On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (23 page)

I tell you now that mind and spirit are

Conjoined and in one single nature fixed,

But head and master as it were of all

The body, is the understanding, which we call

Mind and intelligence. It has its seat

Placed in the middle region of the breast.

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For here throb fear and terror, here abides

Sweet melting joy, and therefore intelligence

And mind are. And the rest of the spirit,

Through the whole body diffused, obeys the will

Of mind and working of intelligence.

Mind by itself alone has sense, alone

Rejoices for itself, when nothing moves

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Spirit or body. And just as when our head

Or eye is hurt by an attack of pain,

The whole body is not tormented, so

The mind sometimes itself alone is hurt

Or thrills with joy, while the spirit’s other part

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Throughout our limbs and frame remains unmoved.

But when the mind is strongly gripped by fear

We see the whole spirit throughout the frame

Share the same feeling; we sweat, grow pale,

Our speech is broken, the voice dies away,

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Our eyes grow dark, our ears are filled with noise,

Our limbs give way; in short, through mental terror

We see men fall to the ground. From this we know

That spirit is linked with mind; when struck by mind

The spirit drives the body and compels it.

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This reasoning likewise shows that mind and spirit

Are bodily, for when we see that limbs are moved,

The body snatched from sleep, the countenance

Changed, the whole man ruled and steered, a thing

Impossible without touch, and touch in turn

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Impossible without body, must we not

Admit that mind and spirit are bodily?

Moreover you can see the mind to suffer

Along with the body, and to share its feeling.

If the grim power of a javelin,

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Driven deep into the bones and sinews, fails

To take the life, yet weakness follows, then

A fall to the ground, and on the ground a storm

In the mind, and sometimes as it were

A faint desire to rise. The nature of mind

Must therefore in itself be bodily,

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Since blows upon the body make it suffer.

This mind, I now propose to explain to you,

What kind of thing it is, and whence derived.

Most delicate it is I say and formed

Of atoms most minute. That this is so

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The following example may convince you.

Nothing is done so swiftly as the mind

Determines it to be done, and acts itself;

More quickly then the mind bestirs itself

Than anything else that comes before our eyes;

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But what is so readily moved must needs consist

Of seeds extremely round and most minute

So that a force though very small can move them.

Water moves easily and flows with little force

Because it is formed of smooth and rolling shapes.

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Honey conversely has more stability,

Its fluid is more sluggish and its movement

Slow, because the whole mass of its matter

Coheres more slowly, since it is not made

Of atoms so smooth and delicate and round.

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Take poppy seeds, a big high heap of them,

A breath of wind can make the top slide down,

But take a heap of stones or ears of wheat,

It cannot move them. So, you see, so far

As atoms are extremely small and smooth,

They have the power of motion; but heavy things

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And things that are rough have more stability.

Now therefore, since we have found the mind to be

Extremely mobile, of necessity

It must consist of atoms extremely small

And smooth and round. If this be known to you

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My friend, you’ll find it helps in many ways,

And you will call it valuable and useful.

This also shows its nature and how fine

Its texture is, and how minute a space

It would occupy if it could be massed together—

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As soon as death’s calm quiet takes a man

And mind and spirit have departed, then

Nothing from all the body can you see

Diminished, not in look nor weight, but death

Presents it all, less only sense and warmth.

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Therefore the entire spirit must consist

Of seeds extremely small, through veins, flesh, sinews,

Woven; wherefore, when all of it has left

The body, none the less the shape of limbs

Remains intact; no whit of weight is lost.

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The bouquet of wine is an example, or

The scent of ointment, or the flavour of something;

They disappear, but all the same no whit

Smaller the thing seems to our eyes, nor less

Is it in weight; no wonder, since minute

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Seeds are what make the flavour and the scent.

Wherefore again and yet again I say

The nature of the mind and spirit must

Of seeds extremely small be constituted,

Since when it flees it takes no weight away.

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But do not suppose that this nature is single.

When a man dies, a kind of thin breath, mixed

With heat, deserts him, and the heat draws air

Along with it. Nor is there any heat

That is not mixed with air, for since its nature

Is rarefied, then of necessity

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First elements of air must needs move through it.

Already therefore we have found that mind

Is threefold; but these three are not enough

To engender feeling, since no one of them

Is able to make the motions that bring sense,

Still less the thoughts that come into our minds.

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Therefore a fourth thing of some kind must be

Added, and this is wholly without name.

Nothing exists more easily moved than this,

Nor thinner nor made of elements more small

And smooth, and this first transmits through our limbs

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Sense-giving motions. For this first is moved

Being smallest, next heat and the blind power of wind

Take on the movement, then the air, then everything

Is moved, the blood is stirred, the flesh is thrilled

All through with feeling, bones and marrow feel

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Pleasure perhaps, or pleasure’s opposite.

Nor can pain penetrate thus far, or violent ill,

But that they cause so much disquiet that

No place is left for life, the spirit flees

Dispersed through all the channels of the body.

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But usually, as it were at the body’s surface

These movements end; so we keep hold on life.

Now when I long to explain how these things are

Mingled among themselves, and in what ways

Arranged they are active, then against my will

The poverty of our language holds me back.

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But the chief points I’ll touch on, as best I can.

The first beginnings move among themselves

So closely that no single one of them

Is separate or has power to act alone

Divided from the rest, but many of them

Compose together a kind of single body.

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As in the flesh of any animal

There is a certain scent and heat and flavour

Yet from all these one body is made complete,

So heat and air and the blind power of wind

Mixed form one nature, with that moving force

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Which from itself dispenses the beginning of motion,

The sense-bringer, from which through all the body

Movement first begins. For deep deep down

This nature hidden lies, and far beneath;

Nothing so deep in all our body lies,

The spirit of the very spirit itself.

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Just as, mixed in our limbs and all our body,

The force of mind and power of spirit lies hid,

Made as it is of few small elements,

So does this nameless force made of minute

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Atoms lie hid, spirit of spirit, and lord

Of all the body. So likewise must wind

And air and heat all mingled interact

Throughout our limbs, one yielding place to another