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De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)
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De Rerum Natura

Author: Lucretius
Translator: William Ellery Leonard
65
Quod
super
est
,
siquis
corpus
sentire
refutat

atque
animam
credit
permixtam
corpore
toto

suscipere
hunc
motum
quem
sensum
nominitamus
,
vel
manifestas
res
contra
verasque
repugnat
.
quid
sit
enim
corpus
sentire
quis
adferet
umquam
,
si
non
ipsa
palam
quod
res
dedit
ac
docuit
nos
?
'
at
dimissa
anima
corpus
caret
undique
sensu
.'
perdit
enim
quod
non
proprium
fuit
eius
in
aevo

multaque
praeterea
perdit
quom
expellitur
aevo
.
Dicere
porro
oculos
nullam
rem
cernere
posse
,
sed
per
eos
animum
ut
foribus
spectare
reclusis
,
difficilest
,
contra
cum
sensus
ducat
eorum
;
sensus
enim
trahit
atque
acies
detrudit
ad
ipsas
,
fulgida
praesertim
cum
cernere
saepe
nequimus
,
lumina
luminibus
quia
nobis
praepediuntur
.
quod
foribus
non
fit
;
neque
enim
,
qua
cernimus
ipsi
,
ostia
suscipiunt
ullum
reclusa
laborem
.
praeterea
si
pro
foribus
sunt
lumina
nostra
,
iam
magis
exemptis
oculis
debere
videtur

cernere
res
animus
sublatis
postibus
ipsis
.
Illud
in
his
rebus
nequaquam
sumere
possis
,
Democriti
quod
sancta
viri
sententia
ponit
,
corporis
atque
animi
primordia
singula
primis

adposita
alternis
,
variare
ac
nectere
membra
.
nam
cum
multo
sunt
animae
elementa
minora

quam
quibus
e
corpus
nobis
et
viscera
constant
,
tum
numero
quoque
concedunt
et
rara
per
artus

dissita
sunt
,
dum
taxat
ut
hoc
promittere
possis
,
quantula
prima
queant
nobis
iniecta
ciere

corpora
sensiferos
motus
in
corpore
,
tanta

intervalla
tenere
exordia
prima
animai
.

If one, moreover, denies that body feel,
And holds that soul, through all the body mixed,
Takes on this motion which we title "sense,"
He battles in vain indubitable facts:
For who'll explain what body's feeling is,
Except by what the public fact itself
Has given and taught us? "But when soul is parted,
Body's without all sense." True!- loses what
Was even in its life-time not its own;
And much beside it loses, when soul's driven
Forth from that life-time. Or, to say that eyes
Themselves can see no thing, but through the same
The mind looks forth, as out of opened doors,
Is- a hard saying; since the feel in eyes
Says the reverse. For this itself draws on
And forces into the pupils of our eyes
Our consciousness. And note the case when often
We lack the power to see refulgent things,
Because our eyes are hampered by their light-
With a mere doorway this would happen not;
For, since it is our very selves that see,
No open portals undertake the toil.
Besides, if eyes of ours but act as doors,
Methinks that, were our sight removed, the mind
Ought then still better to behold a thing-
When even the door-posts have been cleared away.
Herein in these affairs nowise take up
What honoured sage, Democritus, lays down-
That proposition, that primordials
Of body and mind, each super-posed on each,
Vary alternately and interweave
The fabric of our members. For not only
Are the soul-elements smaller far than those
Which this our body and inward parts compose,
But also are they in their number less,
And scattered sparsely through our frame. And thus
This canst thou guarantee: soul's primal germs
Maintain between them intervals as large
At least as are the smallest bodies, which,
When thrown against us, in our body rouse
Sense-bearing motions.
66
nam
neque
pulveris
inter
dum
sentimus
adhaesum

corpore
nec
membris
incussam
sidere
cretam
,
nec
nebulam
noctu
neque
arani
tenvia
fila

obvia
sentimus
,
quando
obretimur
euntes
,
nec
supera
caput
eiusdem
cecidisse
vietam

vestem
nec
plumas
avium
papposque
volantis
,
qui
nimia
levitate
cadunt
plerumque
gravatim
,
nec
repentis
itum
cuiusvis
cumque
animantis

sentimus
nec
priva
pedum
vestigia
quaeque
,
corpore
quae
in
nostro
culices
et
cetera
ponunt
.
usque
adeo
prius
est
in
nobis
multa
ciendum

quam
primordia
sentiscant
concussa
animai
,
semina
corporibus
nostris
inmixta
per
artus
,
et
quam
in
his
intervallis
tuditantia
possint

