De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916.

  1. First, then, I say, the mind which oft we call
  2. The intellect, wherein is seated life's
  3. Counsel and regimen, is part no less
  4. Of man than hand and foot and eyes are parts
  5. Of one whole breathing creature. [But some hold]
  6. That sense of mind is in no fixed part seated,
  7. But is of body some one vital state,-
  8. Named "harmony" by Greeks, because thereby
  9. We live with sense, though intellect be not
  10. In any part: as oft the body is said
  11. To have good health (when health, however, 's not
  12. One part of him who has it), so they place
  13. The sense of mind in no fixed part of man.
  14. Mightily, diversly, meseems they err.
  15. Often the body palpable and seen
  16. Sickens, while yet in some invisible part
  17. We feel a pleasure; oft the other way,
  18. A miserable in mind feels pleasure still
  19. Throughout his body- quite the same as when
  20. A foot may pain without a pain in head.
  21. Besides, when these our limbs are given o'er
  22. To gentle sleep and lies the burdened frame
  23. At random void of sense, a something else
  24. Is yet within us, which upon that time
  25. Bestirs itself in many a wise, receiving
  26. All motions of joy and phantom cares of heart.
  27. Now, for to see that in man's members dwells
  28. Also the soul, and body ne'er is wont
  29. To feel sensation by a "harmony"
  30. Take this in chief: the fact that life remains
  31. Oft in our limbs, when much of body's gone;
  32. Yet that same life, when particles of heat,
  33. Though few, have scattered been, and through the mouth
  34. Air has been given forth abroad, forthwith
  35. Forever deserts the veins, and leaves the bones.
  36. Thus mayst thou know that not all particles
  37. Perform like parts, nor in like manner all
  38. Are props of weal and safety: rather those-
  39. The seeds of wind and exhalations warm-
  40. Take care that in our members life remains.
  41. Therefore a vital heat and wind there is
  42. Within the very body, which at death
  43. Deserts our frames. And so, since nature of mind
  44. And even of soul is found to be, as 'twere,
  45. A part of man, give over "harmony"-
  46. Name to musicians brought from Helicon,-
  47. Unless themselves they filched it otherwise,
  48. To serve for what was lacking name till then.
  49. Whate'er it be, they're welcome to it- thou,
  50. Hearken my other maxims.
  1. Mind and soul,
  2. I say, are held conjoined one with other,
  3. And form one single nature of themselves;
  4. But chief and regnant through the frame entire
  5. Is still that counsel which we call the mind,
  6. And that cleaves seated in the midmost breast.
  7. Here leap dismay and terror; round these haunts
  8. Be blandishments of joys; and therefore here
  9. The intellect, the mind. The rest of soul,
  10. Throughout the body scattered, but obeys-
  11. Moved by the nod and motion of the mind.
  12. This, for itself, sole through itself, hath thought;
  13. This for itself hath mirth, even when the thing
  14. That moves it, moves nor soul nor body at all.
  15. And as, when head or eye in us is smit
  16. By assailing pain, we are not tortured then
  17. Through all the body, so the mind alone
  18. Is sometimes smitten, or livens with a joy,
  19. Whilst yet the soul's remainder through the limbs
  20. And through the frame is stirred by nothing new.
  21. But when the mind is moved by shock more fierce,
  22. We mark the whole soul suffering all at once
  23. Along man's members: sweats and pallors spread
  24. Over the body, and the tongue is broken,
  25. And fails the voice away, and ring the ears,
  26. Mists blind the eyeballs, and the joints collapse,-
  27. Aye, men drop dead from terror of the mind.
  28. Hence, whoso will can readily remark
  29. That soul conjoined is with mind, and, when
  30. 'Tis strook by influence of the mind, forthwith
  31. In turn it hits and drives the body too.
  32. And this same argument establisheth
  33. That nature of mind and soul corporeal is:
  34. For when 'tis seen to drive the members on,
  35. To snatch from sleep the body, and to change
  36. The countenance, and the whole state of man
  37. To rule and turn,- what yet could never be
  38. Sans contact, and sans body contact fails-
  39. Must we not grant that mind and soul consist
  40. Of a corporeal nature?- And besides
  41. Thou markst that likewise with this body of ours
  42. Suffers the mind and with our body feels.
  43. If the dire speed of spear that cleaves the bones
  44. And bares the inner thews hits not the life,
  45. Yet follows a fainting and a foul collapse,
  46. And, on the ground, dazed tumult in the mind,
  47. And whiles a wavering will to rise afoot.
  48. So nature of mind must be corporeal, since
  49. From stroke and spear corporeal 'tis in throes.
  50. Now, of what body, what components formed
  51. Is this same mind I will go on to tell.
  52. First, I aver, 'tis superfine, composed
  53. Of tiniest particles- that such the fact
  54. Thou canst perceive, if thou attend, from this:
  1. Nothing is seen to happen with such speed
  2. As what the mind proposes and begins;
  3. Therefore the same bestirs itself more swiftly
  4. Than aught whose nature's palpable to eyes.
  5. But what's so agile must of seeds consist
  6. Most round, most tiny, that they may be moved,
  7. When hit by impulse slight. So water moves,
  8. In waves along, at impulse just the least-
  9. Being create of little shapes that roll;
  10. But, contrariwise, the quality of honey
  11. More stable is, its liquids more inert,
  12. More tardy its flow; for all its stock of matter
  13. Cleaves more together, since, indeed, 'tis made
  14. Of atoms not so smooth, so fine, and round.
  15. For the light breeze that hovers yet can blow
  16. High heaps of poppy-seed away for thee
  17. Downward from off the top; but, contrariwise,
  18. A pile of stones or spiny ears of wheat
  19. It can't at all. Thus, in so far as bodies
  20. Are small and smooth, is their mobility;
  21. But, contrariwise, the heavier and more rough,
  22. The more immovable they prove. Now, then,
  23. Since nature of mind is movable so much,
  24. Consist it must of seeds exceeding small
  25. And smooth and round. Which fact once known to thee,
  26. Good friend, will serve thee opportune in else.
  27. This also shows the nature of the same,
  28. How nice its texture, in how small a space
  29. 'Twould go, if once compacted as a pellet:
