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On the Nature of Things De Rerum Natura Focus
Philosophical Library 1st Edition Lucretius Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Lucretius, Walter Englert (translator).
ISBN(s): 9780941051217, 0941051218
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 15.28 MB
Year: 2003
Language: english
 aay
U < eH 4 a (a

Walter ce i
 LUCRETIUS
On the Nature of Things
 The Focus Classical Library
Series Editors ¢ James Clauss and Stephen Esposito

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The Heracles of Euripides ¢ Michael Halleran ¢ 1988
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata ¢ Jeffrey Henderson * 1988
Euripides’ Medea ¢ Anthony Podlecki ¢ 1991
Aristophanes’ Acharnians ¢ Jeffrey Henderson ¢ 1992
Aristophanes’ The Clouds ¢ Jeffrey Henderson ¢ 1992
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Lucretius: On the Nature of Things ¢ Walter Englert * 2003
 LUCRETIUS
On the Nature of Things

Walter Englert
Reed College
Albert Keith Whitaker, Series Editor

an imprint of
OCUS Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Indianapolis/Cambridge
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Lucretius On the Nature of Things
© 2003 Walter Englert
Previously published by Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company
csfocus an imprint of
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
P.O. Box 44937
Indianapolis, Indiana 46244-0937
www.hackettpublishing.com

Cover: Garden with plants and birds, detail. Casa del Bracciale d’Oro, Pompeii,
Italy. Copyright Scala/Art Resource, NY.
ISBN 13: 978-0-941051-21-7
All rights are reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
19°18 17 16 15 64/6) 2210
CONTENTS

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PREFACE

This translation is an attempt to render Lucretius’ powerful Latin

philosophic poem into an English translation that reflects the philosophic
clarity and poetic power of the original. I have tried to model my translation
of Lucretius’ epic poem on English translations of classical and medieval
poems that I greatly admire, Richmond Lattimore’s translations of Homer’s
Iliad and Odyssey, and Allen Mandelbaum’s translations of Virgil’s Aeneid
and Dante’s Divine Comedy. I have always been struck by the way
Lattimore renders the beauty and clarity of Homer while remaining so
faithful to the text, and by how Mandelbaum translates Virgil and Dante
with such poetic force, accuracy, and humanitas. When I began this project
I was convinced that what was needed for Lucretius was an English
translation which would bring out the inseparable poetic qualities and
philosophic clarity of the poem, and which could be used by students and
general readers as an accurate guide to the original.
My interest first began when I read Lucretius as an undergraduate
in the Integral Liberal Arts program at St. Mary’s College of California.
The seminars I had on Lucretius gave me my first glimpses of the poem’s
power and beauty. I first read Lucretius in Latin as a graduate student
with Jo-Ann Shelton at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and
I learned a great deal about reading Lucretius from her. I owe a special
debt to Michael Wigodsky of Stanford University, who taught a Lucretius
seminar I took and was the advisor of my Stanford Dissertation, Aristotle
and Epicurus on Voluntary Action, (1981), which I later reworked into a
monograph, Epicurus on the Swerve and Voluntary Action, American Classical
Studies 16, Atlanta, GA, 1987. Both projects involved close scrutiny of
numerous passages in Lucretius (one of our chief sources of Epicurus’
thought), and made me want to continue to work on the enigmatic Roman
poet who put Epicurus’ Greek philosophic prose into strikingly beautiful
Latin verse.
In the years I worked on this translation I received help from many
quarters. I want to express thanks to Reed College, which provided the
sabbaticals and summer grants needed to complete the work. Thanks are

ix
x PREFACE

also owed to my colleagues in the Reed Classics Department, Richard Tron

and Nigel Nicholson, as well as colleagues and students in the Humanities
110 course at Reed who read earlier drafts of Book 1 and provided helpful
feedback. I also received help from a number of Reed students who read
and commented on portions of the text, including Robin Adler, Josephine
Martell, Dan Harris, and Andrew Hoke. Finally, my greatest thanks go to
my wife Mary and daughters Francesca and Molly. They have offered
unfailing support while I worked on Lucretius, and I dedicate the
translation to them with love.

REED COLLEGE
PORTLAND, OREGON
Aucust, 2002
INTRODUCTION

Lucretius’ poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) is one of the
greatest works of Latin poetry and philosophy to have come down to us.
In it, Lucretius explains how the world and everything in it works in terms
of the atomic theory of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. It is designed to
change the lives of its readers, to replace our mistaken world views with
what Lucretius argues is the only true one: Epicurus’ view that everything,
including gods and humans, is made up of atoms and void (empty space).
Once we realize this and see what it implies, Lucretius argues, we should
embrace Epicureanism, organize our lives around it, and lead a happy and
blessed life freed from all our false conceptions and fears. Lucretius’ task
as he composed his poem in 1* century BC Rome was not an easy one.
Romans were traditionally suspicious of Greek philosophy, and Italy was
convulsed by a series of violent civil wars during Lucretius’ lifetime. In
order to understand his aims and accomplishment, it will be helpful to
examine the little we know about Lucretius’ life, and then discuss three
important aspects of his work: what it means that he was an Epicurean, a
poet, and a Roman.

A. Lucretius’ Life

Little is known about Lucretius’ life.'| St. Jerome (c. 347-420 AD),
making additions to the Chronicle of Eusebius (c. 260-339 AD), briefly
characterized Lucretius’ life under the year 94 BC:

Titus Lucretius the poet was born. After being driven mad
when he drank a love potion, he wrote a number of books in
between periods of insanity. Cicero later edited them. He
killed himself by his own hand during his 44th year of life.

Jerome’s account is problematic, and none of it can be taken at face value.

First, there are doubts about the years of Lucretius’ birth and death. Some
of the manuscripts of Jerome place the notice of Lucretius’ birth under the

" This account of Lucretius’ life is based on Englert (1997).

xi
Xli INTRODUCTION

year 96 instead of 94. Second, either date for Lucretius’ death which results
(53 or 51) must be balanced against the confused dating provided by
Jerome’s teacher, the ancient grammarian Donatus (4'* c. AD), who places
Lucretius’ death in either 53 or 55. Given the uncertainties, scholars have
been generally content with approximate dates in the 90s and 50s BC for
Lucretius’ birth and death. The other details of Jerome’s report must be
viewed with suspicion. In the past some scholars have taken the stories of
the love potion, insanity, and suicide as possible and partially corroborated
by passages from the poem, but now almost all scholars dismiss the stories
as false and examples of anti-Epicurean polemic. Jerome’s statement that
Cicero, the famous Roman politician, orator, and philosopher, “edited” the
De Rerum Natura is also controversial. Cicero refers to Lucretius once, in a
letter of 54 BC (“The poems (poemata) of Lucretius are as you describe, full
of flashes of genius, but also great artistic craft”), but there is no agreement
about what, if anything, Cicero had to do with the final editing of the poem.
The De Rerum Natura itself provides little information about Lucretius.
The poem is addressed to a person named Memmius, probably to be
identified with Gaius Memmius, a Roman noble and patron of the poet
Catullus (c. 84-54 BC). Lucretius was thus either known or hoping to be
known in upper class Roman society. It is likely he was from the city of
Rome, but other suggestions have been made, including that he was from
Campania (the area around Naples), or that he was a Celtic freedman. The
poem also reveals that Lucretius was well educated in both Greek and Latin
literature, but we know nothing of the intellectual circles in which he
moved. Some scholars have assumed that Lucretius must have been part
of an Epicurean group or community like those at Herculaneum and Naples,
but there is no evidence to support this. Fragments of Lucretius’ poem
have been tentatively identified among the charred papyrus rolls from the
Epicurean library buried at Herculaneum during the eruption of Vesuvius
in 79 AD.’ If true, it would not show that Lucretius was part of an
Epicurean circle around the Bay of Naples, but only that his poem made it
into the Epicurean library at Herculaneum sometime before 79 AD. David
Sedley has recently argued that all the evidence we can gather from
Lucretius’ poem shows that he worked in isolation from the main
philosophical currents of his day.’ It is also not known what contact, if
any, he had with contemporary Roman poets, but his work greatly
influenced Roman poets who came after him. The great Roman poet Virgil
(70-19 BC) praises him at Georgics 2. 490-492 (“Happy he who was able to
understand the causes of things and has cast beneath his feet all fears,
relentless fate, and the shrieks of hungry hell.”), and Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD)
and Statius (c. 45 - 96 AD) mention him in their poetry.

* Kleve (1989).
* Sedley (1998) 62-93.
 INTRODUCTION xiii

B. Epicurus and Epicureanism!

In the De Rerum Natura, Lucretius puts the teachings of the Greek
philosopher Epicurus into Latin verse. Epicurus (341-270 BC), the founder
of Epicureanism, was an Athenian citizen born on the island of Samos, off
the coast of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). He founded his school,
called the Garden, in Athens around 307 BC. The school had great
influence throughout antiquity, and Epicurus’ work was carried on by later
Epicureans down to Lucretius’ time and beyond.
What were the major tenets of Epicurean philosophy that Lucretius
presents in his poem? Epicurus, building on the work of the earlier Greek
atomists Leucippus (5"" c. BC) and Democritus (c. 460-350 BC), taught and
wrote prolifically. Unfortunately, the majority of Epicurus’ works have
been lost. All that remains today of his writings are three “epitomes” or
outlines of his teachings in the form of letters about physics (Letter to
Herodotus), ethics (Letter to Menoeceus), and meteorology and astronomy
(Letter to Pythocles), two collections of short sayings (the Principal Doctrines
and Vatican Sayings), and fragments of other works, most notably his major
work in thirty-seven books, On Nature. Epicurus developed the atomic
system of Leucippus and Democritus in a number of ways. It will be most
convenient to outline some of his major doctrines along the lines of the
standard Hellenistic division of philosophy into three parts: physics, ethics,
and logic.

1. Epicurean Physics
In his physics, Epicurus was a strict materialist, teaching that nothing
exists in the universe except indestructible atoms and the void (empty
space). Everything else that we see around us, including ourselves, are
compound bodies made up of atoms moving in the void. According to
Epicurus, the universe is infinite in all directions, and there are an infinite
number of variously shaped atoms moving constantly through empty
space. These atoms sometimes move about separately, but at other times
they come together in the void and create worlds like the one in which
we live, and all of the compound bodies like water, rocks, trees, and
animals that make up these worlds. Even in compound bodies, though,
the atoms that compose them move around incessantly, jostling back and
forth at incredible speed. Compound bodies that appear stationary to our
eyes are, at the atomic level, in constant motion. All compound bodies
are impermanent, coming into being and passing away. Some are relatively

* For fuller accounts of Epicurean teachings, see Rist (1972), Long (1986), Long and
Sedley (1987), Mitsis (1988).
° Translations of Epicurus’ Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and other
fragments can be found in Inwood and Gerson (1994) and (1997). For a description
of what we know about the structure and content of On Nature, see Sedley (1998)
94-132.
xiv INTRODUCTION

short-lived, like living creatures. Others, like rocks, the earth, and the
heavenly bodies, are more durable and long-lived, but all compound bodies
must eventually pass away. Only atoms and the void, Epicurus argues,
are eternal and indestructible, having no beginning and no end.
Human beings too are made up of atoms. Epicurus distinguished
the human body and soul, but taught that both were made up of atoms:
the body of relatively large, dense atoms, and the soul, responsible for
sensation and thinking, of relatively small, light, and mobile atoms. Living
creatures, including human beings, perceive things when emanations flow
off of physical objects and strike the sense organs. Sight, for instance, occurs
when thin, swift moving images fly off of objects and strike the eyes.
(Epicurus taught that all bodies are constantly shedding thin images in all
directions). Thought, likewise, is caused by even thinner images that bypass
the sense organs altogether and directly strike the mind, which Epicurus
located in the chest in the area around the heart. When we think of
someone or something, e.g., our mothers, Epicurus believed that our minds
focus on thin images of our mothers that are flying around and pass
through our minds located in our chests. He thus held that there are always
an almost infinite number of different images flying around us at any time
on which our thoughts can focus.
The soul and body come into being together, work together throughout
life, and at death the soul-atoms separate from the body-atoms and scatter
in different directions. Epicurus taught that there was no afterlife, since
the soul does not survive as an entity after death, and held that for this
reason we should have no fear of death. Epicureans believed that we can
live fully blessed lives on earth, and die having no fear of punishment in
the afterlife.
Finally, although strict materialists, Epicureans were not atheists.
Epicurus taught that the gods existed,° but were completely blessed creatures
who lived lives of perfect pleasure and had nothing to do with our world.
Traditional tales about the gods were thus false: the gods cannot intervene
in our world to help or punish humans. Epicureans taught that there was
a way, however, the gods can help or harm people. If humans fail to realize
the true nature of divinity, they are harmed by living in needless fear of the
gods. If humans understand the gods’ true nature, they are helped by
taking the gods as paradigms of eternal bliss and modeling their own lives
of pleasure on them. Epicureans thus advocated worshiping the gods and

° There is debate about the nature and location of the Epicurean gods. The
traditional view, supported by passages in Lucretius and Cicero, is that the gods
are spatial entities that live apart from our world. For a defense of this view, see
Mansfeld (1993). Another view, endorsed by Long and Sedley (1987) and Obbink
(1996), is that Epicurus held that the gods do not have independent spatial
existence, but are thought constructs of the human mind. Purinton (2001) argues
for a position that unites elements of both views.
 INTRODUCTION XV

taking part in civic religious rituals, viewing the gods not as beings directly
involved in human affairs, but as paradigms of happiness to try to emulate.

