|
.....And since the mind is of a man one part,
.....Which in one fixed place remains, like ears,
.....And eyes, and every sense which pilots life;
.....And just as hand, or eye, or nose, apart,
.....Severed from us, can neither feel nor be,
.....But in the least of time is left to rot,
.....Thus mind alone can never be, without
.....The body and the man himself, which seems,
.....As ‘twere the vessel of the same—or aught
.....Whate’er thou’lt feign as yet more closely joined:
.....Since body cleaves to mind by surest bonds.
.....Again, the body’s and the mind’s live powers
.....Only in union prosper and enjoy;
.....For neither can nature of mind, alone of itself
.....Sans body, give the vital motions forth;
.....Nor, then, can body, wanting soul, endure
.....And use the senses.
..........— Lucretius [Titus Lucretius Carus] (c.99-55 B.C.E.), Roman poet. On the Nature of Things (c. 50 B.C.E.), tr. by William Ellery Leonard, Book III, "The Soul Is Mortal."
|