  30. When death's unvexed repose gets hold on man
  31. And mind and soul retire, thou markest there
  32. From the whole body nothing ta'en in form,
  33. Nothing in weight. Death grants ye everything,
  34. But vital sense and exhalation hot.
  35. Thus soul entire must be of smallmost seeds,
  36. Twined through the veins, the vitals, and the thews,
  37. Seeing that, when 'tis from whole body gone,
  38. The outward figuration of the limbs
  39. Is unimpaired and weight fails not a whit.
  40. Just so, when vanished the bouquet of wine,
  41. Or when an unguent's perfume delicate
  42. Into the winds away departs, or when
  43. From any body savour's gone, yet still
  44. The thing itself seems minished naught to eyes,
  45. Thereby, nor aught abstracted from its weight-
  46. No marvel, because seeds many and minute
  47. Produce the savours and the redolence
  48. In the whole body of the things.
  1. And so,
  2. Again, again, nature of mind and soul
  3. 'Tis thine to know created is of seeds
  4. The tiniest ever, since at flying-forth
  5. It beareth nothing of the weight away.
  6. Yet fancy not its nature simple so.
  7. For an impalpable aura, mixed with heat,
  8. Deserts the dying, and heat draws off the air;
  9. And heat there's none, unless commixed with air:
  10. For, since the nature of all heat is rare,
  11. Athrough it many seeds of air must move.
  12. Thus nature of mind is triple; yet those all
  13. Suffice not for creating sense- since mind
  14. Accepteth not that aught of these can cause
  15. Sense-bearing motions, and much less the thoughts
  16. A man revolves in mind. So unto these
  17. Must added be a somewhat, and a fourth;
  18. That somewhat's altogether void of name;
  19. Than which existeth naught more mobile, naught
  20. More an impalpable, of elements
  21. More small and smooth and round. That first transmits
  22. Sense-bearing motions through the frame, for that
  23. Is roused the first, composed of little shapes;
  24. Thence heat and viewless force of wind take up
  25. The motions, and thence air, and thence all things
  26. Are put in motion; the blood is strook, and then
  27. The vitals all begin to feel, and last
  28. To bones and marrow the sensation comes-
  29. Pleasure or torment. Nor will pain for naught
  30. Enter so far, nor a sharp ill seep through,
  31. But all things be perturbed to that degree
  32. That room for life will fail, and parts of soul
  33. Will scatter through the body's every pore.
  34. Yet as a rule, almost upon the skin
  35. These motion aIl are stopped, and this is why
  36. We have the power to retain our life.
  37. Now in my eagerness to tell thee how
  38. They are commixed, through what unions fit
  39. They function so, my country's pauper-speech
  40. Constrains me sadly. As I can, however,
  41. I'll touch some points and pass.
  1. In such a wise
  2. Course these primordials 'mongst one another
  3. With inter-motions that no one can be
  4. From other sundered, nor its agency
  5. Perform, if once divided by a space;
  6. Like many powers in one body they work.
  7. As in the flesh of any creature still
  8. Is odour and savour and a certain warmth,
  9. And yet from all of these one bulk of body
  10. Is made complete, so, viewless force of wind
  11. And warmth and air, commingled, do create
  12. One nature, by that mobile energy
  13. Assisted which from out itself to them
  14. Imparts initial motion, whereby first
  15. Sense-bearing motion along the vitals springs.
  16. For lurks this essence far and deep and under,
  17. Nor in our body is aught more shut from view,
  18. And 'tis the very soul of all the soul.
  19. And as within our members and whole frame
  20. The energy of mind and power of soul
  21. Is mixed and latent, since create it is
  22. Of bodies small and few, so lurks this fourth,
  23. This essence void of name, composed of small,
  24. And seems the very soul of all the soul,
  25. And holds dominion o'er the body all.
  26. And by like reason wind and air and heat
  27. Must function so, commingled through the frame,
  28. And now the one subside and now another
  29. In interchange of dominance, that thus
  30. From all of them one nature be produced,
  31. Lest heat and wind apart, and air apart,
  32. Make sense to perish, by disseverment.
  1. There is indeed in mind that heat it gets
  2. When seething in rage, and flashes from the eyes
  3. More swiftly fire; there is, again, that wind,