2. Epicurean Ethics
In ethics, Epicurus taught that the highest form of good was
pleasure, but pleasure of a particular sort. The later popular view of an
“Epicurean” as a wild, profligate hedonist who seeks pleasure
indiscriminately is a misleading distortion of Epicurus’ views. Epicurus
taught that the highest good in life is pleasure, defined as freedom from
pain in the body (aponia), and freedom from anxiety and disturbance in
the mind, a state he called ataraxia, literally, “untroubledness.” Epicurus
said there were two types of pleasure, static pleasure and kinetic pleasure.
Static or “katastematic” pleasure, as Epicurus called it, is the state an
organism feels when it suffers no pain or want, all its needs are met, and
it is functioning well. Kinetic pleasure, or “pleasure in motion,” is the
pleasure an organism feels when it is physically or mentally stimulated.
Kinetic pleasure apparently occurred in two ways:’ either in the process
of satisfying a want and returning an organism to its katastematic state
(e.g., the pleasure an organism feels when it is thirsty and drinks until its
thirst is gone), or when an organism is in a katastematic state of pleasure
and its katastematic pleasure is “varied” by the addition of kinetic pleasure
(e.g., when an organism is not suffering thirst, but drinks and enjoys the
beverage). Epicurus taught that katastematic pleasure, when there is no
physical pain or mental distress, is the highest possible for a human being.
Kinetic pleasure does not increase pleasure further, but varies it.
Epicurus believed the happiest life is easy for human beings to obtain,
but that human beings normally fail to obtain it because they do not see
that our basic desires for food, drink, shelter, and clothing are easy to satisfy.
He taught that human beings often fail to achieve happiness because they
do not distinguish between three types of desires: (1) natural and necessary
desires, i.e. desire for things that are necessary for life and help us avoid
pain, like drinking and eating simple foods and beverages; (2) natural and
non-necessary desires, i.e. desires for fine or expensive food and drink that
are not necessary for life but help to “vary” our pleasure; and (3) desires
that are neither natural nor necessary, i.e. desires for things like honor, fame,
and political office. Epicurus advocated leading a simple, almost ascetic
life, taking pleasure in easily satisfying our natural desires. He taught that
almost all humans fail to see where true happiness lies, mistakenly desiring
objects (fancy food, large amounts of money, honor, public office) that are
difficult to obtain, increase our anxiety, and are usually harmful to our
happiness. He also taught that not all pleasures should be chosen, nor all

” There has been much discussion of what exactly Epicurus meant by kinetic
pleasure. I follow the account in Long and Sedley (1987) i. 112-125.
xvi INTRODUCTION

pain avoided. Humans often must give up pleasure in the present to avoid
greater pain later, and choose some pain now to attain greater pleasure
later. If an action promotes long term freedom from pain and anxiety, and
thus our happiness, it should be chosen, if not, it should not be chosen.
As Epicurus knew well, bodily pain, no matter how well humans live, is
unavoidable, but he believed that pain could never threaten human
happiness if it is viewed correctly. He taught techniques for maintaining
mental ataraxia even when the body was feeling great pain, including
thinking about past, present, and future pleasures. Epicurus also
maintained that physical pain could always be endured, his reasoning later
captured in a memorable Latin phrase: si gravis, brevis; si longus, levis (“It
(pain) is short if it is strong, light if it is long”).* In other words, intense
pain lasts only for a short period, while pain that lasts a long time is lighter
and can be endured relatively easily.
Pleasure was also the basis for evaluating virtue and ethical behavior.
According to Epicurus, it is important to be courageous, just, self-controlled,
and live according to the standard Greek virtues, not because they are
virtues and valuable in themselves, but because the virtues are the means
to the most pleasant life. Courage is more pleasurable than cowardice, self-
control is necessary for the proper choice of pleasures in order to maximize
one’s overall pleasure, and justice is necessary not because there is anything
intrinsically good about it, but to ensure the harmonious working of society,
and to avoid worrying about being caught if you commit an unjust action.
As Epicurus wrote in Principal Doctrine 34,’ “Injustice is not a bad thing in
its own right, but [only] because of the fear produced by the suspicion that
one will not escape the notice of those assigned to punish such actions.”
In other words, justice is better than injustice because it contributes more
reliably to ataraxia and happiness.

3. Epicurean Scientific Method

Finally, Epicurus shunned the usual philosophical category of logic,
preferring instead to discuss “canonic” (from the Greek word kanén, “rule,
standard”), his term for his theory of knowledge which he connected closely
to physics. Epicurus was an empiricist, teaching that knowledge was
possible and derived from sensation. He is reported to have held that there
are three criteria of truth: sensation, general concepts, and feelings.
EFpicurus held that sensations were the primary criterion of truth. He
taught that “all sensations are true,” a claim which at first sight appears
implausible, especially given the existence of optical illusions, e.g., a straight
oar which appears to bend at the point where it enters the water. Epicurus,
though, carefully distinguished sensations themselves from the judgments

: Cicero De Finibus 2.95.

‘ The translation is from Inwood and Gerson (1997): 35.
 INTRODUCTION _ xvii

that people make about their sensations. In the case of an optical illusion
like the bent oar, Epicurus would say that the image of the oar our eyes
receive is true: we see an image made up of certain sizes, shapes, colors,
etc. Where we may get into trouble is when we add judgments to our
perceptions, such as “this isan oar”, and “this oar is bent.” The former
statement is true, but in the case of an oar half-submerged in water, the
latter is not. It is not sensation that has fooled us, but our interpretation
of the sensation that has reached our eyes. Our knowledge of the world
is ultimately based on sensations, and the judgments we make on the basis
of sensation must be scrutinized for the many errors our minds may
introduce.
One of the most important ways people can avoid making errors of
judgment and attain knowledge is by attending to “general concepts.”
Epicurus maintained that “general concepts” or “preconceptions” (in Greek,
prolépseis) could function as criteria of truth. He believed that all humans
from the time they are very young begin to form “general concepts” by
generalizing from their sensations. After seeing a number of examples of
a certain type of sensation, and hearing people refer to them as “birds,” a
child gradually builds up a general concept of what a bird is. After
developing the concept, the child then begins to identify new examples of
birds as she sees them, to form ideas about what attributes are typical of
the class (two legs, wings, certain behaviors, etc.), and to distinguish birds
from other types of creatures by reference to her general concepts. From
such general concepts, people make statements that are true and false about
objects in the world.
Epicurus’ third criterion of truth was feelings (pathé). He taught that
all of our actions must be judged by the primary feelings of pleasure and
pain, and took that to be the criterion of ethical truth. All our actions must
be directed to maximizing our pleasure and minimizing our pain in the
long run.
Relying on these criteria of truth, Epicurus argued that we could gain
knowledge not only of the visible world around us, but also of the
microscopic world of atoms and the movements of the heavens above us.
When investigating the visible world directly accessible to us, Epicurus
taught that the way to proceed was to accept as true things that could be
verified by direct and clear observation, and as false those things that could
not. On the other hand, when investigating the underlying principles of
matter (e.g., atoms and the void) or the heavens, realms Epicurus believed
human beings do not have direct access to, he argued that we must make
use of analogies with the physical world around us, and take as true those
views that are “uncontested” and as false those views that are
“contested”.!° For example, Epicurus argues that the only view that can

"For more on Epicurus’ scientific methodology, see Long and Sedley (1987) i. 90-
97 and Asmis (1983).
xviii INTRODUCTION

explain the origins and workings of the physical world around us is

atomism, because it alone accounts for and does not conflict with the facts
of the world as we see them. Similarly, when discussing the movements
of the heavens, Epicurus posits explanations that are not contradicted by
the evidence. Unlike in the discussion of the microscopic level, where the
only theory that fits all the facts is atomism, in astronomy and meteorology
there are often several explanations which do not contradict the
phenomena. For example, Epicurus posited a number of possibilities for
why the moon waxes and wanes, all of which he says may be true. Only
one of the possibilities will in fact be true for our moon, but that does not
stop the other explanations from being true of other similar phenomena
somewhere else in the universe.

C. The De Rerum Natura

The De Rerum Natura is a poem composed of approximately 7,400

lines of Latin dactylic hexameter divided into six books. It is classified as
didactic epic, a type of epic designed to instruct, and is written in a high
poetic style. Lucretius was influenced by many Greek and Latin writers,
including Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Aratus, Thucydides, and Cicero, but
above all by Epicurus, Empedocles, and Ennius.
From Epicurus Lucretius received his philosophical inspiration and
doctrines, and Lucretius worked closely from Epicurus’ writings, most of
which are now lost to us. Of particular importance was Epicurus’ major
work, the Peri Phuseos (On Nature) in thirty-seven books. Lucretius’ title
De Rerum Natura is a Latin translation of Epicurus’ Greek title Peri Phuseos,
and many details of Lucretius’ exposition probably derive from Epicurus’
great work. Scholars have long debated exactly which works of Epicurus
and later Epicureans Lucretius used as the main sources for his poem.
Most recently, David Sedley has argued that a careful study of the structure
and contents of what remains of Epicurus’ On Nature reveals that Lucretius
used it as his sole Epicurean source."
Empedocles, the Greek author of a philosophical poem also titled Peri
Phuseos (On Nature), was Lucretius’ chief poetic inspiration for writing a
philosophical poem. Epicurus had taken a dim view of writing poetry
(Diogenes Laertius 10. 120). Empedocles, the great Greek philosopher and
poet who lived in Acragas (Sicily) from about 492 to 432 BC, provided a
model of how a philosophical poem could be written. Lucretius praises
Empedocles as an inspired poet (1. 705-741), and the opening of Book 1 of
Lucretius’ poem, with its invocation of Venus and her opposite Mars, owes
much to Empedocles’ principles of love and strife. Although in Book 1 (1.
705-829) Lucretius argues against Empedocles’ view that the ultimate
components of our world are the four elements earth, air, fire, and water,

" Sedley (1998) 94-165.

 INTRODUCTION _ xix

along with the principles of love and strife, he nevertheless admired and
tried to emulate Empedocles’ accomplishment of writing a beautiful and
powerful philosophical poem.
If Empedocles provided a model to Lucretius of how to join
philosophy and poetry, the Roman poet Ennius (239-169 BC) guided
Lucretius in writing an epic in Latin. Ennius had composed in many
genres (including tragedy, comedy, and satire) in a variety of meters, but
was most famous for his poem entitled the Annales. In the eighteen books
of the Annales, Ennius told the story of Rome’s history from the fall of Troy
down to his own times. Ennius used the work, among other things, to
update Roman epic. Earlier Roman writers had written epic poems in Latin.
Livius Andronicus (3" c. BC) had composed a Latin version of Homer’s
Odyssey, and Gnaeus Naevius (3 c. BC) had written an epic poem on the
subject of the First Punic War (Rome’s first war with her great rival
Carthage). Both poets composed their poems in Saturnian verse, a meter
the Romans also used in the 3" and 2" centuries for some inscriptions and
epitaphs. For the Annales, Ennius rejected Saturnian verse and instead
adapted the meter known as dactylic hexameter from Homer and other
Greek epic poets to Latin. Lucretius’ poetic style was much influenced by
Ennius, especially in his choice of meter (dactylic hexameter), use of
alliteration, word play, and use of compound and archaic Latin words.
Lucretius mentions Ennius early in his poem (1. 112-126), praising him as
a great Roman poet (“He was the first to bring down/ a crown of
everlasting foliage from lovely Mount Helicon/ to become famous
throughout the Italian tribes of people.” 1.117-119). But Lucretius also sees
him as a poetic rival to be surpassed, largely because his view of the world
was wrong. At the beginning of the Annales, Ennius had related how the
shade of the poet Homer appeared to him and told him that he, Ennius,
was the reincarnation of Homer. As Lucretius writes (1.124-126), “(Ennius)
recalls how from that region the shade of Homer, forever/ blooming, rose
before him and began to shed salty/ tears, setting out in words the nature
of things.” The last phrase of these verses, “setting out in words the nature
of things,” is important. As he makes clear, Lucretius saw the “nature of
things” that Ennius and Homer are here reporting as false, and he is
composing his poem, On the Nature of Things, to set out the true nature of
things.
The six books of the poem fall into three groups of two: (1) Books 1
and 2 treat the nature of the atom, (2) Books 3 and 4 the nature of the
soul, and (3) Books 5 and 6 the nature of the world. Book 1 opens with
an invocation to Venus as mother of the Roman race, generating force of
nature, and personification of Epicurean pleasure. It includes an address
to Memmius (the main addressee of the poem), an attack on religion, the
setting out of basic philosophical principles, the existence of void and atoms,
a critique of earlier philosophers (Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras), and
the infinite nature of matter, space, and the universe. Book 2 begins by
Xx INTRODUCTION

praising Epicurean philosophy, and is devoted to the motions, shapes, and

characteristics of atoms, and explains the birth and death of worlds
including our own. Book 3 starts by praising Epicurus’ accomplishments,
and then sets out the nature of the soul in atomic terms, arguing that the
soul is mortal. It concludes with a diatribe against the fear of death.
Lucretius begins Book 4 by describing his poetic mission, and then explains
some psychological matters: the nature of atomic images, their role in
perception and thinking, the processes of digestion, movement, sleeping,
and dreaming. He ends with a spirited diatribe against the passion of love.
Book 5 praises Epicurus as the savior of mankind, discusses the birth and
growth of our world, argues against divine agency, discusses the heavenly
bodies, and describes the origin and growth of life and human society on
earth. Book 6, too, begins with praise for Epicurus, and discusses
meteorological and geological topics, including thunder and lightning,
clouds and rain, earthquakes, volcanoes, magnets, and plagues. Book 6
ends with an account of the great plague at Athens based on a passage
from the historian Thucydides.
As the summary of contents reveals, the poem deals primarily with
Epicurean physical theory. Lucretius does not provide an extended account
of Epicurean ethical theory in the poem, but his chief purpose in laying
out the tenets of Epicurean physics is ethical. He hopes to dispel the fears
people have of the gods and death by providing a clear and persuasive
account of how the world works in atomic terms. The poem is unfinished,
although scholars disagree on to what extent. Some suggest that Lucretius
intended to add to the poem, fulfilling his promise at 5. 155 to write more
about the gods, clearing up the many repetitions found throughout the
work, and perhaps ending the poem on a different note than with the
account of the plague at Athens. Others have argued that the poem is
substantially finished, and that the repetitions and ending serve intended
philosophical purposes.