concursare
coire
et
dissultare
vicissim
.
Et
magis
est
animus
vitai
claustra
coërcens

et
dominantior
ad
vitam
quam
vis
animai
.
nam
sine
mente
animoque
nequit
residere
per
artus

temporis
exiguam
partem
pars
ulla
animai
,
sed
comes
insequitur
facile
et
discedit
in
auras

et
gelidos
artus
in
leti
frigore
linquit
.
at
manet
in
vita
cui
mens
animusque
remansit
,
quamvis
est
circum
caesis
lacer
undique
membris
;
truncus
adempta
anima
circum
membrisque
remota

vivit
et
aetherias
vitalis
suscipit
auras
;
si
non
omnimodis
,
at
magna
parte
animai

privatus
,
tamen
in
vita
cunctatur
et
haeret
;
ut
,
lacerato
oculo
circum
si
pupula
mansit

incolumis
,
stat
cernundi
vivata
potestas
,
dum
modo
ne
totum
corrumpas
luminis
orbem

et
circum
caedas
aciem
solamque
relinquas
;
id
quoque
enim
sine
pernicie
non
fiet
eorum
.
at
si
tantula
pars
oculi
media
illa
peresa
est
,
occidit
extemplo
lumen
tenebraeque
secuntur
,
incolumis
quamvis
alioqui
splendidus
orbis
.
hoc
anima
atque
animus
vincti
sunt
foedere
semper
.

Hence it comes that we
Sometimes don't feel alighting on our frames
The clinging dust, or chalk that settles soft;
Nor mists of night, nor spider's gossamer
We feel against us, when, upon our road,
Its net entangles us, nor on our head
The dropping of its withered garmentings;
Nor bird-feathers, nor vegetable down,
Flying about, so light they barely fall;
Nor feel the steps of every crawling thing,
Nor each of all those footprints on our skin
Of midges and the like. To that degree
Must many primal germs be stirred in us
Ere once the seeds of soul that through our frame
Are intermingled 'gin to feel that those
Primordials of the body have been strook,
And ere, in pounding with such gaps between,
They clash, combine and leap apart in turn.
But mind is more the keeper of the gates,
Hath more dominion over life than soul.
For without intellect and mind there's not
One part of soul can rest within our frame
Least part of time; companioning, it goes
With mind into the winds away, and leaves
The icy members in the cold of death.
But he whose mind and intellect abide
Himself abides in life. However much
The trunk be mangled, with the limbs lopped off,
The soul withdrawn and taken from the limbs,
Still lives the trunk and draws the vital air.
Even when deprived of all but all the soul,
Yet will it linger on and cleave to life,-
Just as the power of vision still is strong,
If but the pupil shall abide unharmed,
Even when the eye around it's sorely rent-
Provided only thou destroyest not
Wholly the ball, but, cutting round the pupil,
Leavest that pupil by itself behind-
For more would ruin sight. But if that centre,
That tiny part of eye, be eaten through,
Forthwith the vision fails and darkness comes,
Though in all else the unblemished ball be clear.
'Tis by like compact that the soul and mind
Are each to other bound forevermore.
67
Nunc
age
,
nativos
animantibus
et
mortalis

esse
animos
animasque
levis
ut
noscere
possis
,
conquisita
diu
dulcique
reperta
labore

digna
tua
pergam
disponere
carmina
vita
.
tu
fac
utrumque
uno
subiungas
nomine
eorum

atque
animam
verbi
causa
cum
dicere
pergam
,
mortalem
esse
docens
,
animum
quoque
dicere
credas
,
qua
tenus
est
unum
inter
se
coniunctaque
res
est
.
Principio
quoniam
tenuem
constare
minutis

corporibus
docui
multoque
minoribus
esse

principiis
factam
quam
liquidus
umor
aquai

aut
nebula
aut
fumus
—;
nam
longe
mobilitate

praestat
et
a
tenui
causa
magis
icta
movetur
,
quippe
ubi
imaginibus
fumi
nebulaeque
movetur
;
quod
genus
in
somnis
sopiti
ubi
cernimus
alte

exhalare
vaporem
altaria
ferreque
fumum
;
nam
procul
haec
dubio
nobis
simulacra
gerunturæ
nunc
igitur
quoniam
quassatis
undique
vasis

diffluere
umorem
et
laticem
discedere
cernis
,
et
nebula
ac
fumus
quoniam
discedit
in
auras
,
crede
animam
quoque
diffundi
multoque
perire

