De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

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

  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.