De Rerum Natura (Lucretius)

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	De Rerum Natura Author: Lucretius	Translator: William Ellery Leonard
73	Denique conubia ad Veneris partusque ferarum esse animas praesto deridiculum esse videtur , expectare immortalis mortalia membra innumero numero certareque praeproperanter inter se quae prima potissimaque insinuetur ; si non forte ita sunt animarum foedera pacta , ut quae prima volans advenerit insinuetur prima neque inter se contendant viribus hilum . Denique in aethere non arbor , non aequore in alto nubes esse queunt nec pisces vivere in arvis nec cruor in lignis neque saxis sucus inesse . certum ac dispositumst ubi quicquid crescat et insit . sic animi natura nequit sine corpore oriri sola neque a nervis et sanguine longius esse . quod si posset enim , multo prius ipsa animi vis in capite aut umeris aut imis calcibus esse posset et innasci quavis in parte soleret , tandem in eodem homine atque in eodem vase manere . quod quoniam nostro quoque constat corpore certum dispositumque videtur ubi esse et crescere possit sorsum anima atque animus , tanto magis infitiandum totum posse extra corpus durare genique . quare , corpus ubi interiit , periisse necessest confiteare animam distractam in corpore toto . quippe etenim mortale aeterno iungere et una consentire putare et fungi mutua posse desiperest ; quid enim diversius esse putandumst aut magis inter se disiunctum discrepitansque , quam mortale quod est inmortali atque perenni iunctum in concilio saevas tolerare procellas ? praeterea quaecumque manent aeterna necessest aut quia sunt solido cum corpore respuere ictus nec penetrare pati sibi quicquam quod queat artas dissociare intus partis , ut materiai corpora sunt , quorum naturam ostendimus ante , aut ideo durare aetatem posse per omnem , plagarum quia sunt expertia sicut inanest , quod manet intactum neque ab ictu fungitur hilum , aut etiam quia nulla loci sit copia circum , quo quasi res possint discedere dissoluique , sicut summarum summast aeterna , neque extra quis locus est quo diffugiant neque corpora sunt quae possint incidere et valida dissolvere plaga .	Again, at parturitions of the wild And at the rites of Love, that souls should stand Ready hard by seems ludicrous enough- Immortals waiting for their mortal limbs In numbers innumerable, contending madly Which shall be first and chief to enter in!- Unless perchance among the souls there be Such treaties stablished that the first to come Flying along, shall enter in the first, And that they make no rivalries of strength! Again, in ether can't exist a tree, Nor clouds in ocean deeps, nor in the fields Can fishes live, nor blood in timber be, Nor sap in boulders: fixed and arranged Where everything may grow and have its place. Thus nature of mind cannot arise alone Without the body, nor exist afar From thews and blood. But if 'twere possible, Much rather might this very power of mind Be in the head, the shoulders or the heels, And, born in any part soever, yet In the same man, in the same vessel abide. But since within this body even of ours Stands fixed and appears arranged sure Where soul and mind can each exist and grow, Deny we must the more that they can have Duration and birth, wholly outside the frame. For, verily, the mortal to conjoin With the eternal, and to feign they feel Together, and can function each with each, Is but to dote: for what can be conceived Of more unlike, discrepant, ill-assorted, Than something mortal in a union joined With an immortal and a secular To bear the outrageous tempests? Then, again, Whatever abides eternal must indeed Either repel all strokes, because 'tis made Of solid body, and permit no entrance Of aught with power to sunder from within The parts compact- as are those seeds of stuff Whose nature we've exhibited before; Or else be able to endure through time For this: because they are from blows exempt, As is the void, the which abides untouched, Unsmit by any stroke; or else because There is no room around, whereto things can, As 'twere, depart in dissolution all,- Even as the sum of sums eternal is, Without or place beyond whereto things may Asunder fly, or bodies which can smite, And thus dissolve them by the blows of might.
74	Quod si forte ideo magis inmortalis habendast , quod vitalibus ab rebus munita tenetur , aut quia non veniunt omnino aliena salutis , aut quia quae veniunt aliqua ratione recedunt pulsa prius quam quid noceant sentire queamus , ( ... lost text ... ) praeter enim quam quod morbis cum corporis aegret , advenit id quod eam de rebus saepe futuris macerat inque metu male habet curisque fatigat , praeteritisque male admissis peccata remordent . adde furorem animi proprium atque oblivia rerum , adde quod in nigras lethargi mergitur undas .	But if perchance the soul's to be adjudged Immortal, mainly on ground 'tis kept secure In vital forces- either because there come Never at all things hostile to its weal, Or else because what come somehow retire, Repelled or ere we feel the harm they work, . . . . . . For, lo, besides that, when the frame's diseased, Soul sickens too, there cometh, many a time, That which torments it with the things to be, Keeps it in dread, and wearies it with cares; And even when evil acts are of the past, Still gnaw the old transgressions bitterly. Add, too, that frenzy, peculiar to the mind, And that oblivion of the things that were; Add its submergence in the murky waves Of drowse and torpor.
