But before I attempt concerning this To announce fate’s oracles in more holy wise, And with assurance far more rational Than doth the Pythoness, when from the tripod And laurel wreath of Phoebus her voice sounds, Many consolatories will I first Expound to you in learned words, lest haply Curbed by religion’s bit you should suppose That earth and sun and sky, sea, stars and moon, Their substance being divine, must needs abide Eternally, and should therefore think it just That all, after the manner of the giants, Should suffer penance for their monstrous guilt Who by their reasoning shake the world’s firm walls, And fain would quench the glorious sun in heaven, Shaming with mortal speech immortal things; Though in fact such objects are so far removed From any share in divine energy, And so unworthy to be accounted gods, That they may be considered with more reason To afford us the conception of what is quite Devoid of vital motion and of sense. For truly by no means can we suppose That the nature and judgment of the mind Can exist linked with every kind of body, Even as in the sky trees cannot exist, Nor clouds in the salt waters, nor can fish Live in the fields, neither can blood be found In wood, nor sap in stones: but where each thing Can dwell and grow, is determined and ordained. Even so the nature of mind cannot be born Alone without a body, nor exist Separated from sinews and from blood. But if (for this is likelier by far) The mind’s force might reside within the head Or shoulders, or be born down in the heels, Or in any part you will, it would at least Inhabit the same man and the same vessel. But since even in our body it is seen To be determined and ordained where soul And mind can separately dwell and grow, All the more must it be denied that mind Cannot have being quite outside a body And a living form, in crumbling clods of earth, In the sun’s fire, or water, or aloft In the domains of ether. Such things therefore Are not endowed with divine consciousness, Because they cannot be quickened into life.