Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  fluminibus solitast neque in igni gignier algor.

  Praeterea si inmortalis natura animaist

  625 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

  630 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

  635 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.

  640 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

  645 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

  650 inter equos abstraxe rotas falcesque rapaces,

  nec cecidisse alius dextram, cum scandit et instat.

  [610] just as they know that the senses as well suffer dissolution each in its own place.

  But if our mind were immortal, it would not when dying complain so much of its dissolution, as of passing abroad and quitting its vesture, like a snake.

  Again, why are the mind’s understanding and judgment never begotten in the head or feet or hands, but cling in all alike to one spot and fixed quarter, if it be not that particular places are assigned for the birth of everything, and [nature has determined] where each is to continue to exist after it is born?

  [Our body then must follow the same law] and have such a manifold organization of parts, that no perverted arrangement of its members shall ever show itself.

  So invariably effect follows cause, nor is flame wont to be born in rivers nor cold in fire.

  Again, if the nature of the soul is immortal and can feel when separated from our body, methinks we must suppose it to be provided with five senses; and in no other way can we picture to ourselves souls below flitting about Acheron.

  Painters therefore and former generations of writers have thus represented souls provided with senses.

  But neither eyes nor nose nor hand can exist for the soul apart from the body, nor can tongue, nor can ears perceive by the sense of hearing or exist for the soul by themselves apart from the body.

  And since we perceive that vital sense is in the whole body and we see that it is all endowed with life, if on a sudden any force with swift blow shall have cut it in twain so as quite to dissever the two halves, the power of the soul will without doubt at the same time be cleft and cut asunder and dashed in twain together with the body.

  But that which is cut and divides into any parts, you are to know disclaims for itself an everlasting nature.

  Stories are told how scythed chariots reeking with indiscriminate slaughter often lop off limbs so instantaneously that that which has fallen down lopped off from the frame is seen to quiver on the ground, while yet the mind and faculty of the man from the suddenness of the mischief cannot feel the pain; and because his mind once for all is wholly given to the business of fighting, with what remains of his body he mingles in the fray and carnage, and often perceives not that the wheels and devouring scythes have carried off among the horses’ feet his left arm shield and all;

  inde alius conatur adempto surgere crure,

  cum digitos agitat propter moribundus humi pes.

  et caput abscisum calido viventeque trunco

  655 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,

  660 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

  665 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.

  670 Praeterea si inmortalis natura animai

  constat et in corpus nascentibus insinuatur,

  cur super ante actam aetatem meminisse nequimus

  nec vestigia gestarum rerum ulla tenemus?

  nam si tanto operest animi mutata potestas,

  675 omnis ut actarum exciderit retinentia rerum,

  non, ut opinor, id ab leto iam longius errat;

  qua propter fateare necessest quae fuit ante

  interiisse, et quae nunc est nunc esse creatam.

  Praeterea si iam perfecto corpore nobis

  680 inferri solitast animi vivata potestas

  tum cum gignimur et vitae cum limen inimus,

  haud ita conveniebat uti cum corpore et una

  cum membris videatur in ipso sanguine cresse,

  sed vel ut in cavea per se sibi vivere solam

  685 convenit, ut sensu corpus tamen affluat omne.

  quare etiam atque etiam neque originis esse putandumst

  expertis animas nec leti lege solutas;

  nam neque tanto opere adnecti potuisse putandumst

  corporibus nostris extrinsecus insinuatas,

  690 quod fieri totum contra manifesta docet res

  Ænamque ita conexa est per venas viscera nervos

  ossaque, uti dentes quoque sensu participentur;

  [650] another sees not that his right arm has dropped from him, while he mounts and presses forward.

  Another tries to get up after he has lost his leg, while the dying foot quivers with its toes on the ground close by.

  The head too when cut off from the warm and living trunk retains on the ground the expression of life and open eyes, until it has yielded up all the remnants of soul.

  To take another case, if, as a serpent’s tongue is quivering, as its tail is darting out from its long body, you choose to chop with an axe into many pieces both [tail and body], you will see all the separate portions thus cut off writhing under the fresh wound and bespattering the earth with gore, the fore part with the mouth making for its own hinder part, to allay with burning bite the pain of the wound with which it has been smitten.

  Shall we say then that there are entire souls in all those pieces? Why from that argument it will follow that one living creature had many souls in its body; and this being absurd, therefore the soul which was one has been divided together with the body; therefore each alike must be reckoned mortal, since each is alike chopped up into many pieces.

  Again, if the nature of the soul is immortal and makes its way into our body at the time of birth, why are we unable to remember besides the time already gone, and why do we retain no traces of past actions? If the power of the mind has been so completely changed that all remembrance of past things is lost, that methinks differs not widely from death; therefore you must admit that the soul which was before has perished and that which now is has now been formed.

  Again if the quickened power of the mind is wont to be put into us after our body is fully formed, at t
he instant of our birth and our crossing the threshold of life, it ought agreeably to this to live not in such a way as to seem to have grown with the body and together with its members within the blood, but as in a den apart by and to itself: the very contrary to what undoubted fact teaches; for it is so closely united with the body throughout the veins, flesh, sinews, and bones, that the very teeth have a share of sense; as their aching proves and the sharp twinge of cold water and the crunching of a rough stone when it has got into them out of bread.

  Wherefore, again and again I say, we must believe souls to be neither without a birth nor exempted from the law of death;

  morbus ut indicat et gelidai stringor aquai

  et lapis oppressus subitis e frugibus asperÆ

  695 nec, tam contextae cum sint, exire videntur

  incolumes posse et salvas exsolvere sese

  omnibus e nervis atque ossibus articulisque,

  quod si forte putas extrinsecus insinuatam

  permanare animam nobis per membra solere,

  700 tanto quique magis cum corpore fusa peribit;

  quod permanat enim, dissolvitur, interit ergo;

  dispertitur enim per caulas corporis omnis.

  ut cibus, in membra atque artus cum diditur omnis,

  disperit atque aliam naturam sufficit ex se,

  705 sic anima atque animus quamvis est integra recens in

  corpus eunt, tamen in manando dissoluuntur,

  dum quasi per caulas omnis diduntur in artus

  particulae quibus haec animi natura creatur,

  quae nunc in nostro dominatur corpore nata

  710 ex illa quae tunc periit partita per artus.

  quapropter neque natali privata videtur

  esse die natura animae nec funeris expers.

  Semina praeterea linquontur necne animai

  corpore in exanimo? quod si lincuntur et insunt,

  715 haut erit ut merito inmortalis possit haberi,

  partibus amissis quoniam libata recessit.

  sin ita sinceris membris ablata profugit,

  ut nullas partis in corpore liquerit ex se,

  unde cadavera rancenti iam viscere vermes

  720 expirant atque unde animantum copia tanta

  exos et exanguis tumidos perfluctuat artus?

  quod si forte animas extrinsecus insinuari?

  vermibus et privas in corpora posse venire

  credis nec reputas cur milia multa animarum

  725 conveniant unde una recesserit, hoc tamen est ut

  quaerendum videatur et in discrimen agendum,

  utrum tandem animae venentur semina quaeque

  vermiculorum ipsaeque sibi fabricentur ubi sint,

  an quasi corporibus perfectis insinuentur.

  730 at neque cur faciant ipsae quareve laborent

  dicere suppeditat. neque enim, sine corpore cum sunt,

  sollicitae volitant morbis alguque fameque;

  [692] for we must not believe that they could have been so completely united with our bodies, if they found their way into them from without, nor since they are so closely interwoven with them, does it appear that they can get out unharmed and unloose themselves unscathed from all the sinews and bones and joints.

  But if haply you believe that the soul finds its way in from without and is wont to ooze through all our limbs, so much the more it will perish thus blended with the body; for what oozes through another is dissolved, and therefore dies.

  As food distributed throughout the cavities of the body, while it is transmitted into the limbs and the whole frame, is destroyed and furnishes out of itself the matter of another nature, thus the soul and mind, though they pass entire into a fresh body, yet in oozing through it are dissolved, whilst there are transmitted, so to say, into the frame through all the cavities those particles of which this nature of mind is formed, which now is sovereign in our body, being born out of that soul which then perished when dispersed through the frame.

  Wherefore the nature of the soul is seen to be neither without a birthday nor exempt from death.

  Again, are seeds of the soul left in the dead body or not?

  If they are left and remain in it, the soul cannot fairly be deemed immortal, since it has withdrawn lessened by the loss of some parts; but if when taken away from the yet untainted limbs it has fled so entirely away as to leave in the body no parts of itself, whence do carcasses exude worms from the now rank flesh and whence does such a swarm of living things, boneless and bloodless, surge through the heaving frame?

  But if haply you believe that souls find their way into worms from without and can severally pass each into a body and you make no account of why many thousands of souls meet together in a place from which one has withdrawn, this question at least must, it seems, be raised and brought to a decisive test, whether souls hunt out the several seeds of worms and build for themselves a place to dwell in, or find their way into bodies fully formed so to say.

  But why they should on their part make a body or take such trouble, cannot be explained; since being without a body they are not plagued as they flit about with diseases and cold and hunger, the body being more akin to, more troubled by such infirmities, and by its contact with it the mind suffering many ills.

  corpus enim magis his vitiis adfine laborat,

  et mala multa animus contage fungitur eius.

  735 sed tamen his esto quamvis facere utile corpus,

  cum subeant; at qua possint via nulla videtur.

  haut igitur faciunt animae sibi corpora et artus.

  nec tamen est ut qui cum perfectis insinuentur

  corporibus; neque enim poterunt suptiliter esse

  740 conexae neque consensu contagia fient.

  Denique cur acris violentia triste leonum

  seminium sequitur, volpes dolus, et fuga cervos?

  a patribus datur et a patrius pavor incitat artus,

  et iam cetera de genere hoc cur omnia membris

  745 ex ineunte aevo generascunt ingenioque,

  si non, certa suo quia semine seminioque

  vis animi pariter crescit cum corpore quoque?

  quod si inmortalis foret et mutare soleret

  corpora, permixtis animantes moribus essent,

  750 effugeret canis Hyrcano de semine saepe

  cornigeri incursum cervi tremeretque per auras

  aëris accipiter fugiens veniente columba,

  desiperent homines, saperent fera saecla ferarum.

  illud enim falsa fertur ratione, quod aiunt

  755 inmortalem animam mutato corpore flecti;

  quod mutatur enim, dissolvitur, interit ergo;

  traiciuntur enim partes atque ordine migrant;

  quare dissolui quoque debent posse per artus,

  denique ut intereant una cum corpore cunctae.

  760 sin animas hominum dicent in corpora semper

  ire humana, tamen quaeram cur e sapienti

  stulta queat fieri, nec prudens sit puer ullus,

  si non, certa suo quia semine seminioque

  nec tam doctus equae pullus quam fortis equi vis.

  765 scilicet in tenero tenerascere corpore mentem

  confugient. quod si iam fit, fateare necessest

  mortalem esse animam, quoniam mutata per artus

  tanto opere amittit vitam sensumque priorem.

  quove modo poterit pariter cum corpore quoque

  770 confirmata cupitum aetatis tangere florem

  vis animi, nisi erit consors in origine prima?

  quidve foras sibi vult membris exire senectis?

  an metuit conclusa manere in corpore putri

  et domus aetatis spatio ne fessa vetusto

  775 obruat? at non sunt immortali ulla pericla.

  [734] Nevertheless be it ever so expedient for them to make a body, when they are going to enter, yet clearly there is no way by which they can do so.

  Therefore souls do not make for themselves bodies and limbs; no: nor can they by any method find their way into bodies after they are ful
l formed; for they will neither be able to unite themselves with a nice precision nor will any connection of mutual sensation be formed between them.

  Again, why does untamed fierceness go along with the sullen brood of lions, cunning with foxes and proneness to flight with stags?

  And to take any other instance of the kind, why are all qualities engendered in the limbs and temper from the very commencement of life, if not because a fixed power of mind derived from its proper seed and breed grows up together with the whole body? If it were immortal and wont to pass into different bodies, living creatures would be of interchangeable dispositions; a dog of Hyrcanian breed would often fly before the attack of an antlered stag, a hawk would cower in mid air as it fled at the approach of a dove, men would be without reason, the savage races of wild beasts would have reason.

  For the assertion that an immortal soul is altered by a change of body is advanced on a false principle.

  What is changed is dissolved, and therefore dies: the parts are transposed and quit their former order; therefore they must admit of being dissolved too throughout the frame, in order at last to die one and all together with the body.

  But if they shall say that souls of men always go into human bodies, I yet will ask how it is a soul can change from wise to foolish, and no child has discretion, and why the mare’s foal is not so well trained as the powerful strength of the horse.

  You may be sure they will fly to the subterfuge that the mind grows weakly in a weakly body.

  But granting this is so, you must admit the soul to be mortal, since changed so completely throughout the frame it loses its former life and sense.

  Then too in what way will it be able to grow in strength uniformly with its allotted body and reach the coveted flower of age, unless it shall be its partner at its first beginning?

  Or what means it by passing out from the limbs when decayed with age?

  Does it fear to remain shut up in a crumbling body, fear that its tenement, worn out by protracted length of days, bury it in its ruins?

  Denique conubia ad Veneris partusque ferarum

  esse animas praesto deridiculum esse videtur,

  expectare immortalis mortalia membra

  innumero numero certareque praeproperanter

  780 inter se quae prima potissimaque insinuetur;

  si non forte ita sunt animarum foedera pacta,

  ut quae prima volans advenerit insinuetur