ocius
et
citius
dissolvi
in
corpora
prima
,
cum
semel
ex
hominis
membris
ablata
recessit
;
quippe
etenim
corpus
,
quod
vas
quasi
constitit
eius
,
cum
cohibere
nequit
conquassatum
ex
aliqua
re

ac
rarefactum
detracto
sanguine
venis
,
aëre

qui
credas
posse
hanc
cohiberier
ullo
,
corpore
qui
nostro
rarus
magis
incohibens
sit
?
THE SOUL IS MORTAL
Now come: that thou mayst able be to know
That minds and the light souls of all that live
Have mortal birth and death, I will go on
Verses to build meet for thy rule of life,
Sought after long, discovered with sweet toil.
But under one name I'd have thee yoke them both;
And when, for instance, I shall speak of soul,
Teaching the same to be but mortal, think
Thereby I'm speaking also of the mind-
Since both are one, a substance inter-joined.
First, then, since I have taught how soul exists
A subtle fabric, of particles minute,
Made up from atoms smaller much than those
Of water's liquid damp, or fog, or smoke,
So in mobility it far excels,
More prone to move, though strook by lighter cause
Even moved by images of smoke or fog-
As where we view, when in our sleeps we're lulled,
The altars exhaling steam and smoke aloft-
For, beyond doubt, these apparitions come
To us from outward. Now, then, since thou seest,
Their liquids depart, their waters flow away,
When jars are shivered, and since fog and smoke
Depart into the winds away, believe
The soul no less is shed abroad and dies
More quickly far, more quickly is dissolved
Back to its primal bodies, when withdrawn
From out man's members it has gone away.
For, sure, if body (container of the same
Like as a jar), when shivered from some cause,
And rarefied by loss of blood from veins,
Cannot for longer hold the soul, how then
Thinkst thou it can be held by any air-
A stuff much rarer than our bodies be?
68
Praeterea
gigni
pariter
cum
corpore
et
una

crescere
sentimus
pariterque
senescere
mentem
.
nam
vel
ut
infirmo
pueri
teneroque
vagantur

corpore
,
sic
animi
sequitur
sententia
tenvis
.
inde
ubi
robustis
adolevit
viribus
aetas
,
consilium
quoque
maius
et
auctior
est
animi
vis
.
post
ubi
iam
validis
quassatum
est
viribus
aevi

corpus
et
obtusis
ceciderunt
viribus
artus
,
claudicat
ingenium
,
delirat
lingua
mens
,
omnia
deficiunt
atque
uno
tempore
desunt
.
ergo
dissolui
quoque
convenit
omnem
animai

naturam
,
ceu
fumus
,
in
altas
aëris
auras
;
quando
quidem
gigni
pariter
pariterque
videmus

crescere
et
,
docui
,
simul
aevo
fessa
fatisci
.
Huc
accedit
uti
videamus
,
corpus
ut
ipsum

suscipere
inmanis
morbos
durumque
dolorem
,
sic
animum
curas
acris
luctumque
metumque
;
quare
participem
leti
quoque
convenit
esse
.
quin
etiam
morbis
in
corporis
avius
errat

saepe
animus
;
dementit
enim
deliraque
fatur
,
inter
dumque
gravi
lethargo
fertur
in
altum

aeternumque
soporem
oculis
nutuque
cadenti
;
unde
neque
exaudit
voces
nec
noscere
voltus

illorum
potis
est
,
ad
vitam
qui
revocantes

circum
stant
lacrimis
rorantes
ora
genasque
.
quare
animum
quoque
dissolui
fateare
necessest
,
quandoquidem
penetrant
in
eum
contagia
morbi
;
nam
dolor
ac
morbus
leti
fabricator
uterquest
,
multorum
exitio
perdocti
quod
sumus
ante
.
denique
cor
,
hominem
cum
vini
vis
penetravit

acris
et
in
venas
discessit
diditus
ardor
,
consequitur
gravitas
membrorum
,
praepediuntur

crura
vacillanti
,
tardescit
lingua
,
madet
mens
,
nant
oculi
,
clamor
singultus
iurgia
gliscunt
,
et
iam
cetera
de
genere
hoc
quae
cumque
secuntur
,
cur
ea
sunt
,
nisi
quod
vehemens
violentia
vini

conturbare
animam
consuevit
corpore
in
ipso
?
at
quae
cumque
queunt
conturbari
inque
pediri
,
significant
,
paulo
si
durior
insinuarit

causa
,
fore
ut
pereant
aevo
privata
futuro
.

