De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  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.