D. The De Rerum Natura and the Roman World

In what sense is Lucretius’ poem a Roman work? As we have seen,

Lucretius took the writings of the Greek philosopher Epicurus and, using
the philosophical poetry of Empedocles and Ennius’ Annales as models,
created his own Latin philosophical epic. Lucretius knew his task was not
an easy one. The Roman people had not embraced Greek philosophy easily.
They saw philosophy, correctly, as a Greek invention, and viewed it with
suspicion. In the century before Lucretius many philosophers, including
Epicureans, had been expelled from the city of Rome.”2 Roman doubts
about the value of philosophy continued into the 1* century BC, but some

* For an account of the tension between the Romans and Greek philosophers in
the 2nd c. BC, see Gruen (1990).
 INTRODUCTION xxi

members of the Roman upper classes began to see it as an important part

of the education of elite young men. Many wealthy Roman men in their
late teens and twenties traveled to Athens and other Greek cities for
training in rhetoric and philosophy, and Greek rhetoricians and
philosophers came to Rome to teach as well. As a result, Romans began
to accept some of the teachings of Greek philosophy and adapt them for
their own uses,’ and some writers even began to write philosophical
works in Latin for their fellow countrymen.’ The philosophy that most
successfully adapted to the world of the Roman upper classes was Stoicism,
the chief philosophic rival of Epicureanism. Stoicism stressed, among other
things, taking an active part in political life, cultivating the Stoic moral
virtues that mapped onto the traditional Roman virtues, and
acknowledging a divine providence and fate that ruled the universe
rationally and that could be made to fit the Roman view that they had been
fated by the gods to rule the world. Epicureanism, by contrast, urged its
adherents to avoid politics, seek their own pleasure as the highest good,
and taught that the world was impersonal and not under the influence of
fate or divine direction.
Lucretius wrote his poem to try to convert his Roman audience to
what looked like the very un-Roman ideals of Epicureanism. In the poem
he asks that his fellow Romans give up many of their beliefs about what
makes life valuable: wealth, honor, power, high office, traditional public
and private worship of the gods, and the pride that they feel at being part
of a powerful empire, and adopt in their place a vision of the world that
is strangely double (the atomic level and the visible level) and which
demonstrates that happiness is to be found in freedom from pain and
anxiety, in semi-retirement from society, in the company of Epicurean
friends. Was life not better, he seems to ask in the poem, with atoms and
void in a random universe where the Epicurean could control his or her
own happiness, than in the seemingly random political order of the late
Roman Republic, where stability and true happiness seemed impossible to
obtain?
The De Rerum Natura is Lucretius’ attempt to make Greek philosophy
relevant to his fellow Romans. Lucretius says he is presenting the doctrines
of Epicurus faithfully, and as far as we can tell all of the philosophical
doctrines he presents in the poem are those of his master Epicurus, not
his own. What is his own is the way Lucretius presents Epicurus’ ideas.

"For an interesting account of what Roman philosophy meant to members of the

Roman upper class, see Griffin (1989).
se Including the Epicurean writers Amafinius, Rabirius, and Catius, about whom
very little is known. For more on the philosophical and intellectual climate of
Lucretius’ time, see Rawson (1985). The most famous example of a Roman who
tried to adapt Greek philosophy for his fellow citizens was Cicero, who wrote a
series of philosophical works, most of which are still extant.
xxii = INTRODUCTION

In order to reach his Roman audience, he abandons the dense Greek prose
of Epicurus and creates a Latin poem of great power and beauty. To
convert his readers to Epicureanism, he begins in Book I with the
invocation to Venus, the mother of the Roman race, and with the Roman
world of false values, and gradually replaces that false world with a true
picture of the universe, with its atoms, void, worlds, compound bodies,
death, and true happiness.’” How successful was Lucretius in converting
Roman readers to Epicureanism? It is hard to say, since our evidence for
the reception of his work is rather slim. Judging from the poem he wrote,
though, we can say that Lucretius set out Epicureanism for his fellow
Romans in as accurate, sympathetic, and persuasive an account as he could.

E. Note on the Translation

Because the De Rerum Natura is a philosophical poem, I felt it was

important that my English translation be in poetic form. My chief aim in
this translation is accuracy, while at the same time keeping as much of the
character of Lucretius’ Latin poetry as I could in English. As noted above,
the meter Lucretius wrote in is dactylic hexameter, the usual meter in Greek
and Latin verse for Epic poetry, including the works of Homer, Hesiod,
Ennius’ Annales, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It is a verse
composed of six'® “feet” or metrical units, and each foot is either a dactyl
( ~~ ~ = one long and two short syllables), or a spondee (~ ~ = two
long syllables ). A dactyl and a spondee are metrically equivalent because
one long syllable (~ ) is equal to two short syllables (~~ ). Here are the
first five lines of the poem in Latin, with the scansion noted above each
syllable.

Aenéadiim génétrix, hbmintiim divomqite véliptas

alma Vénits, caeli stibtér labéntia signa
quae maré navigériim, quae térras friigiféréntis
concélébras, pér té quoniam géntis Omné animantiim
cOncipitir visitqué €xorttim limina sdlis.
As some help towards pronouncing the Latin and experiencing the dactylic
rhythm, here are the same five lines, written with the long syllables in
UPPERCASE letters and the short syllables in lowercase letters. I have also
separated words into syllables with a dash (-), and used a (/) to divide
the six feet that make up each line.

” For insightful accounts of the way Lucretius adapts Epicureanism for his Roman
audience, see Clay (1983), Gale (1994), and Sedley (1998).
16 ; .
“hex” is the Greek word for “six.”
 INTRODUCTION _ xxiii

AE-ne-a-/DUM ge-ne-/TRIX, ho-mi-/NUM DI-/ VOM-que vo-/LUP-tas

AL-ma Ve-/NUS, CAE-/LI SUB-/TER LA-/BEN-ti-a /SIG-na
QUAE ma-re/ NA-vi-ge-/RUM, QUAE/ TER-RAS/ FRU-gi-fe-/REN-TIS
CON-ce-le/BRAS PER /TE quo-ni-/AM ge-nus/OM-na-ni-/MAN-tum
CON-ci-pi-/TUR VI-/SIT-QUEX-/OR-TUM /LU-mi-na /SO-lis.
I have not tried to duplicate Lucretius’ dactylic hexameters in my
English translation, but instead have used a rough five or six beat line to
suggest some of their movement. The length of such lines is well suited
for rendering Lucetius’ hexameters into English, and allowed me to do a
line-by-line translation. Here, for the sake of example, are the first five
lines of my translation corresponding to the lines of Lucretius just quoted.
I have placed an accent mark (’) over each syllable that is stressed in
English, and except in rare instances in the translation, each line is intended
to have five or six stresses.

Mother of the descéndants of Aenéas, pleasure of himans and géds,

lifegiving Vénus, it is you who beneath the gliding signs
of heaven makes the ship-bearing sea and the fruitful earth
teem with life, since through you the whole race of living creatures
is conceived, born, and gazes on the light of the stn.

Other features of Lucretius’ poetic style that are particularly

noticeable, and which I have tried to capture in the translation, are his use
of compound words, neologisms (invention of new words), and alliteration
(a series of words that all begin with the same letter or sound). To
translate Lucretius’ Latin compound words, I have used a compound or
hyphenated word in English (e.g., in line 3 Lucretius uses the word
navigerum, derived from the roots navis (ship) and gero (carry), which is
thus translated “ship-bearing”). Lucretius was also inclined to invent new
words when an exact Latin equivalent for what he was trying to say did
not exist, or when he wanted to add extra emphasis. Since very little Latin
before or contemporary with Lucretius has survived, we cannot always be
sure that a word that occurs only in Lucretius was coined by him, but there
are so many words that occur for the first or only time in Latin in
Lucretius’ text that it seems likely many are his own invention. In the case
of many of these neologisms I have taken the liberty of coining English
words to translate them in order to call Lucretius’ practice to the attention
of the reader. When I have done this, I have marked it in a footnote. A
good example occurs at 2.498, where Lucretius uses the Latin word
maximitate, a word found nowhere else in Latin. I have translated
maximitate with the made up English word “maxitude” (“Otherwise you
would force some seeds to be of enormous maxitude...”) to indicate to the
reader that Lucretius has apparently made up the word in Latin. Finally,
xxiv INTRODUCTION

where possible I have tried to capture examples of Lucretius’ use of

alliteration in my translation. For example, at 4.88 Lucretius writes quae
volgo volitant subtili praedita filo with an alliteration of the v’s beginning the
words volgo volitant. I have translated the line as “which freely fly around
endowed with subtle texture”, capturing Lucretius’ v-sounds with the f-
sounds in the phrase “freely fly.”
No translation, especially of poetry, can be completely transparent,
allowing all of the nuances of the original text to appear in the translation.
I have been constantly aware of this as I struggled to find English
equivalents for Lucretius’ words, phrases, and poetic devices. I have also
benefited greatly from consulting other English translations of Lucretius,
especially those of Bailey (1947), Humphries (1968), Rouse and Smith (1982),
Latham and Godwin (1994), Esolen (1995), Melville (1997), and M.F. Smith
(2001). The number of recent translations reflects the increased study of
Hellenistic and Roman philosophy in the past few decades, and Lucretius’
central role in that scholarly renaissance. I hope that readers of this
translation will begin to develop a love of Lucretius’ poetry and Epicurean
philosophy, and that they are inspired to take up the study of Latin in order
to experience the full and powerful beauty of the De Rerum Natura first hand.
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fipycuae saa ‘Prame Volley a? the Atomic Swervags

7
F ifs (NW Cis wo Codie.” Otgfen! Shudiee Pi Ane yet

To the Late Ratan Vopuldic, ‘Bahimore)

OUTLINE OF THE POEM

Book One

A. Proem (1-148)
1. Invocation to Venus (1-49)
2. Appeal to Memmius (50-61)
SB Praise of Epicurus and attack on religion (62-135)
= Difficulty of Lucretius’ task (136-148)
B. Fundamental principles of atomism (149-482)
Le Nothing is created out of nothing through divine intervention
(149-214)
Nothing is destroyed into nothing (215-264)
Matter exists in the form of unseen particles (265-328)
Void or empty space exists (329-417)
age
SUT
date Everything else is a property or accident of atoms and void
(418-482)
C. The atoms are solid, eternal, and indivisible (483-634)

D. Criticism of earlier theories (635-920)

i? Criticism of Heraclitus (635-704)
2 Criticism of Empedocles (705-829)
ee Criticism of Anaxagoras (830-920)

E. Lucretius’ mission (921-950)

E Infinity of the universe, matter, and space (951-1117)

Infinity of the universe (951-1001)
Infinity of space (1002-1007)
Infinity of matter (1008-1051)
Universe has no center (1052-1113)
naConclusion (1114-1117)
Seg

XXix
XXX OUTLINE OF THE POEM

Book Two

A. Proem: the blessings of Epicureanism (1-61)

B. The motions of atoms (62-332)

Introduction (62-79)
Atoms are in constant motion (80-141)
Velocity of atomic motion (142-166)
Arguments against divine control (167-183)
Weight of atoms causes downward motion (184-215)
Swerve of atoms (216-293)
Matter and motion the same through all time (294-307)
eee
ae
ee
Oe Atoms constantly move in compounds that are at rest (308-332)
C. The shapes of atoms (333-729)
1. Variety of atomic shapes and the effects they produce (333-477)
ae Finite number of atomic shapes (478-580)
o: Atomic compounds (581-729)

D. Atoms lack secondary qualities (730-1022)

1: Atoms lack color (730-841)
Pe, Atoms lack other secondary qualities (842-864)
o: Atoms lack sensation (865-990)
4, Summary (991-1022)

E. Infinite worlds and the vastness of the Universe (1023-1174)

1. Introduction (1023-1047)
2. Proofs that other worlds exist (1048-1089)
3. Attack on the theological view (1090-1104)
4. Growth and decline of worlds (1105-1174)

Book Three

A. Introduction (1-93)
cE Proem: Praise of Epicurus (1-30)
2 Wretchedness of those who fear death (31-93)

B. Nature and structure of the mind and soul (94-416)

i Soul is corporeal and not a type of harmony (94-135)
ee Unity of the mind (animus, mens) and soul (anima) (136-160)
3: Mind and soul are corporeal (161-176)
4 Fineness of the mind’s and soul’s atoms (177-230)
 OUTLINEOF THE POEM — xxxi

5. Four types of mind and soul atoms (231-322)

6. Unity of the soul and body (323-416)

C. Proofs of the mortality of the soul (417-829)

a. Introduction (417-424)°
2 Proofs based on the atomic structure of the soul (425-444)
oF Proofs based on the shared life of soul and body (445-547)
- Proofs based on the physical connection of body and soul
(548-669)
a The soul does not exist before the body (670-783)
6. Other proofs that the soul is mortal (784-829)
D. No need to fear death (830-1094)
1. Death is nothing to us, because we lose all sensation (830-869)
Refutation of false assumptions about the nature of death
(870-930)
Rebuke by Nature herself (931-77)
Real hell is the hell humans create within themselves (978-1023)
Death happens to everyone, even the great (1024-1052)
Causes of human unhappiness in life (1053-1075)
wSD Conclusion: death is not to be feared (1076-1094)
WR
Book Four

A. Proem: Lucretius’ mission (1-25)

B. Existence and nature of images (simulacra) (26-215)

Existence of images (26-109)
Thinness of images (110-128)
Spontaneous production of images (129-142)
Quickness of image production (143-175)
Rapid movement of images (176-215)

Sensation and thought (216-822)

L Sight and images (216-378)
2. Optical illusions and false mental inferences (379-468)
3. Arguments against skepticism (469-521)
. The other senses (522-721)
a. Sound and hearing (522-614)
b. Taste (615-672)
c Smell (673-705)
d Animals affected differently by sensations (706-721)
XXXII OUTLINE OF THE POEM

5. Thought (722-822)
a. Mental images and the process of thought (722-748)
b. Similarity of vision and thought (749-756)
c. Dreams (757-776)
d. Some questions about images in thoughts and dreams (777-822)

D. Some physiological and psychological issues (823-1057)

ih Attack on the teleological position (823-857)
Ze Hunger and thirst (858-876)
De Voluntary actions of living creatures (877-906)
4 Sleep (907-961)
5 Dreams (962-1036)
E. Love, sexual desire, and procreation (1037-1287)
Physical origins of love (1037-1057)
The pathology of love (1058-1120)
Ill effects of love (1121-1140)
Delusions caused by love (1141-1191)
Female libido (1192-1208)
Parental seed and heredity (1209-1232)
Causes and cures of infertility (1233-1277)
es Familiarity and love (1278-1287)
Oe
Oe

Book Five

A. Introduction (1-90)
i Proem: Praise of Epicurus (1-54)
2s Outline of the book (55-90)

B. Nature of the world (91-508)

1 World had a beginning and will end (91-109)
7a The gods have nothing to do with our world (110-234)
2: Evidence of the mortality of the world (235-415)
4. Origins of our world (416-508)

Heavenly bodies: celestial phenomena (509-770)

Motions of the stars (509-533)
Shape and stability of the earth (534-563)
Size of the sun, moon, and stars (564-591)
Light and heat of the sun (592-613)
Speeds of the heavenly bodies (614-649)
CO Day
eee and Night (650-704)
 OUTLINE OF THE POEM XXX1il

