Read On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) Online
Authors: Ronald Melville,Don,Peta Fowler
Made its thin passage out and spread abroad; | |
The body, changed and crumbling in ruin, collapses. | 585 |
Why so? Because the body’s deep foundations | |
Have been moved and shaken, while through all its limbs | |
And winding passages and tiny pores | |
The spirit has seeped out. So you may learn | |
That in many ways the spirit was dispersed | |
When from the limbs it made its exit, and | |
While in the body had been torn apart | 590 |
Before it emerged outside, you see, and swam | |
Into the winds of air and so away. | |
Let’s take another case. Sometimes the spirit | |
While moving still within the bounds of life | |
Gets hurt by something (never mind the cause!) | |
And wants to leave the body and be free. | |
The face grows pale, as at the point of death, | 595 |
Blood leaves the limbs and all collapse and fall. | |
This we call fainting. Everyone’s distressed, | |
Wants to hold fast again the chains of life. | |
This happens because the mind and spirit are shaken | 600 |
And fail, within the fading body. It needs | |
Only a slightly stronger shock to kill them. | |
Why then do you doubt that, driven from the body, | |
Weak, in the open, out of doors, unclothed, | |
Not only not for ever could the spirit | 605 |
Endure, but not for the smallest length of time? | |
For it is evident that no one, dying, | |
Feels that the soul intact deserts the body | |
Nor that it rises first to the throat and then | |
Through the gullet. Instead he feels it fail | |
Seated in some fixed place, just as he feels | 610 |
His other senses, each in its part, to fail. | |
But if the mind were immortal, then in dying | |
It would not complain of being dispersed, but rather | |
Of going out and shedding its skin, like a snake. | |
The wisdom and intelligence of mind | 615 |
Never in head or feet or hands are born, | |
But in one fixed and certain region stay. | |
This is because fixed places are assigned | |
To everything that is, in which it must | |
Be born and grow and have its being. A man | |
Has legs and arms and head and all the rest | 620 |
And nothing’s ever upside down. So sure | |
One thing follows another. You’ll not find | |
Flames in a river, no, nor frost in fire. | |
Now, if the mind is immortal and can feel | |
When parted from the body, we must assume | 625 |
It has the five senses. Only in this way | |
Can we imagine the spirits of the dead | |
Go wandering in Hades. Painters and poets | |
Have always shown us spirits endowed with senses. | 630 |
But what do you think? Can a spirit without body | |
Have eyes or nose or hand or tongue, and can | |
The ears hear by themselves without a body? | |
And since we feel that vital sense inheres | 635 |
In the whole body and that it is the whole | |
That lives, if suddenly some force | |
With a swift blow shall cut the body through | |
So as to sever the two parts asunder, | |
No doubt the spirit too will be cleft apart, | |
Divided and cut together with the body. | |
But what is cut and divided into parts | 640 |
Surely can make no claim to be eternal. | |
They tell how chariots bearing scythes cut off | |
A man’s limb in the heat of battle. It falls | |
And quivers on the ground, shorn from the trunk, | |
But the man feels no pain—the blow’s too sudden. | 645 |
A man may lose his left arm and his shield | |
Torn off amidst the horses by the scythes | |
Of the chariot wheels and never notice it, | 650 |
Drunk with the fight; or losing his right arm | |
Press on regardless. Another has lost his leg | |
And the foot lies on the ground twitching its toes. | |
The head cut off from the hot and living trunk | |
Stares through its open eyes until what’s left | 655 |
Of the spirit is given up and passes away. | |
Now let’s consider a snake, with flickering tongue, | |
Long body, and menacing tail. Take your knife | |
And cut it up. You’ll see the separate parts | 660 |
All writhing while the wound is fresh, | |
Spattering the earth with gore. See how its head | |
Turns round and back and tries to gnaw its tail, | |
Wanting to bite away the burning pain. | |
Shall we then say that in each separate piece | |
There is a separate spirit? If we do, | 665 |
That means that in one single animal | |
There are many spirits spread throughout the body. | |
It follows that one single spirit has been | |
Divided, just as the body has, so each | |
Must be considered mortal, since they both | |
Have been alike cut into many parts. | |
Now also, if the spirit is immortal | 670 |
And creeps into the body when we are born, | |
Why can we not remember time that’s past, | |
Why do we keep no traces of things done? | |
For if the mind has been so greatly changed | |
As to lose all remembrance of past acts, | 675 |
That, I think, is not far removed from death. | |
Wherefore, you must admit, it follows that | |
The spirit that was before has perished and | |
The spirit which now is has now been born. | |
Moreover, if the body is complete | |
Before the quickened mind can enter it | 680 |
When we are born and tread the threshold of life, | |
It makes no sense that in our body and limbs | |
And in the blood itself it lives and grows; | |
Better by far to find a quiet hole | |
For itself, and let the body do the feeling. | 685 |
But all experience shows the contrary, | |
So interwoven is it with the body | |
Through veins, flesh, sinews, even bones, that teeth | |
Also have feeling like the rest. We get toothache, | |
A twinge from icy water, and grind on grit | |
That’s found in lumps of bread, all hard and rough. | 690 |
Wherefore again and yet again I say | |
It is unthinkable that spirits have | |
No beginning or are free from the law of death. | |
If they come into our bodies from outside | |
It is unthinkable that they could have | |
Such close connection with them; and since so close | 695 |
Is this connection, safe and unharmed they can’t | |
Extract themselves from sinews, bones, and joints. | |
But if by any chance you think that the spirit | |
Can get into our bodies from outside | |
And seep through our limbs, then all the more it must, | |
Fused with the body, perish. What permeates | 700 |
Must also dissolve, and therefore perishes. | |
Consider food: it goes into our bodies, | |
Into our limbs, dispersed through many channels, | |
And perishes; and in so doing supports | |
Another body. So spirit and mind | 705 |
May enter the body whole, yet permeating | |
Dissolve, their elements widely dispersed | |
Into the limbs through the channels of the body, | |
Those elements of which the mind consists | |
Which now, in our body born, is lord of it, | |
Born of that mind which perished when through our limbs | 710 |
It was distributed. Wherefore the spirit | |
Has both a birthday and a funeral. | |
Now here’s another question. When the body | |
Is dead do any seeds of spirit remain in it? | |
If any do, and stay with it, then clearly | |
The spirit can’t be immortal, since it has gone | 715 |
Away and left some parts of itself behind. | |
And if it has so completely fled away | |
That not one particle of itself is left, | |
How do you explain worms? The body rots | |
And worms appear. Where from? And the other things | 720 |
Boneless and bloodless that swarm through the limbs, | |
Where do they come from? Do you really think | |
That spirits creep into the worms from outside | |
One by one into a thousand worms— | |
A thousand spirits where only one has died? | 725 |
Do the spirits go hunting for seeds of the worms | |
To make a home of them? Or perhaps they creep | |
Into the bodies of worms already formed? | |
Why should they do this, why take all this trouble? | 730 |
It’s quite a question—worth considering. | |