learn'd they their first rude notes, ere music yet
To the rapt ear had tun'd the measur❜d verse;
And zephyr, whispering thro' the hollow reeds,
Taught the first swains the hollow reeds to sound:
Whence woke they soon those tender-trembling tones
Which the sweet pipe, when by the fingers prest,
Pours o'er the hills, the vales, and woodlands wild,
Haunts of lone Shepherds and the rural gods.
So growing time points, ceaseless, something new,
And human skill evolves it into day.
The ravages of the plague, and the symptoms of fever, form subjects little calculated for the decorations of the Muse: yet has Lucretius, by the magic of his poetry, rendered a
description peculiarly susceptible of horror and disgust, productive of emotions the most sublime and pathetic. Thucydides had with great accuracy furnished the facts, being himself not only a spectator of, but a sufferer under this dreadful calamity. To the elegant and faithful detail of the Historian, the Roman Bard has added all that was necessary to convert the description into pure poetry. Than the prosopopoïa of Medicine,
mussabat tacito Medicina timore,
what can be more striking and terrific? and the external symptoms of approaching dissolution, the facies Hippocratica, are depicted with equal harmony, fidelity, and spirit. A small portion of this admirable description (for to insert the whole would occupy too much space in a work of this kind) will convey no inadequate idea of the general merits of the episode.
Hæc ratio quondam morborum, et mortiferæ vis
Finibus in Cecropiis funestos reddidit agros,
Vastavitque vias, exhausit civibus urbem.
Nam penitus veniens Egypti è finibus ortus,
Aëra permensus multum, camposque; natanteis,
Incubuit tandem populum Pandionis omnem.
ìnde catervatìm morbo mortique dabantur.
Principiò, caput incensum fervore gerebant:
Et dupliceis oculos suffusa luce rubenteis.
Sudabant etiam fauces, intrinsecus atræ,
Sanguine, et ulceribus vocis via septa coïbat;
Atque animi interpres manabat lingua cruore,
Debilitata malis, motu gravis, aspera tactu.
Nec requies erat ulla mali, defessa jacebant
Corpora, mussabat tacito Medicina timore,
Quippe patentia quom totiens, ardentia morbis,
Lumina versarent oculorum expertia somno,
Multaque præterea mortis tum signa dabantur,
Perturbata animi mens in mærore, metuque,
Triste supercilium, furiosus voltus, et acer,
Sollicita porro plenæque sonoribus aures,
Creber spiritus, aut ingens, raròque coortus,
Sudorisque madens per collum, splendidus humos,
Tenuia sputa, minuta, croci contineta colore,
Salsaque per sauceis raucâ vix edita tusse :
In manibus verò nervi trahier, tremere artus:
A pedibusque minutatim succedere frigus.
Non dubitabat, item ad supremum denique tempus
Compressæ nares, nasi primoris acumen
Tenue, cavati oculi, cava tempora, frigida pellis,
Duraque, inhorrebat rictum, frons tenta meabat,
Nec nimio rigidâ post artus morte jacebant:
Octavoque ferè candenti lumine solis,
Aut etiam nona reddebant lampade vitam.
A plague like this, a tempest big with fate,
Once ravaged ATHENS, and her sad domains;
Unpeopled all her city, and her paths
Swept with destruction. For amid the realms
Begot of EGYPT, many a mighty tract
Of ether travers'd, many a flood o'erpast,
At length here fixt it; o'er the hapless house
Of PANDION hovering, and th' astonish'd race
Dooming by thousands to disease and death.
The head first flam'd with inward heat, the eyes
Redden'd with fire suffus'd; the purple jaws
Sweated with bloody ichor; ulcers foul
Crept o'er the vocal path, obstructing close;
And the prompt tongue, expounder of the mind,
O'erflowed with gore, enfeebled in its post,
Hoarse in its accent, harsh beneath the touch.-
Nor e'er relax'd the sickness; the rack'd frame Lay all-exhausted, and, in silence dread, Appall'd, and doubtful, mus'd the HEALING ART. For the broad eye-balls, burning with disease, Roll'd in full stare, for ever void of sleep, And told the pressing danger; nor alone Told it, for many a kindred symptom throng'd. The mind's pure spirit, all-despondent, rav'd; The brow severe; the visage fierce and wild; The ears distracted, fill'd with ceaseless sounds; Frequent the breath; or ponderous oft and rare; The neck with pearls bedew'd of glistening sweat; Scanty the spittle, thin, of saffron dye,
Salt, with hoarse cough scarce labour'd from the throat.
The limbs each trembled'; every tendon twitch'd
Spread o'er the hands; and from the feet extreme
O'er all the frame a gradual coldness crept.
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