In darkness and in filth. Some sink their lives In ruin to win statues and a name, And often with such force, through dread of death, Does hatred of life and of the sight of day Seize upon mortals, that with anguished heart They will destroy themselves, forgetting quite How this fear is the well-spring of their cares, This it is that enfeebles honour, this That bursts the bonds of friendship, and in fine Prompts them to cast all duty to the ground. Since often ere now men have betrayed their country And beloved parents, seeking so to shun The realms of Acheron. For just as children In the blind darkness tremble and are afraid Of all things, so we sometimes in the light Fear things that are no whit more to be dreaded Than those which children shudder at in the dark Imagining that they will come to pass. This terror, then, and darkness of the mind Must needs be scattered not by the sun’s beams And day’s bright arrows, but by contemplation Of nature’s aspect and her inward law. First then the mind, which we shall often call The intellect, wherein is placed the council And government of life, I assert to be No less a part of man than feet and hands And eyes are part of the whole living creature. Yet some would have it that the sense of the mind Resides in no fixed part, but deem it rather A kind of vital habit of the body, Which by the Greeks is called a harmony, Something that causes us to live with sense, Although the intellect is in no one part. Just as good health is often spoken of As though belonging to the body, and yet It is no one part of a healthy man. Thus they refuse to place the sense of the mind In one fixed part: and here to me they seem To wander far indeed astray from truth. For often the body, which is visible, Is sick, while in some other hidden part We experience pleasure; and ofttimes again The contrary will happen, when a man Who is distressed in mind, through his whole body Feels pleasure: in the same way as the foot Of a sick man may suffer pain, and yet His head meanwhile is in no pain at all. Moreover when the limbs are given up To soft sleep, and the wearied body lies Diffused without sensation, there is yet Something else in us which at that same time Is stirred in many ways, and into itself Receives all the emotions of delight, And all the empty troubles of the heart. Now, that the soul too dwells within the limbs, And that it is no harmony whereby The body is wont to feel, this main proof shows. When from the body much has been removed, Yet often life still lingers in our limbs: Whereas, when a few particles of heat Have been dispersed, and through the mouth some air Has been forced out, suddenly that same life Deserts the arteries and quits the bones: