Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  nec capere irarum fluctus in pectore possunt.

  at ventosa magis cervorum frigida mens est

  300 et gelidas citius per viscera concitat auras,

  quae tremulum faciunt membris existere motum.

  at natura boum placido magis aëre vivit

  nec nimis irai fax umquam subdita percit

  fumida, suffundens caecae caliginis umbra,

  305 nec gelidis torpet telis perfixa pavoris;

  interutrasque sitast cervos saevosque leones.

  sic hominum genus est: quamvis doctrina politos

  constituat pariter quosdam, tamen illa relinquit

  naturae cuiusque animi vestigia prima.

  310 nec radicitus evelli mala posse putandumst,

  quin proclivius hic iras decurrat ad acris,

  ille metu citius paulo temptetur, at ille

  tertius accipiat quaedam clementius aequo.

  inque aliis rebus multis differre necessest

  315 naturas hominum varias moresque sequacis;

  quorum ego nunc nequeo caecas exponere causas

  nec reperire figurarum tot nomina quot sunt

  principiis, unde haec oritur variantia rerum.

  illud in his rebus video firmare potesse,

  320 usque adeo naturarum vestigia linqui

  parvola, quae nequeat ratio depellere nobis,

  ut nihil inpediat dignam dis degere vitam.

  Haec igitur natura tenetur corpore ab omni

  ipsaque corporis est custos et causa salutis;

  325 nam communibus inter se radicibus haerent

  nec sine pernicie divelli posse videntur.

  [289] Thus the mind possesses that heat which it displays when it boils up in anger and fire flashes from the keen eyes; there is too much cold spirit, comrade of fear, which spreads a shivering over the limbs and stirs the whole frame; yes and there is also that condition of still air which has place when the breast is calm and the looks cheerful.

  But they have more of the hot whose keen heart and passionate mind lightly boil up in anger.

  Foremost in this class comes the fierce violence of lions who often as they chafe break their hearts with their roaring and cannot contain within their breast the billows of their rage.

  Then the chilly mind of stags is fuller of the spirit and more quickly rouses through all the flesh its icy currents which cause a shivering motion to pass over the limbs.

  But the nature of oxen has its life rather from the still air, and never does the smoky torch of anger applied to it stimulate it too much, shedding over it the shadow of murky gloom, nor is it transfixed and stiffened by the icy shafts of fear: it lies between the other two, stags and cruel lions.

  And thus it is with mankind: however much teaching renders some equally refined, it yet leaves behind those earliest traces of the nature of each mind; and we are not to suppose that evil habits can be so thoroughly plucked up by the roots, that one man shall not be more prone than another to keen anger, a second shall not be somewhat more quickly assailed by fear, a third shall not take some things more meekly than is right.

  In many other points there must be differences between the varied natures of men and the tempers which follow upon these; though at present I am unable to set forth the hidden causes of these or to find names enough for the different shapes which belong to the first-beginnings from which shapes arises this diversity of things.

  What herein I think I may affirm is this: traces of the different natures left behind, which reason is unable to expel from us, are so exceedingly slight that there is nothing to hinder us from living a life worthy of gods.

  Well this nature is contained by the whole body and is in turn the body’s guardian and the cause of its existence; for the two adhere together with common roots and cannot, it is plain, be riven asunder without destruction.

  quod genus e thuris glaebis evellere odorem

  haud facile est, quin intereat natura quoque eius,

  sic animi atque animae naturam corpore toto

  330 extrahere haut facile est, quin omnia dissoluantur.

  inplexis ita principiis ab origine prima

  inter se fiunt consorti praedita vita,

  nec sibi quaeque sine alterius vi posse videtur

  corporis atque animi seorsum sentire potestas,

  335 sed communibus inter eas conflatur utrimque

  motibus accensus nobis per viscera sensus.

