Or rising in such a way that a unity
Is made of all; for else must heat and wind
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Apart, and the power of air apart, destroy
The senses and apart dissolve them.
That heat is also in the mind when anger
Boils, and fire flashes fiercely from the eyes;
And cold is too, fear’s chill companion, when
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It makes the flesh to creep and shakes the limbs.
And then there is that calm and peaceful air
Which comes from tranquil heart and face serene.
But more of heat there is in those whose hearts
And bitter minds flash easily into wrath.
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Lions are most like this, that growl and roar
And cannot contain the fury in their breasts.
But the cold mind of the stag has more of wind
That sends cold airs more quickly through his flesh
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Which cause a quivering movement in the limbs.
But the cow lives more by peaceful air. She’s not
Too much excited by the smokey torch
Of anger spreading darkness all around,
Nor pierced and frozen with cold shafts of fear.
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She stands between the two—stags and fierce lions.
So also is it with the race of men.
By schooling many achieve an equal gloss,
But the character they’re born with still remains.
And faults you cannot tear up by the roots,
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So that one man can hold his temper better,
Another be less of a coward or a third
Accept insults too readily. For men
In many other ways must differ, and
Their habits follow from their different natures.
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I cannot now explain the causes of these
Or list the names of all those primal things
Which give to nature such variety.
One thing for sure I can affirm is this:
The traces of these things which stay in us
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Beyond the power of reason to expel
Are so minute that nothing can prevent
Our living lives on earth like those of gods.
This spirit then is contained in every body,
Itself the body’s guardian, and source
Of its existence; for with common roots
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They cling together, and without destruction
Cannot be torn apart, like frankincense,
You can’t tear out the scent from lumps of it
Without its very nature being destroyed.
So from the body if mind and spirit be
Withdrawn, total collapse of all must follow,
330
So interwoven are the elements
From their first origin, which constitute
Their common life; and neither body nor mind
Has power of feeling, one without the other,
But by the joint movements of both united
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Sensation is kindled for us in the flesh.
Besides, a body is never born by itself
Nor grows, nor ever lasts long after death.
For not as water when it gives off heat
Does not disintegrate, but remains entire,
340
Not thus I say can the body endure division
From the spirit which has left it. But utterly
It perishes convulsed and rots away.
Likewise, when life begins, in a mother’s limbs
And womb, body and spirit learn so well
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The ways of life, that if they are separated
Damage and ruin follow instantly.
So since their life depends upon this unity
Their nature also must be unified.
Also, if anyone denies that body can feel
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And believes that spirit, mixed through the whole body,
Creates this motion which we name feeling,
He fights against things manifest and true.
For who can ever make clear what it is
For the body to feel, if not the obvious
Experience which the body has given us?
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But once the spirit has left it, then the body
Lacks feeling in every part, because it loses
That which in life was not its property;
And many other things it loses too.
Moreover to say that eyes can see nothing
But through them mind looks out, as through a door,
360
Is difficult, when sense clearly rejects it.
For sense propels us to the object seen;
Especially since we often cannot see
Bright things because of glaring brightness, a thing
Which never happens with doors. For an open door
Through which we look presents no difficulty.
365
Moreover, if our eyes act as a door
Well, take the eyes away, doorposts and all,
And then You’ll find the mind should see more clearly.
Now here’s a thing you never could accept,
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A view held by the great Democritus,
That primal atoms of body and mind are placed
One beside one alternately in pairs
And in this manner bind the frame together.
For, while the seeds of spirit are much smaller
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Than those which make our body and our flesh,
Also they are fewer in number and are placed
Only at wide intervals through the frame.
The intervals at which these atoms lie
Equal in size the size of the smallest thing
That can produce sensation in our bodies.
380
Sometimes we do not feel a speck of dust
Clinging to the body, or chalk-powder whitening
Our limbs, nor mist at night; nor spider’s webs
When we move into them, or the web’s fine threads
Falling upon our heads, nor feathers of birds
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Or flying thistledown, which are so light
They scarce can fall to the ground. A caterpillar
Or other creeping thing, we can’t feel it walking;
Nor the separate footsteps of a gnat or fly.