Besides we feel that mind to being comes
Along with body, with body grows and ages.
For just as children totter round about
With frames infirm and tender, so there follows
A weakling wisdom in their minds; and then,
Where years have ripened into robust powers,
Counsel is also greater, more increased
The power of mind; thereafter, where already
The body's shattered by master-powers of eld,
And fallen the frame with its enfeebled powers,
Thought hobbles, tongue wanders, and the mind gives way;
All fails, all's lacking at the selfsame time.
Therefore it suits that even the soul's dissolved,
Like smoke, into the lofty winds of air;
Since we behold the same to being come
Along with body and grow, and, as I've taught,
Crumble and crack, therewith outworn by eld.
Then, too, we see, that, just as body takes
Monstrous diseases and the dreadful pain,
So mind its bitter cares, the grief, the fear;
Wherefore it tallies that the mind no less
Partaker is of death; for pain and disease
Are both artificers of death,- as well
We've learned by the passing of many a man ere now.
Nay, too, in diseases of body, often the mind
Wanders afield; for 'tis beside itself,
And crazed it speaks, or many a time it sinks,
With eyelids closing and a drooping nod,
In heavy drowse, on to eternal sleep;
From whence nor hears it any voices more,
Nor able is to know the faces here
Of those about him standing with wet cheeks
Who vainly call him back to light and life.
Wherefore mind too, confess we must, dissolves,
Seeing, indeed, contagions of disease
Enter into the same. Again, O why,
When the strong wine has entered into man,
And its diffused fire gone round the veins,
Why follows then a heaviness of limbs,
A tangle of the legs as round he reels,
A stuttering tongue, an intellect besoaked,
Eyes all aswim, and hiccups, shouts, and brawls,
And whatso else is of that ilk?- Why this?-
If not that violent and impetuous wine
Is wont to confound the soul within the body?
But whatso can confounded be and balked,
Gives proof, that if a hardier cause got in,
'Twould hap that it would perish then, bereaved
Of any life thereafter.
69
Quin
etiam
subito
vi
morbi
saepe
coactus

ante
oculos
aliquis
nostros
,
ut
fulminis
ictu
,
concidit
et
spumas
agit
,
ingemit
et
tremit
artus
,
desipit
,
extentat
nervos
,
torquetur
,
anhelat

inconstanter
,
et
in
iactando
membra
fatigat
,
ni
mirum
quia
vis
morbi
distracta
per
artus

turbat
agens
animam
,
spumans
in
aequore
salso

ventorum
validis
fervescunt
viribus
undae
.
exprimitur
porro
gemitus
,
quia
membra
dolore

adficiuntur
et
omnino
quod
semina
vocis

eliciuntur
et
ore
foras
glomerata
feruntur

qua
quasi
consuerunt
et
sunt
munita
viai
.
desipientia
fit
,
quia
vis
animi
atque
animai

conturbatur
et
,
ut
docui
,
divisa
seorsum

disiectatur
eodem
illo
distracta
veneno
.
inde
ubi
iam
morbi
reflexit
causa
,
reditque

in
latebras
acer
corrupti
corporis
umor
,
tum
quasi
vaccillans
primum
consurgit
et
omnis

paulatim
redit
in
sensus
animamque
receptat
.
haec
igitur
tantis
ubi
morbis
corpore
in
ipso

iactentur
miserisque
modis
distracta
laborent
,
cur
eadem
credis
sine
corpore
in
aëre
aperto

cum
validis
ventis
aetatem
degere
posse
?
Et
quoniam
mentem
sanari
corpus
ut
aegrum

cernimus
et
flecti
medicina
posse
videmus
,
id
quoque
praesagit
mortalem
vivere
mentem
.
addere
enim
partis
aut
ordine
traiecere
aecumst

aut
aliquid
prosum
de
summa
detrahere
hilum
,
commutare
animum
qui
cumque
adoritur
et
infit

aut
aliam
quamvis
naturam
flectere
quaerit
.
at
neque
transferri
sibi
partis
nec
tribui
vult

inmortale
quod
est
quicquam
neque
defluere
hilum
;
nam
quod
cumque
suis
mutatum
finibus
exit
,
continuo
hoc
mors
est
illius
quod
fuit
ante
.
ergo
animus
sive
aegrescit
,
mortalia
signa

mittit
,
uti
docui
,
seu
flectitur
a
medicina
.
usque
adeo
falsae
rationi
vera
videtur

res
occurrere
et
effugium
praecludere
eunti

ancipitique
refutatu
convincere
falsum
.
Denique
saepe
hominem
paulatim
cernimus
ire

et
membratim
vitalem
deperdere
sensum
;
in
pedibus
primum
digitos
livescere
et
unguis
,
inde
pedes
et
crura
mori
,
post
inde
per
artus