  Praeterea corpus per se nec gignitur umquam

  nec crescit neque post mortem durare videtur.

  non enim, ut umor aquae dimittit saepe vaporem,

  340 qui datus est, neque ea causa convellitur ipse,

  sed manet incolumis, non, inquam, sic animai

  discidium possunt artus perferre relicti,

  sed penitus pereunt convulsi conque putrescunt.

  ex ineunte aevo sic corporis atque animai

  345 mutua vitalis discunt contagia motus,

  maternis etiam membris alvoque reposta,

  discidium ut nequeat fieri sine peste maloque;

  ut videas, quoniam coniunctast causa salutis,

  coniunctam quoque naturam consistere eorum.

  350 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,

  355 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,

  360 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.

  365 quod foribus non fit; neque enim, qua cernimus ipsi,

  ostia suscipiunt ullum reclusa laborem.

  [326] Even as it is not easy to pluck the perfume out of lumps of frankincense without quite destroying its nature as well; so it is not easy to withdraw from the whole body the nature of the mind and soul without dissolving all alike.

  With first-beginnings so interlaced from their earliest birth are they formed and gifted with a life of joint partnership, and it is plain that the faculty of the body and of the mind cannot feel separately, each alone without the other’s power, but sense is kindled throughout our flesh and blown into flame between the two by the joint motions on the part of both.

  Moreover the body by itself is never either begotten or grows or, it is plain, continues to exist after death.

  For not in the way that the liquid of water often loses the heat which has been given to it, yet is not for that reason itself riven in pieces, but remains unimpaired, – not in this way, I say, can the abandoned frame endure the separation of the soul, but riven in pieces it utterly perishes and rots away.

  Thus the mutual connections of body and soul from the first moment of their existence learn the vital motions even while hid in the body and womb of the mother, so that no separation can take place without mischief and ruin.

  Thus you may see that, since the cause of existence lies in their joint action, their nature too must be a joint nature.

  Furthermore, if any one tries to disprove that the body feels and believes that the soul mixed through the whole body takes upon it this motion which we name sense, he combats even manifest and undoubted facts.

  For who will ever bring forward any explanation of what the body’s feeling is, except that which the plain fact of the case has itself given and taught to us?

  But when the soul it is said has departed, the body throughout is without sense; yes, for it loses what was not its own peculiar property in l
ife; ay and much else it loses, before that soul is driven out of it.

  Again to say that the eyes can see no object, but that the soul discerns through them as through an open door, is far from easy, since their sense contradicts this; for this sense even draws it and forces it out to the pupil: nay, often we are unable to perceive shining things because our eyes are embarrassed by the lights.

  But this is not the case with doors; for because we ourselves see, the open doors do not therefore undergo any fatigue.

  praeterea si pro foribus sunt lumina nostra,

  iam magis exemptis oculis debere videtur

  cernere res animus sublatis postibus ipsis.

  370 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

  375 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

  380 intervalla tenere exordia prima animai.

  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,

  385 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,

  390 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

  395 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,

  400 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

  405 vivit et aetherias vitalis suscipit auras;

  [367] Again, if our eyes are in the place of doors, in that case when the eyes are removed the mind ought it would seem to have more power of seeing things, after doors, jambs and all, have been taken out of the way.

  And herein you must by no means adopt the opinion which the revered judgment of the worthy man Democritus lays down, that the first-beginnings of body and mind placed together in successive layers come in alternate order and so weave the tissue of our limbs.

  For not only are the elements of the soul much smaller than those of which our body and flesh are formed, but they are also much fewer in number and are disseminated merely in scanty number through the frame, so that you can warrant no more than this: the first-beginnings of the soul keep spaces between them at least as great as are the smallest bodies which, if thrown upon it, are first able to excite in our body the sense-giving motions.