7. Source of the moon’s light (705-750)

8. Eclipses (751-770)
D. Earth and the development of life and human civilization (772-1457)
1. Origins of life (772-924)
2. Early humans (925-1010)
3. The rise of human civilization (1011-1457)
Early communities (1011-1027)
Invention of language (1028-1090)
Fire and its uses (1091-1104)
The rise of kings and wealth (1105-1135)
Laws and punishment (1136-1160)
Origin of religion (1161-1240)
Discovery and use of metals (1241-1280)
Iron and weapons (1281-1296)
Uses of animals in warfare (1297-1349)
Weaving (1350-1360)
Agriculture (1361-1378)
. Music (1379-1411)
Innovations and human nature (1412-1435)
Regularity of the seasons (1436-1439)
on
ee
Bes
v5
oo More recent developments of civilization (1440-1457)
Book Six

A. Introduction (1-95)
1. Proem: Praise of Epicurus (1-42)
2. Contents and purpose of the book (43-95)

B. Atmospheric Phenomena (96-534)

1. Thunder (96-159)
2. Lightning and thunderbolts (160-422)
3. Waterspouts (423-450)
4. Clouds (451-494)
5. Rain (495-534)

Terrestrial Phenomena (535-1137)

1. Earthquakes (535-607)
2. Constant volume of the sea (608-638)
3. Volcanoes (639-711)
4. The Nile River (712-737)
xxxiv OUTLINE OFTHE POEM

Avernian places (738-839)

Puzzling character of some fountains (840-905)
Magnets (906-1089)
Pestilences (1090-1137)
CS
mOnan
Plague of Athens (1138-1286)
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS

BOOK I
Mother of the descendants of Aeneas,' pleasure of humans and gods,
lifegiving Venus, it is you who beneath the gliding signs
of heaven makes the ship-bearing sea and the fruitful earth
teem with life, since through you the whole race of living creatures
is conceived, born, and gazes on the light of the sun. 5
You, goddess, you the winds flee, you the clouds
of the sky flee at your coming, for you earth the artificer
sends up her sweet flowers, for you the expanses of the sea smile,
and the heavens, now peaceful, shine with diffused light.
For as soon as the sight of a spring day is revealed, 10
and the life-bringing breeze of the west wind is released and blows,
the birds of the air are the first to announce you and your arrival,
o goddess, overpowered in their hearts by your force.
Next wild beasts and flocks prance about their glad pastures
and swim across rushing streams. So taken by delight 15
each follows you eagerly wherever you proceed to lead them.
Then through the seas and mountains and fast-clutching rivers,
through the leaf-thronged home of birds and the verdant plains,
you strike, injecting sweet love into the hearts of all,
and make them eagerly create their offspring, each according to kind. 20
Since you alone guide the nature of things
and without you nothing emerges into the sunlit shores
of light, nothing glad or lovely comes into being,
Iam eagerly striving for you to be my ally in writing these verses

1 The “descendants of Aeneas” are the Romans. According to legend,

Aeneas was a Trojan hero who, after the fall of Troy to the Greeks, led a
group of Trojans to Italy and founded a city. His descendants eventually
founded the city of Rome. The story of Aeneas’ journey to Italy and
actions there are told in Virgil’s Aeneid, written thirty to forty years after
Lucretius’ poem.
 ON THE NATURE OF THINGS Invocation to Venus

20 that I am trying to set out about the nature of things

for our illustrious son of the Memmii,? whom you, goddess, on every
occasion have wished to be preeminent, adorned with every blessing.
All the more endow these words with everlasting charm, goddess.
Meanwhile, make it so that the savage claims of war
30 are put to sleep and lie quiet throughout every sea and land.
For you alone have the power to bring aid to mortals
with tranquil peace, since Mars, strong in arms, rules
the savage claims of war, and he often lets himself sink
into your lap, completely overcome by the unceasing wound of love.
35 And so gazing upwards, bending back his smooth neck,
he gapes at you, goddess, and feeds his hungry eyes with love.
And as he lies there, his breath hangs on your lips.
Goddess, with your blessed body flow down around him
as he reclines, and pour forth sweet words from your mouth,
40 o glorious one, seeking gentle peace for the Romans.
For neither can I perform my task with a tranquil mind
when our country is in trouble, nor can the shining offspring of the
Memmii
fail to attend to the safety of the state at such times.
For it must be that the entire nature of the gods
45 spends everlasting time enjoying perfect peace,
far removed and long separated from our concerns.
For free from all anxiety, free from dangers,
powerful in its own resources, having no need of us,
it is not won over by the good things we do nor touched by anger.’
50 For the rest, turn open ears and a sharp mind
set free from cares to the true system of philosophy,
so that you do not despise and abandon my gifts to you,
set out with constant eagerness, before they are understood.
For I am beginning to set out for you the deepest workings
of the heavens and the gods, and to reveal the first beginnings‘ of
55 things
out of which nature creates all things, and increases and maintains
them,
and into which nature dissolves them again once they have perished.
These we are accustomed, in setting forth our account, to call
“matter” and “the generating bodies of things” and to name them

* The poem is addressed to a Roman named Memmius, probably Gaius

Memmius, the patron of the Roman poet Catullus.
> 1.44-49 = 2.646-651.
* “The first beginnings” = primordia, one of the Latin terms Lucretius uses
for “atoms.” Lucretius never uses the Greek term atomoi (“atoms”) in
the poem.
Praise of Epicurus BOOK ONE 3

“the seeds of things,” and to use the term “first bodies” for them, 60
because all things exist from these first beginnings.°
It used to be that human life, polluted, was lying
in the dirt before our eyes, crushed by the weight of religion,
which stretched out its head ori display from the regions of heaven,
threatening mortals from above with its horrible-looking face. 65
It was a Greek man® who first dared to raise his mortal eyes
against religion, and who first fought back against it.
Neither the stories about the gods, nor thunderbolts, nor the sky
with its threatening rumbles held him back, but provoked
all the more the fierce sharpness of his mind, so that he desired 70
to be the first to shatter the imprisoning bolts of the gates of nature.
As a result the vital force of his mind was victorious,
and he traveled far beyond the flaming walls of the world
and trekked throughout the measureless universe in mind and spirit.
As victor he brings back from there the knowledge of what can come to
be, 75
what cannot, in short, by what process each thing
has its power limited, and its deep-set boundary stone.
And so the tables are turned. Religion lies crushed
beneath our feet, and his victory raises us to the sky.
Tam afraid of one thing in all this: that you might think 80
that you are starting on the first steps of an unholy system of thought,
and are walking the path of crime. On the contrary, it has happened too
often
that this so-called religion has produced criminal and unholy actions.
Thus was the case at Aulis when the chosen leaders of the Greeks,
the first among men, foully defiled the altar 85
of the virgin goddess of the crossroads’ with the blood of Iphianassa.*
As soon as the sacrificial headband was wreathed about her virgin
locks
with its streamers flowing down equally from both her cheeks,

oa
As just noted, Lucretius does not transliterate Epicurus’ Greek term for
atom (atomos, literally “unable to be cut”) into Latin, but instead uses a
number of different Latin terms to get at the idea.
6 Epicurus (341-271 BC), the founder of Epicureanism and the
philosophical hero of Lucretius’ poem.
NX
“Virgin goddess of the crossroads” = Diana (Artemis in Greek).
§ Iphianassa is the name Homer used for Iphigenia, the daughter of
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Artemis forced Agamemnon and the
Greeks to sacrifice Iphigenia before the Greeks could sail to Troy at the
beginning of the Trojan War. The story of her sacrifice was retold in
many 5 c. BC Greek tragedies, including Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis,
and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon.
= ON THE NATURE OF THINGS Evils of religion

and as soon as she saw her father standing in mourning before the
altar,
90 with his attendants beside him concealing the iron blade,
and the citizens pouring forth tears at the sight of her,
speechless with fear she sank in her knees and fell to the ground.
Nor was it a help to the wretched girl at such a moment
that she had been the first child to call the king “father.”
95 She was lifted up by men’s hands and led trembling
to the altar, not so that she might be greeted by the loud-ringing
marriage hymn when the solemn wedding rite was finished,
but that the chaste girl might be slaughtered unchastely at the very
point
of marriage, a grieving victim, by the sacrificial stroke of her father.
All this so that a happy and auspicious departure might be granted to
100 the fleet.
Such great evils could religion make seem advisable.
Even you today at some time or other will be overcome
by the fearful words of seers and try to desert us.
Why not, since so many are the dreams they can now
105 invent for you which can overturn the guiding principles of your life
and throw all your fortunes into complete confusion with fear!
And deservedly so. For if people saw that there is a fixed limit
to oppressive cares, with some reason they would be strong enough
to fight back against religious beliefs and the threats of seers.
110 As it is, there is no means of resisting, no power,
since death must bring with it the fear of eternal punishment.
For people do not know what the nature of the soul is.
Is it born, or does it work its way into us as we are being born?
Does it perish when we do, torn apart by death,
115 or does it go to see the shades of Orcus’ and its desolate pits?
Or does it work its way by divine aid into other creatures,
as our Ennius"” proclaimed? He was the first to bring down
a crown of everlasting foliage from lovely Mount Helicon"
to become famous throughout the Italian tribes of people.
120 And yet moreover Ennius still sets forth
in his everlasting verses that there really are regions of Acheron,
where neither our souls nor our bodies remain,
but certain kinds of shades pale in wondrous ways.
He recalls how from that region the shade of Homer, forever

’ “The shades of Orcus” = the underworld.

10
Ennius (239-169 BC) was one of the greatest early Roman poets. For
Ennius, see Introduction p. xix.
'' Mt. Helicon, located in Boeotia in Greece, was the home of the Muses.
Nothing comes from nothing BOOK ONE 5
Nr tiated)
blooming, rose before him and began to shed salty 125
tears, setting out in words the nature of things.
Therefore we must not only give a correct account of celestial
matters, explaining in what way the wanderings of the sun
and moon occur and by what power things happen on earth.
We must also take special care and employ keen reasoning 130
to see where the soul and the nature of the mind come from,
and what it is that meets our minds and terrifies us when
we are awake and suffering from disease, and when we are buried in
sleep,
so that we seem to hear and see face to face people
who have already met death and whose bones the earth embraces. 135
Nor does it escape my thought that it is difficult to throw light
upon the obscure discoveries of the Greeks in Latin verses,
especially since we must use new words for many things
because of the poverty of our language and the newness of the subject
matter.
But still it is your excellence and the pleasure of the sweet friendship 140
I hope to have with you that urges me to undergo hardship
however great and to keep my watch in the quiet of the night
as I try to find the right words and poem with which at last
I might be able to hold a clear light up to your mind
that will allow you to see deeply into obscure matters. 145
Therefore this fear and darkness of the mind must be shattered
apart not by the rays of the sun and the clear shafts
of the day but by the external appearance and inner law of nature.”
Its first principle will take its starting point for us as follows:
nothing ever comes to be from nothing through divine intervention.’ 150
The reason that fear so dominates all mortals is
because they see many things happen on earth and in the heavens
the causes of whose activities they are able in no way
to understand, and they imagine they take place through divine power.
For which reason, when we see that nothing can be created from
nothing, 155
then we will more correctly perceive what we are after:
the source from which each thing is created, and the way
each thing happens without divine intervention.
For if things came to be from nothing, every kind of thing

2 1.146-148 = 3.91-93.
13. This is the first major law of Epicurean physics: Nothing can come to be
out of nothing. Cf. Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus 38 (“First, nothing
comes into being out of what does not exist”). Lucretius’ words in 150,
“through divine intervention,” appear to be his own addition.
6 ON THE NATURE OF THINGS Nothing comes from nothing

160 could be born from all things, and nothing would need a seed.
Men might sprout from the sea and the scaly race
of fishes from the earth, and birds might hatch from the sky.
Cattle and other livestock, and every kind of beast,
with uncertain birth would inhabit farms and wilderness alike.
165 Trees would not consistently produce the same fruit,
but they would change, and all trees could bear all fruit.
Since there would not be generating bodies for each thing,
how could there be a fixed and constant mother for things?
But now, since all things are created from fixed seeds,
170 each thing is born and emerges into the shores of light
from the source of the matter and first bodies of each thing.
And thus all things are unable to be born from all things,
because there is a separate power present in fixed things.
And why do we see roses in the spring, grain in the heat,
175 or vines bursting forth in response to autumn’s call?
Is it not because whatever is created becomes visible
in its own time when fixed seeds have flowed together,
while favorable seasons are at hand and the lively earth safely
brings forth tender things into the shores of light?
180 But if they came to be from nothing, they would suddenly spring forth
at random periods of time and during unsuitable parts of the year,
seeing that there would be no first beginnings which would be able
to be kept apart from generating union at an unfavorable time.
Nor further, in order for things to increase, would there need to be time
185 for seeds to come together, if they were able to grow from nothing.
For tiny babies would suddenly become young adults,
and trees would rise up and leap from the earth in an instant.
It is obvious that none of these things happens, since everything
increases little by little, as is fitting for fixed seed,
190 and preserves their kind as they increase. Thus you can recognize
that each thing grows and is nourished from its own matter.
In addition, without dependable rains each year
the earth is unable to produce its joy-bringing crops,
nor is the nature of living creatures, if deprived of food,
195 able to reproduce its race and safeguard its life.
You should thus believe all the more that many bodies are common
to many things, as we see letters are common to words,
rather than that anything is able to exist without first beginnings.
Next, why was nature unable to produce men
so large that they could cross the ocean by walking through the
200 shallows,
rip apart huge mountains with their bare hands,
and succeed in living through many ages of living creatures,
unless it is because fixed matter has been assigned to things
Nothing is destroyed into nothing BOOK ONE 7,

for their growth, from which it is determined what is able to come to be?
So it must be confessed that nothing is able to come from nothing, 205
since things have a need for seed by which they all can,
when created, be brought forth into the soft breezes of the air.
Finally, since we see that cultivated lands are better than uncultivated,
and produce better crops when they are cared for by our hands,
it is clear that there exist in the earth the first beginnings of things 210
which we stir into being when we turn over the fertile clods
with a plough and work the soil of the earth from deep down.
But if there were not first beginnings, you would see everything
come to be much better on its own without our efforts.
Next is this: nature dissolves each thing back 215
into its particles and does not destroy things into nothing."
For if anything were mortal in all its parts, each thing
would perish by being snatched suddenly from before our eyes.
For no need would exist for a force that was able to arrange
the destruction of the parts of each thing and dissolve its structure. 220
But as it is, since each thing is composed out of eternal seed,
until a force is present that hammers apart the thing with a blow
or penetrates within through empty spaces and dissolves it,
nature does not allow the destruction of anything to be seen.
And if time annihilates whatever it removes through the aging process, 225
consuming all the matter, from where would Venus restore
the living race each according to kind, or from where
does earth the sweet artificer nourish and increase them
once restored, providing them with food each according to kind?
From where would internal springs and external, far-off rivers 230
supply the sea? From where would the sky feed the stars?
For infinite time gone by and the passing days
ought to have consumed everything that has a mortal structure.
But if in this duration and time gone by there have been
things from which this sum of things is restored and exists, 235
they are without any doubt endowed with an immortal nature.
Therefore everything cannot be changed back into nothing.
Next, the same force and cause would destroy everything
indiscriminately, unless they were held together by an eternal stuff
entangled toa lesser or greater degree in its interconnections with itself. 240
Indeed a mere touch would undoubtedly be a sufficient cause