ire
alios
tractim
gelidi
vestigia
leti
.
scinditur
atque
animae
haec
quoniam
natura
nec
uno

tempore
sincera
existit
,
mortalis
habendast
.
quod
si
forte
putas
ipsam
se
posse
per
artus

introsum
trahere
et
partis
conducere
in
unum

atque
ideo
cunctis
sensum
diducere
membris
,
at
locus
ille
tamen
,
quo
copia
tanta
animai

cogitur
,
in
sensu
debet
maiore
videri
;
qui
quoniam
nusquamst
,
ni
mirum
,
ut
diximus
,
dilaniata
foras
dispargitur
,
interit
ergo
.
quin
etiam
si
iam
libeat
concedere
falsum

et
dare
posse
animam
glomerari
in
corpore
eorum
,
lumina
qui
lincunt
moribundi
particulatim
,
mortalem
tamen
esse
animam
fateare
necesse

nec
refert
utrum
pereat
dispersa
per
auras

an
contracta
suis
e
partibus
obbrutescat
,
quando
hominem
totum
magis
ac
magis
undique
sensus

deficit
et
vitae
minus
et
minus
undique
restat
.

And, moreover,
Often will some one in a sudden fit,
As if by stroke of lightning, tumble down
Before our eyes, and sputter foam, and grunt,
Blither, and twist about with sinews taut,
Gasp up in starts, and weary out his limbs
With tossing round. No marvel, since distract
Through frame by violence of disease.
. . . . . .
Confounds, he foams, as if to vomit soul,
As on the salt sea boil the billows round
Under the master might of winds. And now
A groan's forced out, because his limbs are griped,
But, in the main, because the seeds of voice
Are driven forth and carried in a mass
Outwards by mouth, where they are wont to go,
And have a builded highway. He becomes
Mere fool, since energy of mind and soul
Confounded is, and, as I've shown, to-riven,
Asunder thrown, and torn to pieces all
By the same venom. But, again, where cause
Of that disease has faced about, and back
Retreats sharp poison of corrupted frame
Into its shadowy lairs, the man at first
Arises reeling, and gradually comes back
To all his senses and recovers soul.
Thus, since within the body itself of man
The mind and soul are by such great diseases
Shaken, so miserably in labour distraught,
Why, then, believe that in the open air,
Without a body, they can pass their life,
Immortal, battling with the master winds?
And, since we mark the mind itself is cured,
Like the sick body, and restored can be
By medicine, this is forewarning too
That mortal lives the mind. For proper it is
That whosoe'er begins and undertakes
To alter the mind, or meditates to change
Any another nature soever, should add
New parts, or readjust the order given,
Or from the sum remove at least a bit.
But what's immortal willeth for itself
Its parts be nor increased, nor rearranged,
Nor any bit soever flow away:
For change of anything from out its bounds
Means instant death of that which was before.
Ergo, the mind, whether in sickness fallen,
Or by the medicine restored, gives signs,
As I have taught, of its mortality.
So surely will a fact of truth make head
'Gainst errors' theories all, and so shut off
All refuge from the adversary, and rout
Error by two-edged confutation.
70
Et
quoniam
mens
est
hominis
pars
una
locoque

fixa
manet
certo
,
vel
ut
aures
atque
oculi
sunt

atque
alii
sensus
qui
vitam
cumque
gubernant
,
et
vel
uti
manus
atque
oculus
naresve
seorsum

secreta
ab
nobis
nequeunt
sentire
neque
esse
,
sed
tamen
in
parvo
lincuntur
tempore
tali
,
sic
animus
per
se
non
quit
sine
corpore
et
ipso

esse
homine
,
illius
quasi
quod
vas
esse
videtur
,
sive
aliud
quid
vis
potius
coniunctius
ei

fingere
,
quandoquidem
conexu
corpus
adhaeret
.
Denique
corporis
atque
animi
vivata
potestas

inter
se
coniuncta
valent
vitaque
fruuntur
;
nec
sine
corpore
enim
vitalis
edere
motus

sola
potest
animi
per
se
natura
nec
autem

cassum
anima
corpus
durare
et
sensibus
uti
.
scilicet
avolsus
radicibus
ut
nequit
ullam

dispicere
ipse
oculus
rem
seorsum
corpore
toto
,
sic
anima
atque
animus
per
se
nil
posse
videtur
.
ni
mirum
quia
venas
et
viscera
mixtim
,
per
nervos
atque
ossa
tenentur
corpore
ab
omni