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So fine it is that many particles
Must be moved in us before, spread through our limbs,
The first beginnings of spirit can be touched
And feel, and bouncing across those intervals
Combine and couple and spring apart in turn.
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The mind more strongly holds the barriers
Of life, than does the spirit, and is lord
Of life more than the spirit is. For without
Mind and intelligence no particle
Of spirit for the smallest length of time
Can stay in our limbs, but all too easily
Follows its companions into the air away
And leaves the limbs cold in the chill of death.
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But he remains in life to whom the mind
And intelligence remain. Though he may be
A mutilated trunk dismembered, and
The spirit fled and banished from the limbs,
Yet he lives, and breathes the air of life. Cut off
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If not from all yet from the greater part
Of the spirit, yet he lingers, and clings to life.
Consider the eye, if it is cut all round,
Provided that the pupil stays unhurt
The lively power of seeing abides intact;
Unless, that is, you damage the whole eyeball
410
&nb
sp; And slicing round it leave it quite cut out,
For that results in ruin to them both.
But if that tiny spot in the middle of the eye
Is eaten through, at once the light is out
And darkness follows, however bright it be
With eyeball safe. Such is the bond by which
415
The mind and spirit are forever bound.
Well now, that you may know that mind and spirit
Are born in living creatures and are mortal,
Verses which I with labour sweet and long
Have wrought, I’ll give you, worthy of your name.
420
Please now apply both these names to one thing;
When for example I speak of spirit and show
That it is mortal, understand me also
To speak of mind since it is one with the other
And the whole is combined. First, as I have shown
That it is thin, composed of tiny atoms,
And of much smaller elements consists
425
Than the liquid of water, or cloud or smoke,
For it moves far more quickly and behaves
As if struck by some more delicate force, for dreams
Of smoke and mist can move it, imaginations
430
We have in sleep of altars burning and smoke
Coming from them (since beyond doubt these are
Images borne to us that we see in sleep)—
Now therefore, when you see from a broken pot
Water or liquid spread out all around
435
And see how cloud and smoke dissolve into air,
Believe that the spirit also is diffused
And much more quickly dies and is dissolved
Into its primal atoms once it has left
The limbs. And if the body which is its vessel,
440
As it were, cannot hold it when broken up
By anything, or rarefied when blood
Flows out from the veins, how then do you suppose
That any air could hold it? How could a thing
More rarefied than our body ever hold it?
We feel moreover that the mind is born
445
Together with the body and grows up with it,
And ages with it. Children run about
With weak and tender bodies, and their minds
Are tender too. Next, when maturing years
Have given them strength, the wisdom and the power
Of mind grows stronger also. Last, when time
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With its strong hours has marred them, and the limbs
Have fallen beneath its blows, the intelligence
Limps, the tongue rambles, the mind gives way,
All fails and in one single moment dies.
455
Therefore it follows that like smoke the spirit
Is melted into air, into thin air,
Since with the body equally it is born
And grows, and dies when old age wearies it.
Another point: just as the body itself
Is prone to foul diseases and harsh pain,
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So we can see the mind to suffer also
Anxiety and grief and fear; it follows
That the mind equally partakes of death.
Moreover, even in bodily diseases,
Often the mind wanders astray, demented,
Delirious; sometimes the heavy weight
Of lethargy brings everlasting sleep,
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Closed eyes and drooping head; no voices now
He hears, nor looks can recognize, of friends
Standing beside the bed, calling him back
To light and life, their cheeks bedewed with tears.
Wherefore you must confess that the mind also
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Is dissolved, since the contagion of disease
Penetrates into it, and disease and pain
Make death, as well we have been taught ere now.
Now let’s consider wine. When its strong power
475
Has entered into a man and through the veins
Its fire has spread, then what a weight is there
In all his limbs! His legs give way, he staggers,
His speech is slow, his mind is sodden, his eyes
Swim, and he shouts and belches and fights. He’s drunk.
480
Why does this happen, why, I say, unless
Because the spirit, whole still in the body,
Is shaken by the violence of wine?