4 This is the second major law of Epicurean physics: Nothing can be

destroyed into nothing, or everything would cease to be. Cf. Epicurus’
Letter to Herodotus 39 (“And if what disappears had perished into what is
not, all things would have perished, since what they were dissolved into
does not exist.”).
8 ON THE NATURE OF THINGS Unseen particles exist

of death, especially seeing that there would be nothing with eternal

body
whose texture a special force would be required to dissolve.
But as things are, since there are various interconnections
245 of the first beginnings with themselves and matter is everlasting,
things persist with their bodies sound, until a force found
sufficiently strong to overcome their textures meets them.
Thus not one thing returns to nothing, but all things
when they split apart return to the first bodies of matter.
250 Lastly, the rains pass away, when father sky
sends them down into the lap of mother earth.
But glistening crops erupt and branches turn green on trees,
while the trees themselves grow and are weighed down by fruit.
Hence further our race and the race of beasts are fed,
255 hence we see glad cities flower with children
and lush forests everywhere sing with young birds.
Hence cows exhausted by their fat lay their bodies
down on the joyful pasture and the glistening moisture of milk
drips from their distended udders. Hence new calves
260 play and frolic on shaky limbs in the soft grass,
their tender young minds drunk on pure milk.
Thus all things that are visible do not perish completely,
since nature remakes one thing from another, nor does she allow
anything to be born unless it is aided by another’s death.
Come now, since I have shown that things cannot be created from
265 nothing,
and likewise that once created they cannot be reduced to nothing,
lest by any chance you still begin to doubt my words,
since you cannot see the first beginnings of things with your eyes,
let me remind you besides that there are bodies which you must admit
270 exist in things and yet are not able to be seen.
First, when the force of the wind is whipped up it lashes
at the sea, overwhelming huge ships and scattering the clouds.
Rushing along at times with a quick whirlwind it strews
the plains with great trees and attacks the mountain tops
275 with forest-cracking blasts. So the wind with its shrill howling
rages wildly, shrieking savagely and moaning with menace.
It is therefore beyond doubt that there are invisible bodies of wind
which sweep over the sea, the lands, and the clouds of the sky,
buffeting them and snatching them up in a sudden whirlwind.
280 They flow along and breed destruction in the same way
as when the soothing nature of water is carried off suddenly
in an overflowing river, when it has been swollen after heavy rains
by a tremendous rush of water coming off the high mountains.
It tosses shattered branches from the forests and whole trees,
Unseen particles exist
SR
c e BOOK ONE 9
ee
and not even sturdy bridges can withstand the sudden force 285
of the approaching water. Stirred up by the heavy rains,
the river rushes against the pilings with effective force.
It wreaks a deafening havoc and beneath its waves it rolls
huge rocks, rushing against whatever opposes its flow.
Therefore so too should the blasts of wind be carried along, 290
which, whenever they have spread out in any direction
like a powerful river, drive things before them and rush at them
with constant force, and now and thenina twisting gust
they seize them and quickly carry them off ina spinning whirlwind.
Therefore again and again there are invisible bodies of wind, 295
since they have been found to rival mighty rivers in what
they do and in how they act, and rivers have bodies we can see.
Second, we experience the different kinds of smells things have,
but nonetheless we never see the smells coming to our noses.
We do not see warm heat, nor can we apprehend 300
cold with our eyes, nor are we in the habit of seeing voices.
But it must be that all these things are bodily
by nature, since they are able to set the sense organs in motion.
For nothing is able to touch or be touched except body.
Third, clothes hung along the wave-beaten shore 305
grow damp, but they dry when spread out in the sun.
But we neither see how the dampness of the water settled on them,
nor again how it was forced out owing to the heat.
This shows that the moisture is split up into small
particles that the eye is in no way able to see. 310
Fourth, as the sun completes its journey year after year
a ring on the finger grows thinner beneath with wear,
the fall of water-drops hollows out a stone, the curved
iron plow ofa farmer shrinks imperceptibly in the fields,
and we see that people’s feet today are wearing down 315
the stone surfaces of the street. Then too near the gates of the city
bronze statues extend right hands thinned
by the frequent touch of those who pass by and greet them.
These then we see diminish, since they have been worn away.
But the jealous nature of vision blocks our seeing which 320
bodies move away at any given time.
Finally, whatever time and nature gradually add
to things, compelling them to grow in due measure,
no sharpness of vision, no matter how it strains, is able to see.
Moreover, neither when things age by the wasting of time, 325
nor when rocks overhanging the sea are eaten away by the devouring
salt are you able to see at the time what they are losing.
This is proof that nature conducts her business with invisible bodies.
But all things are not held packed tightly
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natural than stuffed specimens usually are; they were executed by
the able pencil of Charles Landseer, Esq.
On board the ship Sophia, during the passage to England, ample
opportunities were afforded me to study this singularly interesting
little animal. Its measurement was as follows:—From the os calcis to
the vertex of the head, two feet four inches; span of the arms, four
feet; length of the arm, from the axilla to the termination of the
fore-finger, one foot ten and a half inches; length of the leg, from
the groin to the os calcis, eleven inches; length from the xiphoid or
ensiform cartilage to the crest of the pubis, seven and a half inches.
The teeth are twelve in each jaw; four incisors, two canine, and
six molares. In the upper jaw, the canine were placed widely apart
from the last incisor, giving an appearance as if a tooth was
deficient: this circumstance did not occur in the lower jaw. The teeth
were in a very bad condition. In colour, the animal was of a beautiful
jet black, being covered with coarse hair over the whole body. The
face has no hair, except on the sides, as whiskers, and the hair
stands forward from the forehead over the eyes: there is very little
beard. The skin of the face is black; the arms are very long, the
radius and ulna being of greater length than the os humeri: the hair
on the arms runs in one direction, viz. downwards; that on the fore-
arm, upwards; the hands are long and narrow, fingers long and
tapering; thumb short, not reaching farther than the first joint of the
fore-finger; the palms of the hands and soles of the feet are bare
and black; the legs are short, in proportion to the arms and body;
the feet are long, prehensile, and, when the animal is in a sitting
posture, are turned inwards, and the toes are usually bent. The first
and second toes are united (except at the last joint) by a membrane.
From this circumstance, the animal has derived its specific name. He
invariably walks in the erect posture, when on a level surface; and
then the arms either hang down, enabling him sometimes to assist
himself with his knuckles; or, what is more usual, he keeps his arms
uplifted, in nearly an erect position, with the hands pendent, ready
to seize a rope, and climb up on the approach of danger, or on the
obtrusion of strangers. He walks rather quick in the erect posture,
but with a waddling gait, and is soon run down if, whilst pursued, he
has no opportunity of escaping by climbing.
On the foot are five toes, the great toe being placed like the
thumb of the hand: the form of the foot is somewhat similar to that
of the hand, having an equal prehensile power; the great toe has a
capability of much extension outwards, which enlarges the surface of
the foot when the animal walks. The toes are short; the great toe is
the longest. The eyes are close together, with the irides of a hazel
colour; the upper eyelids have lashes, the lower have none. The
nose is confluent with the face, except at the nostrils, which are a
little elevated. The mouth large, ears small, resembling the human,
except in being deficient in the pendent lobe. He has nails on the
fingers and toes, and has hard tubercles on the tuberosities of the
ischium, but is destitute of a tail or even the rudiment of one.
His food is various: he preferred vegetable diet, as rice, plantains,
&c., and was ravenously fond of carrots, of which we had some
quantity preserved on board. Although, when at dinner, he would
behave well, not intruding his paw into our plates, having “acquired
politeness,” as Jack would say, by being on board, yet, when the
carrots appeared, all his decorum was lost, in his eager desire for
them; and it required some exertion to keep him from attacking
them “with tooth and paw,” unmindful whether we wished it or not,
and against all the laws and regulations of the table. A piece of
carrot would draw him from one end of the table to the other, over
which he would walk, without disturbing a single article, although
the ship was rolling at the time; so admirably can these animals
balance themselves. This is well seen when they play about the
rigging of a ship at sea: often, when springing from rope to rope,
have I expected to see him buffeting the waves, and as often did I
find that all my fears were groundless.
He would drink tea, coffee, or chocolate, but neither wine nor
spirits. Of animal food, he prefers fowl; but a lizard having been
caught on board, it was placed before him, when he seized the
reptile instantly in his paw, and greedily devoured it. He was also
very fond of sweetmeats, such as jams, jellies, dates, &c.; and no
child with the “sweetest tooth” ever evinced more delight after “bons
bons” than did this little creature. Some manilla sweet cakes that
were on board he was always eager to procure, and would not
unfrequently enter the cabin in which they were kept, and
endeavour to lift up the cover of the jar: he was not less fond of
onions, although their acridity caused him to sneeze and loll out his
tongue: when he took one, he used to put it into his mouth, and
immediately eat it with great rapidity.
The first instance I observed of his attachment to liberty, was soon
after he had been presented to me by Mr. Boustead. On entering the
yard in which he was tied up, one morning, I was not well pleased at
observing him busily engaged in removing his belt, to which the cord
or chain was fixed, (which, as I afterwards understood, had been
loosened on purpose,) at the same time whining, and uttering a
peculiar squeaking noise. As soon as he had succeeded in procuring
his liberty, he walked, in his usual erect posture, towards some
Malays, who were standing near the place; and, after hugging the
legs of several of the party, without, however, permitting them to
take him in their arms, he went to a Malay lad, who seemed to be
the object of his search; for, on meeting with him, he immediately
climbed into his arms; and hugged him closely, having an
expression, in both the look and manner, of gratification at being
once again in the arms of him, who I now understood was his
former master. When this lad sold the animal to Mr. Boustead, he
was tied up in the courtyard of that gentleman’s house, and his
screams to get loose used to be a great annoyance to residents in
the vicinity. Several times he effected his escape, and would then
make for the water-side, the Malay lad being usually on board the
proa, in which he had arrived from the Sumatra. He was never re-
taken until, having reached the water, he could proceed no farther.
The day previous to sailing, I sent him on board. As the lad that
originally brought him could not be found, a Malay servant to Mr.
Boustead was deputed to take charge of him. The animal was a little
troublesome at first, but afterwards became quiet in the boat. On
arriving on board, he soon managed to make his escape, rewarding
his conductor with a bite, as a parting remembrance, and ascended
the rigging with such agility as to excite the astonishment and
admiration of the crew. As the evening approached, the animal came
down on the deck, and was readily secured. We found, however, in a
day or two, that he was so docile when at liberty, and so very much
irritated at being confined, that he was permitted to range about the
deck or rigging. We sailed from Singapore for England with him, on
the 18th of November 1830.
He usually, (on first coming on board,) after taking exercise about
the rigging, retired to rest at sunset, on the maintop, coming on
deck regularly at daylight. This continued until our arrival off the
Cape, when experiencing a lower temperature, he expressed an
eager desire to be taken to my arms, and to be permitted to pass
the night in my cabin, for which he evinced such a decided partiality,
that, on the return of warm weather, he would not retire to the
maintop, but seemed to have a determination to stay where he
thought himself the most comfortable, and which I, at last, after
much crying and solicitation from him, permitted.
He was not able to take up small objects with facility, on account
of the disproportion of the size of the thumb to the fingers. The
metacarpal bone of the thumb has the mobility of a first joint. The
form of both the feet and hands gives a great prehensile power,
fitted for the woods or forests, the natural habitat of these animals,
where it must be almost an impossibility to capture an adult of the
species alive.
Under the throat is a large black pouch, a continuation of the
common integument, very thinly covered with hair, and not very
visible when undistended. It has a corrugated appearance,
extending from the under part of the chin to the throat, is attached
as low down as the upper part of the sternum, and it is also
attached above to the symphysis of the lower jaw. The use of this
pouch has been a subject of much speculation: having the animal for
some time with me, sleeping in the same apartment, I might be able
to form some opinion on the subject. Its use is certainly not well
known, though it is not improbable that it may be an appendage to
the organ of voice. For often when irritated, I have observed him
inflate the pouch, uttering at the same time a hollow barking noise,
[53] for the production of which the rushing of the air into the sac
was evidently an adjunct. The inflation of the pouch was not,
however, confined to anger; for when pleased he would purse the
mouth, drive the air with an audible noise into the sac; when
yawning, it was also inflated; and in all instances, (except when
excited by anger,) he would gradually empty the sac, as if he derived
a pleasure from it. When the sac has been distended, I have often
pressed on it, and forced the air contained within it into the mouth,
the animal not evincing at the time any sign of its being an
annoyance to him. When uttering the barking noise, the pouch is not
inflated to the same extent as when he yawns. It has been stated in
an American publication, that the use of the air sac is for a
swimming bladder. It may be said in refutation, (if the assertion is
not too absurd to refute,) that Ungka never evinced any partiality for
swimming, although provided with such an apparatus; but one day,
thinking that a washing would be beneficial to the beast’s coat, I
placed him in a large tub of water: he was much frightened at his
situation, and soon began to display a marked hydrophobic
symptom, but not the least attempt was made to inflate the pouch,
although he was frequently submersed. This animal is destitute of
cheek pouches as a reservoir for food.
When sleeping, he lies along, either on the side or back, resting
the head on the hands, and is always desirous of retiring to rest at
sunset; it was at this time he would approach me uncalled for,
making a peculiar begging, chirping noise; an indication that he
wished to be taken into the cabin to be put to bed. Before I
admitted him into my cabin, after having firmly stood against his
piteous beseeching tones and cries, he would go up the rigging and
take up his reposing place for the night in the maintop. He would
often (I suppose from his approximation to civilization) indulge in
bed some time after sunrise, and frequently when I awoke I have
seen him lying on his back, his long arms stretched out, and, with
eyes open, appearing as if buried in deep reflection. At sunset, when
he was desirous of retiring to rest, he would approach his friends,
uttering his peculiar chirping note, a beseeching sound, begging to
be taken into their arms; his request once acceded to, he was as
adhesive as Sinbad’s old man of the sea; any attempt to remove him
being followed by violent screams. He could not endure
disappointment, and, like the human species, was always better
pleased when he had his own way; when refused or disappointed at
anything, he would display the freaks of temper of a spoiled child; lie
on the deck, roll about, throw his arms and legs in various attitudes
and directions, dash every thing aside that might be within his
reach, walk hurriedly, repeat the same scene over and over again,
and utter the guttural notes of ra, ra; the employment of coercive
measures during the paroxysms reduced him in a short period to a
system of obedience, and the violence of his temper by such means
became in some degree checked. Often has he reminded me of that
pest to society, a spoiled child, who may justly be defined as papa’s
pride, mamma’s darling, the visitor’s terror, and an annoyance to all
the living animals, men and maid-servants, dogs, cats, &c. in the
house that it might be inhabiting.
When he came, at sunset, to be taken into my arms, and was
refused, he would fall into a paroxysm of rage; but finding that
unsuccessful, and unattended to, he would mount the rigging, and
hanging over that part of the deck on which I was walking, would
suddenly drop himself into my arms.[54]
The sounds he uttered were various: when pleased at a
recognition of his friends, he would utter a peculiar squeaking,
chirping note; when irritated, a hollow, barking noise was produced;
but when very angry, and frightened, or when chastised, the loud
guttural sounds of ra, ra, ra, invariably followed. When I approached
him for the first time in the morning, he greeted me with his chirping
notes, advancing his face at the same time, as if intended for the
purpose of salutation; but I did not feel desirous of trying the
experiment, as I knew these animals were not in the habit of kissing,
and I well knew they were in the habit of biting.
His look was grave, and manner mild, and he was deficient in
those mischievous tricks so peculiar to the monkey tribe in general.
In only one instance did I experience any mischief from him, and
that was in his meddling with my inkstand: he seemed to have an
extraordinary penchant for the black fluid—would drink the ink, (by
placing his finger in the inkstand, and then sucking it,) and suck the
pens, whenever an opportunity offered of gratifying this morbid
propensity: his black coat did not suffer from his dabbling in ink,
unlike many of the human species, who suffer both in constitution
and apparel from meddling too much with it.
There was a degree of intelligence in the animal, beyond what is
usually termed common instinct. These little miniatures of men,[55]
(as they are satirically termed,) are said to possess more sagacity
than other animals, and to be a close connecting link between the
“powerful lord of the creation,” and creatures of an inferior genus. If
it be true, as I have heard asserted, that intelligence is written in
legible characters on the os frontis of the monkey tribe, I beg to
add, that mischief and cunning also beam in their eye.
One instance of a very close approximation to, if it may not be
considered absolutely an exercise of, the reasoning faculty, occurred
in this animal. Once or twice I lectured him on taking away my soap
continually from the washing-place, which he would remove, for his
