Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  quare participem leti quoque convenit esse.

  quin etiam morbis in corporis avius errat

  saepe animus; dementit enim deliraque fatur,

  465 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.

  470 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.

  et quoniam mentem sanari corpus ut aegrum

  475 et pariter mentem sanari corpus inani

  denique cor, hominem cum vini vis penetravit

  acris et in venas discessit diditus ardor,

  consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur

  crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens,

  480 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,

  485 significant, paulo si durior insinuarit

  causa, fore ut pereant aevo privata futuro.

  Quin etiam subito vi morbi saepe coactus

  ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu,

  concidit et spumas agit, ingemit et tremit artus,

  490 desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat

  inconstanter, et in iactando membra fatigat,

  [446] For even as children go about with a tottering and weakly body, so slender sagacity of mind follows along with it; then when their life has reached the maturity of confirmed strength, the judgment too is greater and the power of the mind more developed.

  Afterwards when the body has been shattered by the mastering might of time and the frame has drooped with its forces dulled, then the intellect halts, the tongue dotes, the mind gives way, all faculties fail and are found wanting at the same time.

  It naturally follows then that the whole nature of the soul is dissolved, like smoke, into the high air; since we see it is begotten along with the body and grows up along with it and, as I have shown, breaks down at the same time worn out with age.

  Moreover we see that even as the body is liable to violent diseases and severe pain, so is the mind to sharp cares and grief and fear; it naturally follows therefore that it is its partner in death as well.

  Again in diseases of the body the mind often wanders and goes astray; for it loses its reason and drives in its speech and often in a profound lethargy is carried into deep and never-ending sleep with drooping eyes and head; out of which it neither hears the voices nor can recognize the faces of those who stand round calling it back to life and bedewing with tears face and cheeks.

  Therefore you must admit that the mind too dissolves, since the infection of disease reaches to it; for pain and disease are both forgers of death: a truth we have fully learned ere now by the death of many.

  Again, when the pungent strength of wine has entered into a man and its spirit has been infused into and transmitted through his veins, why is it that a heaviness of the limbs follows along with this, his legs are hampered as he reels about, his tongue falters, his mind is besotted, his eyes swim, shouting hiccupping, wranglings are rife, together with all the other usual concomitants, why is all this, if not because the overpowering violence of the wine is wont to disorder the soul within the body?

  But whenever things can be disordered and hampered, they give token that if a somewhat more potent cause gained an entrance, they would perish and be robbed of all further existence.

  Moreover it often happens that someone constrained by the violence of disease suddenly drops down before our eyes, as by a stroke of lightning, and foams at the mouth, moans and shivers through his frame, loses his reason, stiffens his muscles, is racked, gasps for breath fitfully, and wearies his limbs with tossing.

  ni mirum quia vis morbi distracta per artus

  turbat agens animam, spumans ut in aequore salso

  ventorum validis fervescunt viribus undae.

  495 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

  500 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

  505 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?

  510 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,

  515 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,

  520 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

  525 ancipitique refutatu convincere falsum.

  Denique saepe hominem paulatim cernimus ire

  et membratim vitalem deperdere sensum;

  in pedibus primum digitos livescere et unguis,

  [492] Sure enough, because the violence of the disease spreads itself through his frame and disorders him, he foams as he tries to eject his soul, just as in the salt sea the waters boil with the mastering might of the winds.

  A moan too is forced out, because the limbs are seized with pain, and mainly because seeds of voice are driven forth and are carried in a close mass out by the mouth, the road which they are accustomed to take and where they have a well-paved way.

  Loss of reason follows, because the powers of the mind and soul are disordered and, as I have shown, are riven and forced asunder, torn to pieces by the same baneful malady.

  Then after the cause of the disease has bent its course back and the acrid humors of the distempered body return to their hiding-places, then he first gets up like one reeling, and by little and little, comes back into full possession of his senses and regains his soul.

  Since therefore even within the body mind and soul are harassed by such violent distempers and so miserably racked by sufferings, why believe that they without the body in the open air can continue existence battling with fierce winds?

  And since we perceive that the mind is healed like the sick body, and we see that it can be altered by medicine, this too gives warning that the mind has a mortal existence.

  For it is natural that whosoever essays and attempts to change the mind or seeks to alter any other nature you like, should add new parts or change the arrangement of the present, or withdraw in short some tittle from the sum.

  But that which is immortal wills not to have its parts transposed nor any addition to be made nor one tittle to ebb away; for whenever a thing changes and quits its proper limits, this change is at once the death of that which was before.

  T
herefore the mind, whether it is sick or whether it is altered by medicine alike, as I have shown, gives forth mortal symptoms.

  So invariably is truth found to make head against false reason and to cut off all retreat from the assailant, and by a two-fold refutation to put falsehood to rout.

  Again we often see a man pass gradually away and limb by limb lose vital sense; first the toes of his feet and the nails turn livid, then the feet and shanks die, then next the steps of chilly death creep with slow pace over the other members.

  inde pedes et crura mori, post inde per artus

  530 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

  535 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 ante,

  dilaniata foras dispargitur, interit ergo.

  540 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

  545 an contracta suis e partibus obbrutescat,

  quando hominem totum magis ac magis undique sensus

  deficit et vitae minus et minus undique restat.