nec
magnis
intervallis
primordia
possunt

libera
dissultare
,
ideo
conclusa
moventur

sensiferos
motus
,
quos
extra
corpus
in
auras
aëris

haut
possunt
post
mortem
eiecta
moveri

propterea
quia
non
simili
ratione
tenentur
;
corpus
enim
atque
animans
erit
aër
,
si
cohibere

sese
anima
atque
in
eos
poterit
concludere
motus
,
quos
ante
in
nervis
et
in
ipso
corpore
agebat
.
quare
etiam
atque
etiam
resoluto
corporis
omni

tegmine
et
eiectis
extra
vitalibus
auris

dissolui
sensus
animi
fateare
necessest

atque
animam
,
quoniam
coniunctast
causa
duobus
.
Denique
cum
corpus
nequeat
perferre
animai

discidium
,
quin
in
taetro
tabescat
odore
,
quid
dubitas
quin
ex
imo
penitusque
coorta

emanarit
uti
fumus
diffusa
animae
vis
,
atque
ideo
tanta
mutatum
putre
ruina

conciderit
corpus
,
penitus
quia
mota
loco
sunt

fundamenta
foras
manant
animaeque
per
artus

perque
viarum
omnis
flexus
,
in
corpore
qui
sunt
,
atque
foramina
?
multimodis
ut
noscere
possis

dispertitam
animae
naturam
exisse
per
artus

et
prius
esse
sibi
distractam
corpore
in
ipso
,
quam
prolapsa
foras
enaret
in
aëris
auras
.

And since the mind is of a man one part,
Which in one fixed place remains, like ears,
And eyes, and every sense which pilots life;
And just as hand, or eye, or nose, apart,
Severed from us, can neither feel nor be,
But in the least of time is left to rot,
Thus mind alone can never be, without
The body and the man himself, which seems,
As 'twere the vessel of the same- or aught
Whate'er thou'lt feign as yet more closely joined:
Since body cleaves to mind by surest bonds.
Again, the body's and the mind's live powers
Only in union prosper and enjoy;
For neither can nature of mind, alone of self
Sans body, give the vital motions forth;
Nor, then, can body, wanting soul, endure
And use the senses. Verily, as the eye,
Alone, up-rended from its roots, apart
From all the body, can peer about at naught,
So soul and mind it seems are nothing able,
When by themselves. No marvel, because, commixed
Through veins and inwards, and through bones and thews,
Their elements primordial are confined
By all the body, and own no power free
To bound around through interspaces big,
Thus, shut within these confines, they take on
Motions of sense, which, after death, thrown out
Beyond the body to the winds of air,
Take on they cannot- and on this account,
Because no more in such a way confined.
For air will be a body, be alive,
If in that air the soul can keep itself,
And in that air enclose those motions all
Which in the thews and in the body itself
A while ago 'twas making. So for this,
Again, again, I say confess we must,
That, when the body's wrappings are unwound,
And when the vital breath is forced without,
The soul, the senses of the mind dissolve,-
Since for the twain the cause and ground of life
Is in the fact of their conjoined estate.
Once more, since body's unable to sustain
Division from the soul, without decay
And obscene stench, how canst thou doubt but that
The soul, uprisen from the body's deeps,
Has filtered away, wide-drifted like a smoke,
Or that the changed body crumbling fell
With ruin so entire, because, indeed,
Its deep foundations have been moved from place,
The soul out-filtering even through the frame,
And through the body's every winding way
And orifice? And so by many means
Thou'rt free to learn that nature of the soul
Hath passed in fragments out along the frame,
And that 'twas shivered in the very body
Ere ever it slipped abroad and swam away
Into the winds of air.
71
Quin
etiam
finis
dum
vitae
vertitur
intra
,
saepe
aliqua
tamen
e
causa
labefacta
videtur

ire
anima
ac
toto
solui
de
corpore

et
quasi
supremo
languescere
tempore
voltus

molliaque
exsangui
cadere
omnia
membra
.
quod
genus
est
,
animo
male
factum
cum
perhibetur

aut
animam
liquisse
;
ubi
iam
trepidatur
et
omnes

extremum
cupiunt
vitae
reprehendere
vinclum
;
conquassatur
enim
tum
mens
animaeque
potestas

omnis
.
et
haec
ipso
cum
corpore
conlabefiunt
,
ut
gravior
paulo
possit
dissolvere
causa
.
Quid
dubitas
tandem
quin
extra
prodita
corpus

inbecilla
foras
in
aperto
,
tegmine
dempto
,
non
modo
non
omnem
possit
durare
per
aevom
,
sed
minimum
quodvis
nequeat
consistere
tempus
?
nec
sibi
enim
quisquam
moriens
sentire
videtur