amusement, from that place, and leave it about the cabin. One
morning I was writing, the ape being present in the cabin, when
casting my eyes towards him, I saw the little fellow taking the soap.
I watched him, without his perceiving that I did so; and he
occasionally would cast a furtive glance towards the place where I
sat. I pretended to write; he seeing me busily occupied, took the
soap, and moved away with it in his paw. When he had walked half
the length of the cabin, I spoke quietly, without frightening him. The
instant he found I saw him, he walked back again, and deposited the
soap nearly in the same place from whence he had taken it. There
was certainly something more than instinct in that action: he
evidently betrayed a consciousness of having done wrong, both by
his first and last actions;—and what is reason if that is not an
exercise of it?
When he walks in the erect posture, he turns the leg and foot
outwards, which occasions him to have a waddling gait and to seem
bow-legged. He would pace the deck, being held by his long arm;
and then had a resemblance to a child just learning to step. The
limbs, from their muscular and strong prehensile power, render the
animal a fit inhabitant for the forest; enabling him to spring from
tree to tree with an agility that we have frequently witnessed him
display about the rigging of the ship: he would pass down the
backstays, sometimes hanging by his hands, at others walking down
them in the erect posture, like a rope-dancer, balancing himself by
his long arms; or he would spring from one rope at a great distance
to another, or would drop from one above to another below.
Being aware of his inability to escape pursuit, when running on a
level surface, his first object, when about to make an attack, was to
secure a rope, and swing towards the object he was desirous of
attacking; if defeated, he eluded pursuit by climbing out of reach.
He has an awkward manner of drinking, by which the liquid is
much wasted: he first applies his lips to the liquid, throwing the
head up, which in some degree may be attributed to the prominency
of the lower jaw: and if the vessel in which the liquid is contained
should be shallow, he dips the paw into it, and holding it over the
mouth, lets the liquid drop in. I never observed him lap with the
tongue when drinking; but when tea or coffee was given to him, the
lingual organ was carefully protruded for the purpose of ascertaining
its temperature. This display of caution was not confined to this
species of ape, as I know of several others which will do the same,
when hot tea or coffee is given to them; shaking their sapient head
violently, if they are heated by the liquid; but still, undeterred, will
wait patiently until the hot liquid becomes sufficiently cool for
bibulary purposes.
 He soon knew the name of Ungka, which had been given to him,
and would readily come to those to whom he was attached when
called by that name. His mildness of disposition and playfulness of
manner made him a universal favourite with all on board.
He was playful, but preferred children to adults. He became
particularly attached to a little Papuan child (Elau, a native of
Erromanga, one of the New Hebrides group,) who was on board,
and whom it is not improbable he may have in some degree
considered as having an affinity to his species. They were often seen
sitting near the capstan, the animal with his long arm round her
neck, lovingly eating biscuit together.
She would lead him about by his long arms, like an elder leading a
younger child: and it was the height of the grotesque to witness him
running round the capstan, pursued by, or pursuing, the child. He
would waddle along, in the erect posture, at a rapid pace,
sometimes aiding himself by his knuckles; but when fatigued, he
would spring aside, seize hold of the first rope he came to, and,
ascending a short distance, regard himself as safe from pursuit.
In a playful manner he would roll on deck with the child, as if in a
mock combat, pushing with his feet, (in which action he possessed
great muscular power,) entwining his long arms around her, and
pretending to bite; or, seizing a rope, he would swing towards her,
and, when efforts were made to seize him, would elude the grasp by
swinging away; or he would, by way of changing the plan of attack,
drop suddenly on her from the ropes aloft, and then engage in
various playful antics. He would play in a similar manner with adults;
but finding them usually too strong and rough for him, he preferred
children, giving up his games with them, if any adults joined in the
sports at the same time.
If, however, an attempt was made by the child to play with him,
when he had no inclination, or after he had sustained some
disappointment, he usually made a slight impression with his teeth
on her arm, just sufficient to act as a warning, or a sharp hint, that
no liberties were to be taken with his person; or, as the child would
say, “Ungka no like play now.” Not unfrequently, a string being tied
to his leg, the child would amuse herself by dragging the patient
animal about the deck: this he would good-naturedly bear for some
time, thinking, perhaps, it amused his little playmate; but finding it
last longer than he expected, he became tired of that fun, in which
he had no share, except in being the sufferer; he would then make
endeavours to disengage himself and retire. If he found his efforts
fruitless, he would quietly walk up to the child, make an impression
with his teeth, in a ratio of hardness according to his treatment: that
hint soon terminated the sport, and procured him his liberty.
There were also on board the ship several small monkeys, with
whom Ungka was desirous of forming interesting conversaziones, to
introduce a social character among the race, wile away the tedious
hours, which pass but tardily in a ship, and dissipate the monotony
of the voyage: to this the little monkeys would not accede; they
treated him as an outcast, and all cordially united to repel the
approaches of the “little man in black,” by chattering, and various
other hostile movements peculiar to them.
Ungka, thus repelled in his kind endeavours to establish
something like sociality amongst them, determined in his own mind
to annoy and punish them for their impudence; so, the next time
they united, as before, in a body, on his approach, he watched the
opportunity, and when one was off his guard, seized a rope, and,
swinging towards him, caught him by the tail, and hauled away upon
it, much to the annoyance of the owner, who had no idea that such
a retaliation was to take place; he continued pulling upon it, as if
determined to detach it, until the agility and desperation of the
monkey, at being so treated, obliged him to relinquish his hold. But
it not unfrequently happened that he made his way up the rigging,
dragging the monkey by the tail after him, and thus made him follow
his course most unwillingly. If in his ascent he required both hands,
he would pass the tail of his captive into the prehensile power of his
foot. It was the most grotesque scene imaginable, and will long
remain in the remembrance of those who witnessed it, and was
performed by Ungka with the most perfect gravity of countenance,
whilst the poor suffering monkey grinned, chattered, twisted about,
making the most strenuous endeavours to escape from his
opponent’s grasp. His countenance, at all times a figure of fun, now
had terror added to it, increasing the delineation of beauty; and
when the poor beast had been dragged some distance up the
rigging, Ungka, tired of his labour, would suddenly let go his hold on
the tail, when it would require some skill on the part of the monkey
to seize a rope, to prevent his receiving a compound fracture by a
rapid descent on deck. Ungka, having himself no caudal extremity,
knew well that he was perfectly free from any retaliation on the part
of his opponents.
As this mode of treatment was far from being either amusing or
instructive to the monkeys, they assembled together in an executive
council, where it was determined, that in future the “big black
stranger,” who did not accord with them in proportions, and who
demeaned himself by walking erect, wearing no tail, and was in
several other respects guilty of unmonkey-like conduct, should be for
the future avoided and treated with contempt; and should he again
think proper to assault any of the body, they should all unite, and
punish him for his violent conduct. Ungka, when again he made any
attempt to renew his amusement of pulling tails, met with such a
warm reception from all the little creatures assembled, that he found
it necessary to give up tale bearing, and devote himself to other
pursuits. He had, however, such an inclination to draw out tales, that
being obliged from “peculiar circumstances” to relinquish those of
the monkeys, he cultivated the friendship of a little clean pig that ran
about the deck, and, taking his tail in hand, endeavoured, by
frequent pulling, to reduce it from a curled to a straight form; but all
his efforts were in vain, although piggy did not express any ill-feeling
at his kind endeavours.
When dinner was announced by the steward, and the captain and
officers assembled in the cuddy, then Ungka, considering himself as
also one of the mess, would be seen bending his steps towards the
cuddy, and entering took his station, on a corner of the table,
between the captain and myself; there he remained waiting for his
share of the food, considering that we were all in duty and humanity
bound to supply him with a sufficiency of provender. When from any
of his ludicrous actions at table we all burst out in loud laughter, he
would vent his indignation at being made the subject of ridicule, by
uttering his peculiar hollow barking noise, at the same time inflating
the air sac, and regarding the persons laughing with a most serious
look, until they had ceased, when he would quietly resume his
dinner.
The animal had an utter dislike to confinement, and was of such a
social disposition as always to prefer company, to being left alone:
when shut up his rage was very violent, throwing every thing about
that was lying near, or that he could move, in his place of
confinement, but becoming perfectly quiet when released. When the
animal was standing with his back towards the spectator, his being
tail-less, and standing erect, gave him the appearance of a little
black hairy man; and such an object might easily have been
regarded by the superstitious as one of the infernal imps.
When he walks, to use a nautical phrase, “he sways the body,”
and stepping at once on the whole of the under surface of the foot,
occasions a pattering noise, like that which is heard when a duck, or
any aquatic bird, walks on the deck of a ship.
When the weather is cold, he may be seen huddled together, loses
all his lively and playful manner, sleeping much during the day, and
giving up all kind of exercise. Like the Lascars, who, as long as the
weather is hot, are capable of any duty, but when they arrive in a
northern climate, exposed to the bleak winds, they sink into a state
of inaction, from which it is almost impossible to rouse them; and
many perish, as much from the want of exercise as from the effects
of climate.[56] The return of warm weather imparted life to the
animal, his activity returned, his spirits revived, and his gambols and
sportive gaiety were resumed.
Although every kindness was shown to him by the officers and
crew, and sweetmeats and other niceties were given to him by them
by way of bribes, to engage his confidence and good opinion, yet he
would not permit himself to be taken in the arms, or caressed
familiarly by any person on board during the voyage, except by the
commander, the third officer, and myself; but with any of the
children he would readily gambol. It was a strange fact, that he in
particular avoided all those who wore large bushy whiskers.
It was ludicrous to behold the terrified looks of the animal, if his
finger was taken towards a cup of hot tea, as if to ascertain the
temperature; and his attempt at remonstrating on the impropriety of
such conduct, together with his half-suppressed screams, were very
diverting.
Among other amusements, he would frequently hang from a rope
by one arm; and, when in a frolicsome humour, frisk about, with his
eyes shut, giving him the appearance of a person hanging, and in
the agonies of death.
When we spoke a ship at sea, his curiosity seemed to be much
excited by the novel object near us, for he would invariably mount
up the rigging, at a height sufficient to command a good view of the
stranger, and sometimes take up his position on the peak haulyards,
just under the flag, a signal, difficult no doubt for the stranger to
comprehend; there he would remain gazing wistfully after the
departing stranger, until he was out of sight—“give one parting,
lingering look,” and then come down on the deck again, and resume
the sports from which the stranger’s appearance had disturbed him.
When strangers came on board he approached them with caution,
and at such a distance, as he considered consistent with his ideas of
safety. To the ladies he did not evince any partiality; we had none on
board by which we could judge whether a few days or weeks of their
powerful fascinations would have any effect on him. The only lady
who had honoured him with her notice was one who came on board
from a ship we spoke at sea; he evinced, however, no partiality to
the gentle sex, and would not permit her to caress him: whether it
was the bonnet, which was of the calibre of 1828, or other portions
of the lady’s dress, that excited his indignation, I cannot say, as the
animal could not communicate his opinions; whatever the cause
might have been, he was evidently not eager to become acquainted
with her, but would show a disposition to bite if she attempted to
caress him. As she appeared at first timid of approaching him, this
show of warfare may have been occasioned by it, and in some
degree have made the cunning brute keep up the feeling. I was
acquainted with a lady in Ceylon, who, having been bitten by a
cockatoo, always evinced great terror at the approach of one which
was kept by her Ayah, or lady’s-maid, in the house: the bird
appeared aware of it, for, when he saw the lady approach, he would
flap his wings, elevate his crest, shriek out, and at the same time
pretend to pursue her, at which she ran away quite terrified.
When the poor animal lay on the bed of sickness, from dysentery,
produced by the cold, there was as much inquiry after his health, by
the officers and crew, as if he had been of “human form divine,” for
he was a universal favourite on board; and there was much regret
when he died—all his gambols and playful antics ceasing for ever.
His skin, properly stuffed and preserved in its natural erect attitude,
was kept to be consigned, on our arrival in England, to one of the
glass-cases in the British Museum, where he was eventually
deposited.[57]
His death occurred as follows:—On the 19th of March, 1831, we
had reached the latitude 45° 41′ north, and longitude 24° 40′ west.
The animal seemed (although clothed in flannel, and kept in my
cabin) to suffer much from cold, and was attacked by dysentery. He
would prefer going on the deck, in the cold air, with the persons to
whom he was attached, to remaining in the warm cabin with those
whom he did not regard. On the 24th he became much worse, his
appetite gone, and he had a dislike of being moved; the discharge
from the bowels was bilious, mixed with blood and mucus,
sometimes entirely of blood and mucus, with a putrescent odour.
The breath had a sickly smell, mouth clammy, eyes dull and
suffused; he drank a little water occasionally, and sometimes a little
tea. I gave the usual remedies of calomel and opium, as if I was
treating dysentery in a human being, and although I was obliged to
put the medicine down his throat myself, the animal made no
resistance; and on a renewal of the doses, did not attempt to
prevent it, as if aware that it was intended for his benefit. He
generally remained with his head hanging on the breast, and limbs
huddled together; he would, however, when yawning, inflate the
pouch as usual.
On the 29th we were detained in the “chops of the channel,” by
prevailing easterly winds; and he daily sank until the 31st of March,
when he died, in latitude 48° 36′ north, longitude 9° 1′ west.
On examination of the body soon after death, the thoracic viscera
were found perfectly healthy, and differing from the orang-utan,[58]
in being subdivided on each side, the right lung having three, and
the left two lobes, as in the human subject. The lungs were perfectly
free from tubercles; the spleen was healthy, of small size, and
lobulated at one extremity; the liver was large and healthy; the
difference in size between that organ and the spleen was
considerable, in comparison with the relative proportions of those
organs in the human subject. Mr. Owen does not remark, in the
dissection of the orang-utan, whether this difference of size in the
two organs exists also in that animal; the gall-bladder contained a
small quantity of dark, thick, and viscid bile; several of the
mesenteric glands were enlarged, some being of a white, others of a
dark colour.
On laying open the duodenum, it was found to contain a quantity
of mucus, slightly tinged with bile; the colon and cœcum were full of
liquid bilious fœces, mixed with mucus, and several small ulcerated
patches were seen on the inner surface, and a dark spotted
appearance at other parts: the rectum also contained similar fœces,
but mixed with a curdy matter; and there were several large patches
of ulceration on the inner coat,[59] more particularly near the
termination of the gut; the kidneys were healthy; on the right the
capsula renalis was large, but none was seen on the left; the bladder
was quite empty, the inner surface scarcely moist. The animal had
been castrated, but the spermatic cord terminated in the scrotum in
two small oval substances, rather larger than small peas; the sacrum
and os coccygis were similar to those parts in the human subject.
The communication of the larynx was examined; the epiglottis was
only indicated by a slight obtuse angular rising; the sacculi laryngis
were three-eighths of an inch in the long diameter, one-eighth in the
short; their margins were well defined, continued forwards, below
the body of the os hyoides, into a membranous sac, situated
beneath the external thick one.[60] This animal has one common
sac, and thus differs from the orang-utan, which has two. The
extremities of the bones of the animal were cartilaginous.
The Angola orang (Simia troglodytes, Linn.) has been considered
the most perfect of animals, much more so than the Indian orang,
(Simia satyrus,) which has been called the orang-utan, although
both are very inferior to man in corporeal powers and intelligence.
When the Indian orang is compelled to take flight from pressing
danger, he immediately falls down upon all fours, showing clearly
that this was the original position of the animal.[61]
This assertion is correct according to my own observation, as far
as regards the orang-utan, and many of the Gibbons, who maintain
the erect posture only for a short period; but I found the Ungka ape
of Sumatra, (Simia syndactyla,) although, similar to the orang-utan,
he would occasionally aid himself by the knuckles when walking, yet
would maintain a more erect posture than I have ever observed in
the latter animal, besides his general form of body and countenance
assimilating more to the human being than the orang. I have seen
the Ungka, when pursued, continue to maintain the erect position
for some time, until through fatigue, or more probably from terror,
he would fall to the ground, becoming an easy capture; but let the
ropes of a ship, or any trees, be within reach, he would then avail
himself of the powerful, prehensile, and muscular power bestowed
upon him by nature, and whether over the rigging of the ship, or the
branches of the trees, he would then have sufficient strength and
agility to defy pursuit, although he could not effect it on a level
surface.
 CHAPTER IX.
The Botanic Garden—The Croton tiglium—The true Camphor-tree—The
Malaleuca Kayu-puteh—Excursion into the interior of the island—
Botanical productions—Chinese farms and plantations—Pepper
harvest—Plantain-trees—Gambir plantations—Boiling houses—
Cultivation and preparation of Gambir—Dense vegetation of the
Jungles—Establishment of a Chinese-planter.