  4. Much, and so cold, companion of all dread,
  5. Which rouses the shudder in the shaken frame;
  6. There is no less that state of air composed,
  7. Making the tranquil breast, the serene face.
  8. But more of hot have they whose restive hearts,
  9. Whose minds of passion quickly seethe in rage-
  10. Of which kind chief are fierce abounding lions,
  11. Who often with roaring burst the breast o'erwrought,
  12. Unable to hold the surging wrath within;
  13. But the cold mind of stags has more of wind,
  14. And speedier through their inwards rouses up
  15. The icy currents which make their members quake.
  16. But more the oxen live by tranquil air,
  17. Nor e'er doth smoky torch of wrath applied,
  18. O'erspreading with shadows of a darkling murk,
  19. Rouse them too far; nor will they stiffen stark,
  20. Pierced through by icy javelins of fear;
  21. But have their place half-way between the two-
  22. Stags and fierce lions. Thus the race of men:
  23. Though training make them equally refined,
  24. It leaves those pristine vestiges behind
  25. Of each mind's nature. Nor may we suppose
  26. Evil can e'er be rooted up so far
  27. That one man's not more given to fits of wrath,
  28. Another's not more quickly touched by fear,
  29. A third not more long-suffering than he should.
  30. And needs must differ in many things besides
  31. The varied natures and resulting habits
  32. Of humankind- of which not now can I
  33. Expound the hidden causes, nor find names
  34. Enough for all the divers shapes of those
  35. Primordials whence this variation springs.
  36. But this meseems I'm able to declare:
  37. Those vestiges of natures left behind
  38. Which reason cannot quite expel from us
  39. Are still so slight that naught prevents a man
  40. From living a life even worthy of the gods.
  41. So then this soul is kept by all the body,
  42. Itself the body's guard, and source of weal:
  43. For they with common roots cleave each to each,
  44. Nor can be torn asunder without death.
  45. Not easy 'tis from lumps of frankincense
  46. To tear their fragrance forth, without its nature
  47. Perishing likewise: so, not easy 'tis
  48. From all the body nature of mind and soul
  49. To draw away, without the whole dissolved.
  50. With seeds so intertwined even from birth,
  51. They're dowered conjointly with a partner-life;
  52. No energy of body or mind, apart,
  53. Each of itself without the other's power,
  54. Can have sensation; but our sense, enkindled
  55. Along the vitals, to flame is blown by both
  56. With mutual motions. Besides the body alone
  57. Is nor begot nor grows, nor after death
  58. Seen to endure. For not as water at times
  59. Gives off the alien heat, nor is thereby
  60. Itself destroyed, but unimpaired remains-
  61. Not thus, I say, can the deserted frame
  62. Bear the dissevering of its joined soul,
  63. But, rent and ruined, moulders all away.
  64. Thus the joint contact of the body and soul
  65. Learns from their earliest age the vital motions,
  66. Even when still buried in the mother's womb;
  67. So no dissevering can hap to them,
  68. Without their bane and ill. And thence mayst see
  69. That, as conjoined is their source of weal,
  70. Conjoined also must their nature be.
  1. If one, moreover, denies that body feel,
  2. And holds that soul, through all the body mixed,
  3. Takes on this motion which we title "sense,"
  4. He battles in vain indubitable facts:
  5. For who'll explain what body's feeling is,
  6. Except by what the public fact itself
  7. Has given and taught us? "But when soul is parted,
  8. Body's without all sense." True!- loses what
  9. Was even in its life-time not its own;
  10. And much beside it loses, when soul's driven
  11. Forth from that life-time. Or, to say that eyes
  12. Themselves can see no thing, but through the same
  13. The mind looks forth, as out of opened doors,
  14. Is- a hard saying; since the feel in eyes
  15. Says the reverse. For this itself draws on
  16. And forces into the pupils of our eyes
  17. Our consciousness. And note the case when often
  18. We lack the power to see refulgent things,
  19. Because our eyes are hampered by their light-
  20. With a mere doorway this would happen not;
  21. For, since it is our very selves that see,
  22. No open portals undertake the toil.
  23. Besides, if eyes of ours but act as doors,
  24. Methinks that, were our sight removed, the mind
  25. Ought then still better to behold a thing-