ire
foras
animam
incolumem
de
corpore
toto
,
nec
prius
ad
iugulum
et
supera
succedere
fauces
,
verum
deficere
in
certa
regione
locatam
;
ut
sensus
alios
in
parti
quemque
sua
scit

dissolui
.
quod
si
inmortalis
nostra
foret
mens
,
non
tam
se
moriens
dissolvi
conquereretur
,
sed
magis
ire
foras
vestemque
relinquere
,
ut
anguis
.
Denique
cur
animi
numquam
mens
consiliumque

gignitur
in
capite
aut
pedibus
manibusve
,
sed
unis

sedibus
et
certis
regionibus
omnibus
haeret
,
si
non
certa
loca
ad
nascendum
reddita
cuique

sunt
,
et
ubi
quicquid
possit
durare
creatum

atque
ita
multimodis
partitis
artubus
esse
,
membrorum
ut
numquam
existat
praeposterus
ordo
?
usque
adeo
sequitur
res
rem
,
neque
flamma
creari

fluminibus
solitast
neque
in
igni
gignier
algor
.

For never a man
Dying appears to feel the soul go forth
As one sure whole from all his body at once,
Nor first come up the throat and into mouth;
But feels it failing in a certain spot,
Even as he knows the senses too dissolve
Each in its own location in the frame.
But were this mind of ours immortal mind,
Dying 'twould scarce bewail a dissolution,
But rather the going, the leaving of its coat,
Like to a snake. Wherefore, when once the body
Hath passed away, admit we must that soul,
Shivered in all that body, perished too.
Nay, even when moving in the bounds of life,
Often the soul, now tottering from some cause,
Craves to go out, and from the frame entire
Loosened to be; the countenance becomes
Flaccid, as if the supreme hour were there;
And flabbily collapse the members all
Against the bloodless trunk- the kind of case
We see when we remark in common phrase,
"That man's quite gone," or "fainted dead away";
And where there's now a bustle of alarm,
And all are eager to get some hold upon
The man's last link of life. For then the mind
And all the power of soul are shook so sore,
And these so totter along with all the frame,
That any cause a little stronger might
Dissolve them altogether.- Why, then, doubt
That soul, when once without the body thrust,
There in the open, an enfeebled thing,
Its wrappings stripped away, cannot endure
Not only through no everlasting age,
But even, indeed, through not the least of time?
Then, too, why never is the intellect,
The counselling mind, begotten in the head,
The feet, the hands, instead of cleaving still
To one sole seat, to one fixed haunt, the breast,
If not that fixed places be assigned
For each thing's birth, where each, when 'tis create,
Is able to endure, and that our frames
Have such complex adjustments that no shift
In order of our members may appear?
To that degree effect succeeds to cause,
Nor is the flame once wont to be create
In flowing streams, nor cold begot in fire.
72
Praeterea
si
inmortalis
natura
animaist

et
sentire
potest
secreta
a
corpore
nostro
,
quinque
,
ut
opinor
,
eam
faciundum
est
sensibus
auctam
.
nec
ratione
alia
nosmet
proponere
nobis

possumus
infernas
animas
Acherunte
vagare
.
pictores
itaque
et
scriptorum
saecla
priora

sic
animas
intro
duxerunt
sensibus
auctas
.
at
neque
sorsum
oculi
neque
nares
nec
manus
ipsa

esse
potest
animae
neque
sorsum
lingua
neque
aures
;
haud
igitur
per
se
possunt
sentire
neque
esse
.
Et
quoniam
toto
sentimus
corpore
inesse

vitalem
sensum
et
totum
esse
animale
videmus
,
si
subito
medium
celeri
praeciderit
ictu

vis
aliqua
,
ut
sorsum
partem
secernat
utramque
,
dispertita
procul
dubio
quoque
vis
animai

et
discissa
simul
cum
corpore
dissicietur
.
at
quod
scinditur
et
partis
discedit
in
ullas
,
scilicet
aeternam
sibi
naturam
abnuit
esse
.
falciferos
memorant
currus
abscidere
membra

saepe
ita
de
subito
permixta
caede
calentis
,
ut
tremere
in
terra
videatur
ab
artubus
id
quod

decidit
abscisum
,
cum
mens
tamen
atque
hominis
vis

mobilitate
mali
non
quit
sentire
dolorem
;
et
simul
in
pugnae
studio
quod
dedita
mens
est
,
corpore
relicuo
pugnam
caedesque
petessit
,
nec
tenet
amissam
laevam
cum
tegmine
saepe