  Thus at times we do not feel the adhesion of dust when it settles on our body, nor the impact of chalk when it rests on our limbs, nor do we feel a mist at night nor a spider’s slender threads as they come against us, when we are caught in its meshes in moving along, nor the same insect’s flimsy web when it has fallen on our head, nor the feathers of birds and down of plants as it flies about, which commonly from exceeding lightness does not lightly fall, nor do we feel the tread of every creeping creature whatsoever nor each particular foot-print which gnats and the like stamp on our body.

  So very many first-beginnings must be stirred in us, before the seeds of the soul mixed up in our bodies feel that these have been disturbed, and by thumping with such spaces between can clash unite and in turn recoil.

  The mind has more to do with holding the fastnesses of life and has more sovereign sway over it than the power of the soul.

  For without the understanding and the mind no part of the soul can maintain itself in the frame the smallest fraction of time, but follows at once in the other’s train and passes away into the air and leaves the cold limbs in the chill of death.

  But he abides in life whose mind and understanding continue to stay with him: though the trunk is mangled with its limbs shorn all roundabout it, after the soul has been taken away on all sides and been severed from the limbs the trunk yet lives and inhales the ethereal airs of life.

  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,

  410 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,

  415 incolumis quamvis alioqui splendidus orbis.

  hoc anima atque animus vincti sunt foedere semper.

  Nunc age, nativos animantibus et mortalis

  esse animos animasque levis ut noscere possis,

  conquisita diu dulcique reperta labore

  420 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.

  425 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,

  430 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

  435 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;

  440 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?

  445 Praeterea gigni pariter cum corpore et una

  crescere sentimus pariterque senescere mentem.

  [405] When robbed, if not of the whole, yet of a large portion of the soul, it still lingers in and cleaves to life just as, after the eye has been lacerated if the pupil has continued uninjured, the living power of sight remains, provided always you do not destroy the whole ball of the eye and pare close round the pupil and leave only it; for that will not be done even to the ball without the entire destruction of the eye.

  But if that middle portion of the eye, small as it is, is eaten into, the sight is gone at once and darkness ensues, though a man have the bright ball quite unimpaired.

  On such terms of union soul and mind are ever bound to each other.

 
Now mark me: that you may know that the minds and light souls of living creatures have birth and are mortal, I will go on to set forth verses worthy of your attention, got together by long study and invented with welcome effort.

  Do you mind to link to one name both of them alike, and when for instance I shall choose to speak of the soul, showing it to be mortal, believe that I speak of the mind as well, inasmuch as both make up one thing and are one united substance.

  First of all then since I have shown the soul to be fine and to be formed of minute bodies and made up of much smaller first-beginnings than is the liquid of water or mist or smoke: for it far surpasses these in nimbleness and is moved, when struck by a far slenderer cause; inasmuch as it is moved by images of smoke and mist; as when for instance sunk in sleep we see altars steam forth their heat and send up their smoke on high; for beyond a doubt images are begotten for us from these things: well then since you see on the vessels being shattered the water flow away on all sides, and since mist and smoke pass away into air, believe that the soul too is shed abroad and perishes much more quickly and dissolves sooner into its first bodies, when once it has been taken out of the limbs of a man and has withdrawn.

  For, when the body that serves for its vessel cannot hold it, if shattered from any cause and rarefied by the withdrawal of blood from the veins, how can you believe that this soul can be held by any air?

  How can that air which is rarer than our body hold it in?

  Again we perceive that the mind is begotten along with the body and grows up together with it and becomes old along with it.

  nam vel ut infirmo pueri teneroque vagantur

  corpore, sic animi sequitur sententia tenvis.

  inde ubi robustis adolevit viribus aetas,

  450 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 labat mens,

  omnia deficiunt atque uno tempore desunt.

  455 ergo dissolui quoque convenit omnem animai

  naturam, ceu fumus, in altas aëris auras;

  quando quidem gigni pariter pariterque videmus

  crescere et, ut docui, simul aevo fessa fatisci.

  Huc accedit uti videamus, corpus ut ipsum

  460 suscipere inmanis morbos durumque dolorem,

  sic animum curas acris luctumque metumque;