The Botanic Garden will soon cease to exist. Of the valuable trees
it contained a few remain, liable frequently to injury from the inroads
and depredations of cattle; and I understand that its locality is to be
disposed of in lots for building. A large number of thriving nutmeg
and clove-trees laden with fruit, still remain; and a few common tea-
trees are seen flourishing, occasionally covered by blossoms, and
fruit; several Bauhinias, among which the B. tomentosa was
conspicuous with its ornamental, delicate, white blossoms and
leguminous pods, as well as the Gardenia, whose fragrant flowers
diffused a powerful scent around some time before the shrub could
be discerned; small plants of the Champaca (Michelia suaveolens)
were also seen, but had not yet attained a sufficient elevation to
gratify by the agreeable appearance and odour of its blossoms,
which are so much the delight of the Javanese women, and other
native females, who perfume and ornament themselves with its
flowers.
Among others which excite interest to those of the medical
profession was the Croton tiglium, at that time both in fruit and
flower; from the seeds of this shrub the well-known and powerful
purgative Croton-oil is obtained; the true camphor-tree
(Dryabalanops Camphora of Colebrooke) from Sumatra, which yields
the medicinal camphor[62] was also in the garden; this valuable tree
was in a very healthy and thriving condition, and was nearly ten feet
high; the Malaleuca Kayu-puteh, from which the highly-valued
cajeput, or, correctly speaking, Kayu-puteh oil is obtained by
distillation from the leaves, attracted my attention, and confirmed
my previously formed opinion, that a much larger quantity of this oil
might be obtained from the foliage of the Australian Eucalypti-trees;
more especially those which have opposite, rounded, and whitish
leaves; the oil produced by them being in considerable quantity. On
taking and rubbing the leaves of this Malaleuca it would be very
difficult to distinguish it in odour from those of the Eucalypti,
occasioned by the oil contained in them; this valuable oil may
therefore, at but little expense, be distilled in any quantity in the
colony of New South Wales; the genuine oil cannot be purchased at
Singapore at a cheaper rate than from two and a half to three
dollars for a bottle, which contains about a pint of the oil; but there
is a large quantity of an adulterated article very generally sold by the
natives at this settlement. The tree, which I felt some interest in
examining, was about twelve feet high, branchy, and was at this
time both in flower and fruit; the bark was smooth and velvety, and
appeared to be deciduous, similar in character to that which I have
remarked in the Malaleuca or tea-tree of New South Wales.[63]
Across the creek, at the upper part of the settlement and near the
splendid and extensive pile of buildings, the residence of E.
Boustead, Esq. is a wooden bridge, at present in a very dilapidated
state, and impassable for carriages, which is a source of great
inconvenience to ladies and others who visit across the water. It is
reported that a new bridge is in contemplation, to be erected a short
distance above the site of the old one; and it would be desirable, for
the convenience of the residents, that it should be commenced and
finished as speedily as possible.[64]
In company with Mr. Moor and Dr. Martin, I made an excursion
into the interior of the island, for the purpose of viewing the
plantations of Gambir, Pepper, &c. as well as for the purpose of
investigating its natural productions. Most of the residents, deeply
engaged in mercantile pursuits, find but little leisure or inclination to
explore the island, or ascertain its real capabilities, or the
picturesque scenery and fertile soil it contains, their rambles being
merely confined to evening drives, or walks, in the immediate
vicinity of the settlement.
We went a short distance up the Singapore river in a sampan; the
banks abounded in the dark green and rank mangrove trees, behind
which hills arose, and occasional native dwellings. We did not
proceed far before we landed among some Malay houses,
surrounded with numerous palm, fruit, and flower trees; among
which the lofty Jack tree, with its enormous fruit pending from the
trunk or larger branches, the feathered cocoa palm, the erect Areka
palm, a beautiful shrub of Hibiscus rosa-chinensis covered by a
profusion of large flowers of a delicate nankin colour, and several
large trees of the Bixa orellana, or arnotto of commerce, the
Cashumpa of the Malays, (some of whom occasionally used it as a
dye,) were numerous. One of these dwellings was a manufactory for
the refining of sago, and another a native foundry for small cannon;
the powerful fragrance of the tube rose (Polianthes tuberosa) was
diffused around at the very curly hour of the morning we arrived,
when the sparkling dew-drops had not yet forsaken the herbage, the
sun not having yet the power to cause their glistening and refreshing
decorations to vanish.
From this picturesque little spot we proceeded through a jungle of
lofty grasses and shrubs, with elevated trees rising from the dense
mass; a sedge grass bearing a beautiful silvery inflorescence, the
Flemingea, Melastoma, different species of Nauclea, and numerous
ferns were seen; of the latter, among other elegant species, was the
widely-spread Gleichenia Hermanni, attaining the elevation amid the
wilderness of six and eight feet, and Blechnum, Polypodium,
Lycopodium, were mingled with others, adding to the denseness of
the vegetation. As the sun rose and diffused its rays around, a great
number of butterflies, beetles, and other insects passed away in
enjoyment their short fleeting lives, and revelled upon the sweets
the flowers contained. A lofty species of Pandanus, named by the
Malays Ninpuan, was very abundant in moist situations; it rose with
its long foliage bending at the extremities, and as the tree increased
in elevation it bore a closer resemblance to the growth of the palm
tree, and attained the height of forty and fifty feet. The leaves of
this tree bleaching about the Malay houses, I found were used by
them for a variety of purposes, as coverings for their dwellings, and
the manufacture of coarse mats.
We often emerged from the pathways leading through a wild
country, upon neat cottages, surrounded by plantations, inhabited
and cultivated by that industrious class of people, the Chinese. A
primary object of cultivation, I observed, was the Gambir-shrub,[65]
and the pepper-vine: the former was cultivated and exported to a
much greater extent, until the Dutch government, by heavy duties,
prohibited its introduction into Java, in order to encourage the
cultivation and exportation of it from their own settlement at Rhio.
Vegetables of different kinds, the sugar-cane, &c. are also cultivated
for the supply of the Singapore market.
The situations selected by the Chinese in this undulating country,
for their farms and plantations were upon, or close to the sloping
hills; and these places are selected for the Gambir and pepper
plantations, the lower land proving too swampy. The pepper harvest
had commenced, and the vines had the appearance of being very
productive this season, being covered with a profusion of clusters of
the pepper-berries, large, and of fine quality.[66] Some had even
attained maturity, having changed from a dark-green to a vivid red.
From the latter, the berry being in a ripe state, the white pepper is
made; some of very excellent quality was shown us by a Chinese
planter who had prepared it.
Instead of the usual and tedious process of drying the pepper in
the sun after it has been gathered, I observed the planters, after
collecting a large quantity together, steam it; by which, the drying
process is expedited, without, it is said, the pepper losing any of its
flavour by the operation. At the various plantations I visited, this
process was found most generally adopted, although a small
quantity was in a few instances laid out upon mats in the sun to dry.
The steaming process is almost invariably adopted when the
immediate demand for the article is very great, as it was at this
time, pepper being in considerable demand at Singapore, for the
English market. It was stated to me, that three thousand pepper-
vines will produce fifty peculs of pepper annually.
The pepper vines are planted in rows, a short distance apart one
from the other, and were, in this instance, trailed up split pieces of
dead wood, which served as a prop to the vines; some were tied to
their support; but generally they naturally attached themselves, by
giving out fasciculi of roots from the joints, at certain distances.
Plantain trees were occasionally seen in the pepper plantations,
probably for the certain degree of shade and moisture they may
have afforded. It is said, that a pepper plantation will not thrive
unless it be near one of the Gambir shrubs, or rather upon an estate
where the Gambir extract is prepared. This was considered to result
from the refuse leaves of the Gambir, after boiling, being requisite as
manure for the vines. From my own observation, I ascertained this
not to be the precise reason of the pepper-vines thriving better
where Gambir-boiling houses and plantations existed, but from the
Gambir leaves, after they had undergone the boiling process in the
manufacture of the extract from them, being strewn thickly over the
surface of the ground between the vines, for the purpose of
preserving it in a cool and moist state. This was the principal reason
of its being used, and, of course, the soil was finally improved by it,
as well as it would be by any other dead vegetable matter. I did not
observe in even a solitary instance that it was used about the roots
of the vines, but, on the contrary, it was kept cleared from them, the
roots of the vines having the earth hoed up about them, leaving a
circular space around, and ashes were occasionally mingled with the
earth about them, as a manure.
The Gambir plantations were very numerous, as well as those of
pepper; and it surprises me, that from the great and general
demand for the latter production, both in the China and European
markets, it is not an article of more general cultivation. Some
persons have asserted that the soil of Singapore is not calculated for
the production of pepper; but if in the numerous plantations I have
seen, large clusters of fine berries, excellent both in appearance and
flavour, is a sufficient denial of the assertion, I can readily make it,
and hope its cultivation will be encouraged. Two or three thousand
peculs of pepper are collected annually at Singapore.
I had fortunately an opportunity of observing at several of the
Gambir boiling-houses, the process of manufacturing that extract,
from the collecting of the prunings, the stripping of the leaves, to
the completion. The shrubs were from five to seven feet high, with
rather drooping branches; the time of collecting, is when the shrubs
require pruning, which is usually every six months; and the trees
would be injured, if not destroyed in value, were they not regularly
pruned. It is stated, that one shrub will exist and produce the extract
for twenty-five or thirty years, if properly and regularly attended to:
every care is taken to keep the plantations free from weeds.
I have observed, that the time of collecting the leaves for the
manufacture of the extract, was at the time the shrubs required
pruning. This, on passing through a plantation, I had an opportunity
of witnessing. The too luxuriant branches were cut off with a
pruning knife, collected into baskets, and then conveyed to the
boiling-house, which is erected in the midst of Gambir plantations,
the whole of which, at the period of my visiting them, were in full
operation; the leaves are then stripped from the pruned branches in
the boiling-house, and afterwards placed into the Qualie or cauldron;
(which is made of bark, with an iron bottom;) under this is an
enormous fire, which consumes a very large quantity of wood; the
leaves were frequently stirred, and such additions of them made, as
were required by their diminution during the boiling process, until
the cauldron being entirely full they are suffered to boil for some
length of time together. After thus remaining for several hours, the
leaves are removed from the cauldron, and placed upon a large bark
shoot near it; and the drainings from them return into the vessel.
The leaves are usually boiled twice, and, after being well washed
upon the shoot, the washings are thrown into the cauldron, so that
none of the extract may be lost. The leaves are then consigned to
their final destination, that of being strewn over the soil of the
pepper plantations. The liquor remaining in the cauldron, as well as
the drainings, is reboiled, and inspissated until it arrives at the
consistence of a very thick extract: it is then placed into oblong
moulds. At this time, it resembles very much a very light yellowish-
brown clay. After remaining some time in the mould, it is taken out,
divided with a knife into pieces, subdivided into small squares, and
placed upon a raised platform in the sun to dry. It becomes, when
hard and dry, of a very dark-brown colour, displaying in the interior,
on being fractured, a light-yellowish brown.[67]
From my own observation, as well as from the assertions of all the
Chinese manufacturers of this extract, whose boiling-houses were
visited, no sago was used in the preparation, although it has been
asserted by many writers, that the sago is required to give
consistence to the extract; but a good extract ought certainly to
have sufficient density in itself without the addition of any other
substance.[68]
The flavour of the extract is very pleasant, having at first the
agreeable sweetish taste of the liquorice-root, and afterwards a not
unpleasant astringent bitter flavour. The largest quantity of this
extract is consumed in Java; being used by the Javanese in coarse
dyes, as well as a masticatory. The Dutch government encourage, to
a great extent, the cultivation of Gambir, at their settlement of Rhio,
on the Island of Bintang, as they derive a large revenue from its
importation and extensive consumption in Java: a prohibitory duty
being also placed upon all Gambir produced in foreign settlements,
has still further caused the increase, and still increasing, preparation
of it at Rhio. I am indebted to the kindness of a mercantile
gentleman at Singapore, who visited and resided for some time at
Rhio, for the following observations upon the cultivation and
preparation of the Gambir at that settlement, together with the
quantity annually exported.
 The island of Bintang contains about six thousand Gambir
plantations, the larger ones consisting each of from eighty to a
hundred thousand trees; the smaller plantations, or, as named by
the Malays, gardens, contain from three to four thousand. The
shrubs are in full bearing, and covered with foliage, ten months in
the year; but during December and January, the leaves change to a