inter
equos
abstraxe
rotas
falcesque
rapaces
,
nec
cecidisse
alius
dextram
,
cum
scandit
et
instat
.
inde
alius
conatur
adempto
surgere
crure
,
cum
digitos
agitat
propter
moribundus
humi
pes
.
et
caput
abscisum
calido
viventeque
trunco

servat
humi
voltum
vitalem
oculosque
patentis
,
donec
reliquias
animai
reddidit
omnes
.
quin
etiam
tibi
si
,
lingua
vibrante
,
minanti

serpentis
cauda
,
procero
corpore
,
utrumque

sit
libitum
in
multas
partis
discidere
ferro
,
omnia
iam
sorsum
cernes
ancisa
recenti

volnere
tortari
et
terram
conspargere
tabo
,
ipsam
seque
retro
partem
petere
ore
priorem
,
volneris
ardenti
ut
morsu
premat
icta
dolore
.
omnibus
esse
igitur
totas
dicemus
in
illis

particulis
animas
?
at
ea
ratione
sequetur

unam
animantem
animas
habuisse
in
corpore
multas
.
ergo
divisast
ea
quae
fuit
una
simul
cum

corpore
;
quapropter
mortale
utrumque
putandumst
,
in
multas
quoniam
partis
disciditur
aeque
.

Besides, if nature of soul immortal be,
And able to feel, when from our frame disjoined,
The same, I fancy, must be thought to be
Endowed with senses five,- nor is there way
But this whereby to image to ourselves
How under-souls may roam in Acheron.
Thus painters and the elder race of bards
Have pictured souls with senses so endowed.
But neither eyes, nor nose, nor hand, alone
Apart from body can exist for soul,
Nor tongue nor ears apart. And hence indeed
Alone by self they can nor feel nor be.
And since we mark the vital sense to be
In the whole body, all one living thing,
If of a sudden a force with rapid stroke
Should slice it down the middle and cleave in twain,
Beyond a doubt likewise the soul itself,
Divided, dissevered, asunder will be flung
Along with body. But what severed is
And into sundry parts divides, indeed
Admits it owns no everlasting nature.
We hear how chariots of war, areek
With hurly slaughter, lop with flashing scythes
The limbs away so suddenly that there,
Fallen from the trunk, they quiver on the earth,
The while the mind and powers of the man
Can feel no pain, for swiftness of his hurt,
And sheer abandon in the zest of battle:
With the remainder of his frame he seeks
Anew the battle and the slaughter, nor marks
How the swift wheels and scythes of ravin have dragged
Off with the horses his left arm and shield;
Nor other how his right has dropped away,
Mounting again and on. A third attempts
With leg dismembered to arise and stand,
Whilst, on the ground hard by, the dying foot
Twitches its spreading toes. And even the head,
When from the warm and living trunk lopped off,
Keeps on the ground the vital countenance
And open eyes, until 't has rendered up
All remnants of the soul. Nay, once again:
If, when a serpent's darting forth its tongue,
And lashing its tail, thou gettest chance to hew
With axe its length of trunk to many parts,
Thou'lt see each severed fragment writhing round
With its fresh wound, and spattering up the sod,
And there the fore-part seeking with the jaws
After the hinder, with bite to stop the pain.
So shall we say that these be souls entire
In all those fractions?- but from that 'twould follow
One creature'd have in body many souls.
Therefore, the soul, which was indeed but one,
Has been divided with the body too:
Each is but mortal, since alike is each
Hewn into many parts. Again, how often
We view our fellow going by degrees,
And losing limb by limb the vital sense;
First nails and fingers of the feet turn blue,
Next die the feet and legs, then o'er the rest
Slow crawl the certain footsteps of cold death.
And since this nature of the soul is torn,
Nor mounts away, as at one time, entire,
We needs must hold it mortal. But perchance
If thou supposest that the soul itself
Can inward draw along the frame, and bring
Its parts together to one place, and so
From all the members draw the sense away,
Why, then, that place in which such stock of soul
Collected is, should greater seem in sense.
But since such place is nowhere, for a fact,
As said before, 'tis rent and scattered forth,
And so goes under. Or again, if now
I please to grant the false, and say that soul
Can thus be lumped within the frames of those
Who leave the sunshine, dying bit by bit,
Still must the soul as mortal be confessed;
Nor aught it matters whether to wrack it go,
Dispersed in the winds, or, gathered in a mass
From all its parts, sink down to brutish death,
Since more and more in every region sense
Fails the whole man, and less and less of life
In every region lingers.