POSIDONIUS.—I plainly see that you are always obliged to abandon the system of Epicurus, and that you dare no longer maintain that the declination of atoms produced thought. I have already, in our last colloquy, refuted the eternal succession of sensible and thinking beings. I showed you that, if there are material beings capable of thinking by their own power, thought must necessarily be an attribute essential to all matter; that, if matter thought necessarily, and by its own virtue, all matter must of course think: but this is not the case, and therefore it is impossible to maintain a succession of material beings, who, of themselves, possess the faculty of thinking. LUCRETIUS.—Notwithstanding this reasoning, which you repeat, it is certain that a father communicates a soul to his son at the same time that he forms his body. This soul and this body grow together; they gradually acquire strength; they are subject to calamities, and to the infirmities of old age. The decay of our strength draws along with it that of our judgment; the effect at last ceases with the cause, and the soul vanishes like smoke into air. _Præterea, gigni pariter cum corpore, & una_ _Crescere sentimus, pariterque senescere mentem._ _Nam velet infirmo pueri, teneroque vagantur_ _Corpore, sic animi sequitur sententia tenuis._ _Inde ubi robustis adolevit viribus ætas,_ _Consilium quoque majus, & auctior est animi vis._ _Post ubi jam validis quassatum est viribus ævi_ _Corpus, & obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus:_ _Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque, mensque;_ _Omnia deficiunt, atque uno tempore desunt,_ _Ergo dissolvi quoque convenit omnem animai_ _Naturam, ceu fumus in altas aeris auras:_ _Quandoquidem gigni pariter, pariterque videmus_ _Crescere, & (ut docui) simul ævo fessa fatiscit._ Besides, ’tis plain that souls are born, and grow; And all by age decay, as bodies do; To prove this truth: in infants, minds appear Infirm, and tender as their bodies are: In man, the mind is strong; when age prevails, And the quick vigor of each member fails, The mind’s powers, too, decrease, and waste apace; And grave and reverend folly takes the place. ’Tis likely then the soul and mind must die; Like smoke in air, its scattered atoms fly; Since all these proofs have shown, these reasons told, ’Tis with the body born, grows strong, and old. —CREECH. POSIDONIUS.—These, to be sure, are very fine verses; but do you thereby inform me of the nature of the soul? LUCRETIUS.—No; I only give you its history, and I reason with probability. POSIDONIUS.—Where is the probability of a father’s communicating to his son the faculty of thinking? LUCRETIUS.—Do you not daily see children resembling their fathers in their inclinations, as well as in their features?