  Et quoniam mens est hominis pars una locoque

  fixa manet certo, vel ut aures atque oculi sunt

  550 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

  555 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;

  560 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,

  565 sic anima atque animus per se nil posse videtur.

  ni mirum quia per venas et viscera mixtim,

  per nervos atque ossa tenentur corpore ab omni

  nec magnis intervallis primordia possunt

  libera dissultare, ideo conclusa moventur

  570 sensiferos motus, quos extra corpus in auras

  aëris haut possunt post mortem eiecta moveri

  propterea quia non simili ratione tenentur;

  [529] Therefore since the nature of the soul is rent and passes away and does not at one time stand forth in its entireness, it must be reckoned mortal.

  But if haply you suppose that it can draw itself in through the whole frame and mass its parts together and in this way withdraw sense from all the limbs, yet then that spot into which so great a store of soul is gathered ought to show itself in possession of a greater amount of sense.

  But as this is nowhere found, sure enough as we said before, it is torn in pieces and scattered abroad, and therefore dies.

  Moreover if I were pleased for the moment to grant what is false and admit that the soul might be collected in one mass in the body of those who leave the light dying piecemeal, even then you must admit the soul to be mortal; and it makes no difference whether it perish dispersed in air, or gathered into one lump out of all its parts lose all feeling, since sense ever more and more fails the whole man throughout and less and less of life remains throughout.

  And since the mind is one part of a man which remains fixed in a particular spot, just as are the ears and eyes and the other senses which guide and direct life; and just as the hand or eye or nose when separated from us cannot feel and exist apart, but in however short a time wastes away in putrefaction, thus the mind cannot exist by itself without the body and the man’s self which as you see serves for the mind’s vessel or any thing else you choose to imagine which implies a yet closer union with it, since the body is attached to it by the nearest ties.

  Again the quickened powers of body and mind by their joint partnership enjoy health and life; for the nature of the mind cannot by itself alone without the body give forth vital motions nor can the body again bereft of the soul continue to exist and make use of its senses: just, you are to know, as the eye, itself torn away from its roots, cannot see anything when apart from the whole body, thus the soul and, mind cannot, it is plain, do anything by themselves.

  Sure enough, because mixed up through veins and flesh, sinews and bones, their first-beginnings are confined by all the body and are not free to bound away leaving great spaces between, therefore thus shut in they make those sense-giving motions which they cannot make after death when forced out of the body into the air by reason that they are not then confined in a like manner;

  corpus enim atque animans erit aër, si cohibere

  sese anima atque in eos poterit concludere motus,

  575 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.

  580 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

  585 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

  590 et prius esse sibi distractam corpore in ipso,

  quam prolapsa foras enaret in aëris auras.

  Quin etiam finis dum vitae vertitur intra,

  saepe aliqua tamen e causa labefacta videtur

  ire anima ac toto solui de corpore tota

  595 et quasi supremo languescere tempore voltus

  molliaque exsangui cadere omnia corpore membra.

  quod genus est, animo male factum cum perhibetur

  aut animam liquisse; ubi iam trepidatur et omnes

  extremum cupiunt vitae reprehendere vinclum;

  600 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,

  605 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,

  610 verum deficere in certa regione locatam;

  [572] for the air will be a body and a living thing if the soul shall be able to keep itself together and to enclose in it those motions which it used before to perform in the sinews and within the body.

  Moreover, even while it yet moves within the confines of life, often the soul shaken from some cause or other is seen to wish to pass out and be loosed from the whole body, the features are seen to droop as at the last hour and all the limbs to sink flaccid over the bloodless trunk: just as happens, wh
en the phrase is used, the mind is in a bad way, or the soul is quite gone; when all is hurry and everyone is anxious to keep from parting the last tie of life; for then the mind and the power of the soul are shaken throughout and both are quite loosened together with the body; so that a cause somewhat more powerful can quite break them up.

  Why doubt, I would ask, that the soul when driven forth out of the body, when in the open air, feeble as it is, stripped of its covering, not only cannot continue through eternity, but is unable to hold together the smallest fraction of time?

  Therefore, again and again I say, when the enveloping body has been all broken up and the vital airs have been forced out, you must admit that the senses of the mind and the soul are dissolved, since the cause of destruction is one and inseparable for both body and soul.

  Again since the body is unable to bear the separation of the soul without rotting away in a noisome stench, why doubt that the power of the soul gathering itself up from the inmost depths of body has oozed out and dispersed like smoke, and that the crumbling body has changed and tumbled in with so total a ruin for this reason because its foundations throughout are stirred from their places, the soul oozing out abroad through the frame, through all the winding passages which are in the body, and all openings?

  So that in ways manifold you may learn that the nature of the soul has been divided piecemeal and gone forth throughout the frame, and that it has been tom to shreds within the body, ere it glided forth and swam out into the air.

  For no one when dying appears to feel the soul go forth entire from his whole body or first mount up to the throat and gullet, but all feel it fail in that part which lies in a particular quarter;

  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.

  615 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

  620 atque ita multimodis partitis artubus esse,

  membrorum ut numquam existat praeposterus ordo?

  usque adeo sequitur res rem, neque flamma creari