But this confusion and impediment
Shows that if something slightly stronger should
485
Find its way in, then robbed of his future life
The man must die. Now, take another case—
A man’s struck suddenly before our eyes
As if by lightning, falls to the ground and foams
At the mouth, shudders and groans and raves, grows rigid,
Twists, pants, convulsions rack him. Why? for sure
490
Because the force of the disease spread through the limbs
Tears him and spews the spirit out in foam,
As when the sea is lashed by violent waves.
Groans are forced out since limbs are racked with pain,
495
And gathering in the mouth the seeds of voice
Rush out, as it were along the road they know.
Raving occurs because the mind and spirit
Are racked and torn and, as I have shown, divided
500
By that same poison, drawn apart, split up.
Then when at last the disease is spent, and back
To its secret haunts the bitter humour goes
Of the corrupted being, swaying then
A man begins to rise, and by degrees
Returns to his full senses and receives
His spirit back. Now therefore, since the spirit
505
Within the body itself by such diseases
Is tossed about and worn and torn apart,
Why do you think that without a body the same
In the open air, blown by strong winds, can live?
And when we see that the mind like a sick body
510
Can be restored to health by medicine,
This also shows that the living mind is mortal.
For if a man sets out to change the mind
Or anything in nature, then he must
515
Remove a part, however small, or add one,
Or change its position. But what is immortal
Suffers no change of its parts, nor anything added
Or taken away. Its boundaries are fixed;
Transgress them, and death follows instantly.
520
Therefore, as I have taught, a sick mind shows
Signs of mortality and equally
A mind that’s changed by medicine. So strongly
Does truth oppose false reasoning and cuts off
The flight of lies in full retreat surrounded,
And by a double refutation conquers them.
525
Another point—we often see how a man
Passes slowly away and limb by limb
Loses the sense of life. First toes grow livid
And then the nails, and then the feet and legs
Die, and then over all his body creep
The cold footsteps of death. And so we see
530
The spirit’s divided, and does not depart
All at one time. This shows that it is mortal.
But if perchance you think the spirit can
Pull itself inwards through the limbs, and draw
All of its parts together and in this way
Remove sensation from the limbs, why then
The place where all this spiri
t collects should be
535
More sensitive, and form a single seat of feeling.
Nowhere does this exist. And so the spirit,
As I have said before, is torn to pieces,
Scattered abroad, and therefore perishes.
Moreover, if I were prepared to lie,
540
And grant you that the spirit could form a mass
Within the body of those who leave the light
Slowly, and slowly die, you must confess
That the spirit is mortal. For whether it dies
Dispersed into the air or drawn together
From all its parts, it matters not at all;
545
Since more and more the senses leave a man
Everywhere, and less and less of life remains.
The mind has its own place within the body
Fixed, just as eyes and ears are fixed, and noses,
And the other organs of sense that govern life;
550
If they’re cut off, they’re useless, only fit
For the dustbin. Likewise by itself the mind
Is useless, can’t exist without the body,
Which holds it like a jar holds water or
555
Whatever simile you care to choose
Of closeness, since the body clings to it.
In close conjunction body and mind are strong
With quickened power, enjoying life together.
Nor without body can the mind alone
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Make living movements, nor deprived of mind
Can body last, and use the senses. Eyes
Torn from their roots can see nothing. Likewise
Mind and spirit alone can do nothing.
565
Yes, mixed through veins and flesh, sinews and bones
Their elements are held in by the body,
Not free to spring apart; and so, shut in,
They act as sense-bringers, which after death
570
They cannot do, ejected from the body
Into the winds of air, held in no more.
For air will be a body and have life
If the spirit can keep itself together, and
Enclose within itself those motions which
It used to make within the limbs and body.
Wherefore again and yet again I say
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When all the body’s clothing is undone
And the breath of life’s thrown out outside, at once
Mind meets its end, and spirit too, since both
Are by one cause united and combined.
Again, since body cannot endure division
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From spirit without it dies with loathsome stench,
Why do you doubt the cause of this? The spirit
From its deep depths arising has like smoke
Made its thin passage out and spread abroad;
The body, changed and crumbling in ruin, collapses.
585
Why so? Because the body’s deep foundations
Have been moved and shaken, while through all its limbs
On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) Page 14
