On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics)

by Ronald Melville

  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,

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  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,

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  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,

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  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.

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  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.

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  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

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&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

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  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.

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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.

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  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

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  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.

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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.

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  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.

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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;

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  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;

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  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

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  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.

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  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

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  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.

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  Why so? Because the body’s deep foundations

  Have been moved and shaken, while through all its limbs