{"id":34334,"date":"2025-08-21T13:23:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T17:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=34334"},"modified":"2025-08-21T14:47:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T18:47:21","slug":"if-the-sky-were-seen-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=34334","title":{"rendered":"If the sky were seen for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Now give us your true mind, turn to reason.
A new thing is trying to reach your ears 
To reveal itself to you in novel forms.
But nothing is so simple that it is not
At first hard to believe, nor any marvel 
So great that we don\u2019t soon forget our wonder.

The sky\u2019s clear and pure color, so restrained,
The stars shining everywhere, the moon,
And the splendid brightness of the sun\u2019s light\u2014 
If all this were suddenly, for the first time,
Unexpectedly revealed to mortals,
What could be called more miraculous than this,
Not less than what nations had dared to believe?

Nothing, I think; this scene would compel wonder.
We\u2019re so tired of seeing, we don\u2019t care to look up
To the resplendent temples of heaven.
Stop being terrified by this novelty
Stop spitting reason out of your mind.
Rather weigh it with sharp judgment, and if it seems true
Give it assent, or, if not, fight against it. 

For the mind seeks reason, and the highest place 
Is infinitely beyond the walls of this world. 
What is there beyond, where the mind wishes to look,
Where the free-thrown spirit itself can fly?
<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This is an excerpt from Lucretius (2.1023-46), which I found because Montaigne quotes the second part of it in his essay “It is Madness to Base True and False on our Self-Confidence” (1.27). My translation of this Latin text<\/a>. Stephen Batchelor also discusses this passage (in his translation) in The Art of Solitude<\/em> (Yale University Press, 2020), p. 42.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now give us your true mind, turn to reason.A new thing is trying to reach your ears To reveal itself to you in novel forms.But nothing is so simple that it is notAt first hard to believe, nor any marvel So great that we don\u2019t soon forget our wonder.The sky\u2019s clear and pure color, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-verse-and-worse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34334"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34342,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34334\/revisions\/34342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}