yellow colour, and consequently are then in an unfit state for
producing the extract. Of course, at some parts of the year, the
Gambir manufacturers have nothing to do, the shrubs not being in a
fit state for pruning; but if the demand for the extract is very great,
the rack-renters will, even at the risk of destroying the plantation,
cut off the branches, and convert both them and the leaves into
extract. There are at present upwards of eight hundred plantations
in Rhio, completely ruined by this system, which took place in the
month of April last, at which time Gambir extract was in very great
demand. One boiling-house, or manufactory, is usually attached to
about every forty Gambir plantations. It may be observed, that
during the rainy season the extract produced is of an inferior quality
to that which is made during hot, dry weather, although the foliage
being in greater proportion, more extract is yielded by them.
During the wet season, vegetation is very rapid in its progress on
the shrubs: if stripped entirely of their foliage, it is not an
uncommon circumstance, in the space of five days, to see them
renewed, and covered with verdure. The production of Gambir,
during the year 1829, amounted to thirty-one thousand peculs; in
1830, it amounted to thirty-five thousand peculs; in 1831, to forty-
seven thousand peculs; in 1832, to sixty-three thousand peculs; and
for the present year, 1833, will amount to full seventy thousand
peculs; and each pecul, of one hundred and thirty-three pounds,
pays to the Dutch government the sum of eight rupees, which, at
seventy thousand peculs, brings to them the large annual revenue of
five hundred and sixty thousand rupees.
It is surprising that no place has yet been found in the Eastern
Archipelago from whence Gambir can be procured that can at all
compete in quality with that produced at Rhio. The island of Lingin
produces a quality next to that of Rhio; and it is worthy of remark,
that Rhio owes its good name to Lingin, as the Gambir, the produce
of that island, was not held in any estimation, until Rhio planters
(Chinese) went to Lingin to acquire the art of manufacturing it; and
they also brought with them the Gambir plants from that place to
Rhio, where it was found to thrive and produce a better extract than
at Lingin. A Gambir plantation, after it has attained three years’
growth, may be considered capable of yielding good extract, and will
continue to do so, if properly attended to, for the space of nine or
ten years.
The Chinese, possessing plantations of Gambir at Singapore,
informed me, that twenty thousand peculs were manufactured
annually upon the island; and some quantity of it was taken away by
the Borneo and other native vessels. There are one hundred and
fifty Gambir plantations upon the island, not including a number of
plantations of young trees not yet producing the extract: there are
also about one hundred and seventy plantations of the pepper-vine
upon the island.
At Rhio, as well as in Gambir manufactories generally, the whole of
the leaves, (and sometimes even the stalks,) without any regard to
their selection, are used. It appears, also, that when the qualie, or
cauldron, is new, the extract prepared in it becomes very dark, and
is sold only as a second quality at Rhio, and is almost unsaleable in
the Java market: after the cauldron, however, has been in use for
one or two years, the extract manufactured in it becomes of a much
lighter colour. As the cauldrons are made principally of bark, it must
be some colouring matter in it that is bestowed upon the extract;
from this circumstance the old cauldrons are held more in estimation
than the new. It appears that the white kind made at Rhio, by the
women in their own houses, is not a regular article of commerce;
but is preferred by a few for its refined appearance: it is prepared
and brought into a white state, by the extract being re-dissolved,
and passed through several washings, until the sediment has
become of a white colour, when it is taken out, formed into cakes,
and dried in the sun. It is rarely used in comparison with the other
kinds of the Gambir extract.
As we left the plantations, and entered the jungles, a dense
vegetation surrounded us on every side, except the small pathway
which led through it: the pathway, overshadowed by trees and
entwining plants, made our walk during the heat of noon-day, in
these situations, delightfully cool and refreshing. The Sukun utan, or
wild bread-fruit trees, were very numerous in the jungle; the forest
trees, towering to a great elevation, without a branch except at the
summit, gave them much the character of those of Australia, but
unlike them, in not having their foliage dull and arid. Many birds
were shot, of the fly-catcher tribe, of handsome plumage; a
beautiful small black falcon, not more than four or five inches in
length, and some other small birds; but the feathered tribe were far
from numerous: the swallow (not differing from our European
species) was abundant about the settlement of Singapore; but I did
not observe any in the interior of the island.
About eight a.m. we arrived at the extensive Gambir and pepper
plantations, garden, orangery, and neat habitation of a Chinese, who
informed us that he had been ten years upon the island. We
breakfasted at this place, a servant having been previously sent on
with provisions; but we always found the Chinese planters eager to
provide us with any provisions they had. He supplied our table,
however, with some excellent oranges from his garden: he has
upwards of two hundred orange trees, (which had been originally
brought from China,) of large size and in full bearing, which brought
him in a good annual income, from the sale of the fruit in the
Singapore market. He said he had expended fifteen thousand dollars
upon the cultivation and improvement of his farm.
Many Chinese are settled in the interior of this island, upon land
for which no quit-rent having been paid, they render themselves
liable to lose the ground they have cleared and cultivated, unless
they pay the heavy sum demanded by the government as quit-rent.
However, I am not aware of any such oppressive measures having
yet been resorted to by the government, and hope the tax on the
industry and general cultivation of the land will be removed
altogether; and by bestowing small grants upon the settlers, render
the island a garden instead of a jungle—productive, instead of
barren.
Although I devoted much attention to the subject of quit-rents,
and collected much information on the question, I do not consider
that I can do better than insert the following intelligent remarks,
which have been published in the Singapore Chronicles of January
24th, and February 7th, 1833. The subject is one immediately
connected with the welfare of the island; and should the tax be
rescinded, which would encourage both emigration and cultivation,
we may expect to see the dense forest give place to houses and
plantations, smiling with the animation such scenery would occasion,
encouraging industry, and adding to the wealth of the settlement.
“We have already noticed, on one or two previous occasions, the
great prohibitions which exist to the cultivation and consequent
improvement of this island, in the excessive quit-rents which are
required by government on all grants of land, whether within the
limits of the town, or beyond it. The terms of this impost we have
already noticed, but we think the subject will not suffer by our
mentioning them again.
“Persons desirous of clearing and cultivating waste and forest
land, must make application to the superintendent of lands, stating
the district and place where the land is situated; also the description
of land, whether hill or level land, and also its extent. After due
survey, the superintendent will report the application to the chief
civil authority, who, if no objection exists, will grant a permit to clear
the land, which must be effected within such time as may be
determined. The land being cleared, the holder of the permit shall
be entitled to a lease, subject to the following limitation and
provisions:—that the rate of rent shall not exceed one dollar per
acre, on the first lease given, fifteen years being the duration;—that
the lease so granted shall be, at its expiration exchanged, for a
second lease for a future term of fifteen years, at such rate as shall
be determined on, not exceeding three dollars per acre;—that on the
expiration of the second lease, a third, for fifteen years, shall be
granted, at a rate not exceeding six dollars per acre;—that on the
expiration of the third lease, a fourth shall be granted, at a rate not
exceeding ten dollars per acre.
“It shall be optional with the government, in the event of the
leaseholder refusing to accept a lease at, or under the rates above
specified, to eject the holder and resume the land with all buildings
thereon. The rate of ten dollars per acre, being declared to be the
maximum of rent demandable for lands occupied for cultivation, and
beyond the limits of the town of Singapore, or any other town that
may be hereafter established, it shall be optional with leaseholders
to demand a permanent lease of nine hundred and ninety-nine years
at the rate of ten dollars per acre, per annum.
“The foregoing rules, however, are applicable only to lands beyond
the limits of the town, and occupied for agricultural purposes; those
respecting ground occupied within the limits of the town, for the
erection of buildings, being different. For such ground, the rate of
quit-rent has been fixed, on regular leases for nine hundred and
ninety-nine years, at one dollar for nine hundred and sixty-six feet,
or in the proportion of forty five dollars per acre.
“Such are the terms on which land is held at this settlement, and
which we declare to be prohibitions to an extended cultivation and
the general improvement of the island. In the first place, with regard
to land beyond the limits of the town, the rent, even on the first
lease, cannot be considered moderate, at a dollar an acre, as the
leaseholder must necessarily incur considerable expense, at the
commencement, in clearing the land, which, for the most part, is
overgrown with jungle and forest. To repay himself for this
expenditure, and to render the speculation worthy of his time and
attention, the ground must be made to yield productions calculated
to realize some profit. Those most likely to do so, on this island,
(from its hilly nature,) are spices, and certain descriptions of fruit.
But many years must elapse before the trees will bear, during which
the leaseholder is involved in a necessary and unavoidable expense,
which his undertaking may finally be unable to repay.
“The case may not be so applicable to lands suitable for the
cultivation of grain or vegetables, which are speedily raised, and
require but small outlay, yet even these could not, from their
cheapness, realize a profit whenever the land should become
chargeable with a rent of ten dollars an acre.
“The periodical leases, renewable after fifteen years, seem to be
considered by most as of little value; they afford no security for fixed
property in the soil, as a grant on one of these leases is liable to be
resumed by government, ‘with all buildings thereon,’ should the
leaseholder or his heirs not choose to comply with the terms of the
new lease. A permanent lease, on the contrary, establishes the
property in the leaseholder’s family, and he is induced, through a
certainty of security for the future, to invest and risk more means in
endeavouring to render his land productive, than he could prudently
do, when the lease is only periodical. But the excessive rate of the
present rent acts as a formidable prohibition to many, who would,
were the rent reduced, be well disposed to invest property in
agricultural speculations on this island.
“The injurious effects of the present system are but too apparent
in the neglected and uncultivated condition of that very great portion
of the island which is beyond the immediate influence of the town
and suburbs, and where deep solitude and wild nature reign
paramount. The island of Singapore measures about fifty miles in
circumference, we believe; and yet a very small portion of it is under
cultivation, owing, in a great degree, to the high rents required for
grants of land. The great depreciation of the value of landed
property is another palpably injurious effect arising from the present
system. We could point out instances where landed property has
been sacrificed, at a great loss to the owners, merely for the sake of
getting rid of the heavy burden of the quit-rent with which the land
is chargeable. One case to the point will exhibit the matter in a still
stronger light. We know of a lot of twenty acres, mostly hill, well
situated, contiguous to the town, and under cultivation; there is
likewise a substantial dwelling-house, in a commanding situation,
which, from its original cost, could not be rented under forty dollars
a month, at least: this sum, in twelve months, amounts to four
hundred and eighty dollars; but the quit-rent, if a permanent lease
be taken out, would be two hundred dollars a year, which leaves two
hundred and eighty dollars only to pay the interest of the money
originally spent on the property, exclusive of other charges. This
property is, however, to be disposed of, at a sum amounting to
about one-half of what the owner expended in building on it; yet,
with such a reduction, and although the ground is so eligibly
situated, no purchasers can be found, solely because the prospect of
paying two hundred dollars a year quit-rent, deters those who are
willing to purchase, while it makes the owner anxious to part with
the property at a great sacrifice.
“We believe the local government is fully sensible of the impolicy
and ruinous consequences of the present rate of rents; and we
understand that the present governor, Mr. Ibbetson, even
recommended a reduction, substituting sicca rupees for dollars; but
that the Court of Directors would not hear of such a thing, and
insisted on a strict observance of all Mr. Fullerton’s regulations, and
an adoption of his principles. We need scarcely add, the land-
regulations, now under review, were framed by the latter gentleman.
“It seems to us, that this refusal to accede to a most reasonable
and wise measure, was dictated more by infatuation than by any
other visible cause. Probably the directors imagine this island
contains an El Dorado, somewhere in its unknown parts, from which
they or their successors in governing will derive, at some future
time, incalculable wealth, arising from hidden mines of gold or tin.
We wish them success in this prospect; but we can assure them,
notwithstanding, they will find hereafter that the best and most
valuable treasure is to be obtained by allowing the island to be freely
cultivated, under a liberal system of encouragement to those who
are inclined to commence agricultural pursuits. If such were
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