  26. When even the door-posts have been cleared away.
  27. Herein in these affairs nowise take up
  28. What honoured sage, Democritus, lays down-
  29. That proposition, that primordials
  30. Of body and mind, each super-posed on each,
  31. Vary alternately and interweave
  32. The fabric of our members. For not only
  33. Are the soul-elements smaller far than those
  34. Which this our body and inward parts compose,
  35. But also are they in their number less,
  36. And scattered sparsely through our frame. And thus
  37. This canst thou guarantee: soul's primal germs
  38. Maintain between them intervals as large
  39. At least as are the smallest bodies, which,
  40. When thrown against us, in our body rouse
  41. Sense-bearing motions.
  1. Hence it comes that we
  2. Sometimes don't feel alighting on our frames
  3. The clinging dust, or chalk that settles soft;
  4. Nor mists of night, nor spider's gossamer
  5. We feel against us, when, upon our road,
  6. Its net entangles us, nor on our head
  7. The dropping of its withered garmentings;
  8. Nor bird-feathers, nor vegetable down,
  9. Flying about, so light they barely fall;
  10. Nor feel the steps of every crawling thing,
  11. Nor each of all those footprints on our skin
  12. Of midges and the like. To that degree
  13. Must many primal germs be stirred in us
  14. Ere once the seeds of soul that through our frame
  15. Are intermingled 'gin to feel that those
  16. Primordials of the body have been strook,
  17. And ere, in pounding with such gaps between,
  18. They clash, combine and leap apart in turn.
  19. But mind is more the keeper of the gates,
  20. Hath more dominion over life than soul.
  21. For without intellect and mind there's not
  22. One part of soul can rest within our frame
  23. Least part of time; companioning, it goes
  24. With mind into the winds away, and leaves
  25. The icy members in the cold of death.
  26. But he whose mind and intellect abide
  27. Himself abides in life. However much
  28. The trunk be mangled, with the limbs lopped off,
  29. The soul withdrawn and taken from the limbs,
  30. Still lives the trunk and draws the vital air.
  31. Even when deprived of all but all the soul,
  32. Yet will it linger on and cleave to life,-
  33. Just as the power of vision still is strong,
  34. If but the pupil shall abide unharmed,
  35. Even when the eye around it's sorely rent-
  36. Provided only thou destroyest not
  37. Wholly the ball, but, cutting round the pupil,
  38. Leavest that pupil by itself behind-
  39. For more would ruin sight. But if that centre,
  40. That tiny part of eye, be eaten through,
  41. Forthwith the vision fails and darkness comes,
  42. Though in all else the unblemished ball be clear.
  43. 'Tis by like compact that the soul and mind
  44. Are each to other bound forevermore.
  1. Now come: that thou mayst able be to know
  2. That minds and the light souls of all that live
  3. Have mortal birth and death, I will go on
  4. Verses to build meet for thy rule of life,
  5. Sought after long, discovered with sweet toil.
  6. But under one name I'd have thee yoke them both;
  7. And when, for instance, I shall speak of soul,
  8. Teaching the same to be but mortal, think
  9. Thereby I'm speaking also of the mind-
  10. Since both are one, a substance inter-joined.
  11. First, then, since I have taught how soul exists
  12. A subtle fabric, of particles minute,
  13. Made up from atoms smaller much than those
  14. Of water's liquid damp, or fog, or smoke,
  15. So in mobility it far excels,
  16. More prone to move, though strook by lighter cause
  17. Even moved by images of smoke or fog-
  18. As where we view, when in our sleeps we're lulled,
  19. The altars exhaling steam and smoke aloft-
  20. For, beyond doubt, these apparitions come
  21. To us from outward. Now, then, since thou seest,
  22. Their liquids depart, their waters flow away,
  23. When jars are shivered, and since fog and smoke
  24. Depart into the winds away, believe
  25. The soul no less is shed abroad and dies
  26. More quickly far, more quickly is dissolved
  27. Back to its primal bodies, when withdrawn
  28. From out man's members it has gone away.
  29. For, sure, if body (container of the same
  30. Like as a jar), when shivered from some cause,
  31. And rarefied by loss of blood from veins,
  32. Cannot for longer hold the soul, how then
  33. Thinkst thou it can be held by any air-
  34. A stuff much rarer than our bodies be?