75	Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum , quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur . et vel ut ante acto nihil tempore sensimus aegri , ad confligendum venientibus undique Poenis , omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu horrida contremuere sub altis aetheris auris , in dubioque fuere utrorum ad regna cadendum omnibus humanis esset terraque marique , sic , ubi non erimus , cum corporis atque animai discidium fuerit , quibus e sumus uniter apti , scilicet haud nobis quicquam , qui non erimus tum , accidere omnino poterit sensumque movere , non si terra mari miscebitur et mare caelo . et si iam nostro sentit de corpore postquam distractast animi natura animaeque potestas , nil tamen est ad nos , qui comptu coniugioque corporis atque animae consistimus uniter apti . nec , si materiem nostram collegerit aetas post obitum rursumque redegerit ut sita nunc est , atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae , pertineat quicquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum , interrupta semel cum sit repetentia nostri . et nunc nil ad nos de nobis attinet , ante qui fuimus , iam de illis nos adficit angor . nam cum respicias inmensi temporis omne praeteritum spatium , tum motus materiai multimodi quam sint , facile hoc adcredere possis , semina saepe in eodem , ut nunc sunt , ordine posta haec eadem , quibus e nunc nos sumus , ante fuisse . nec memori tamen id quimus reprehendere mente ; inter enim iectast vitai pausa vageque deerrarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes . debet enim , misere si forte aegreque futurumst ; ipse quoque esse in eo tum tempore , cui male possit accidere . id quoniam mors eximit , esseque prohibet illum cui possint incommoda conciliari , scire licet nobis nihil esse in morte timendum nec miserum fieri qui non est posse , neque hilum differre an nullo fuerit iam tempore natus , mortalem vitam mors cum inmortalis ademit .	FOLLY OF THE FEAR OF DEATH Therefore death to us Is nothing, nor concerns us in the least, Since nature of mind is mortal evermore. And just as in the ages gone before We felt no touch of ill, when all sides round To battle came the Carthaginian host, And the times, shaken by tumultuous war, Under the aery coasts of arching heaven Shuddered and trembled, and all humankind Doubted to which the empery should fall By land and sea, thus when we are no more, When comes that sundering of our body and soul Through which we're fashioned to a single state, Verily naught to us, us then no more, Can come to pass, naught move our senses then- No, not if earth confounded were with sea, And sea with heaven. But if indeed do feel The nature of mind and energy of soul, After their severance from this body of ours, Yet nothing 'tis to us who in the bonds And wedlock of the soul and body live, Through which we're fashioned to a single state. And, even if time collected after death The matter of our frames and set it all Again in place as now, and if again To us the light of life were given, O yet That process too would not concern us aught, When once the self-succession of our sense Has been asunder broken. And now and here, Little enough we're busied with the selves We were aforetime, nor, concerning them, Suffer a sore distress. For shouldst thou gaze Backwards across all yesterdays of time The immeasurable, thinking how manifold The motions of matter are, then couldst thou well Credit this too: often these very seeds (From which we are to-day) of old were set In the same order as they are to-day- Yet this we can't to consciousness recall Through the remembering mind. For there hath been An interposed pause of life, and wide Have all the motions wandered everywhere From these our senses. For if woe and ail Perchance are toward, then the man to whom The bane can happen must himself be there At that same time. But death precludeth this, Forbidding life to him on whom might crowd Such irk and care; and granted 'tis to know: Nothing for us there is to dread in death, No wretchedness for him who is no more, The same estate as if ne'er born before, When death immortal hath ta'en the mortal life.
76	Proinde ubi se videas hominem indignarier ipsum , post mortem fore ut aut putescat corpore posto aut flammis interfiat malisve ferarum , scire licet non sincerum sonere atque subesse caecum aliquem cordi stimulum , quamvis neget ipse credere se quemquam sibi sensum in morte futurum ; non , ut opinor , enim dat quod promittit et unde nec radicitus e vita se tollit et eicit , sed facit esse sui quiddam super inscius ipse . vivus enim sibi cum proponit quisque futurum , corpus uti volucres lacerent in morte feraeque , ipse sui miseret ; neque enim se dividit illim nec removet satis a proiecto corpore et illum se fingit sensuque suo contaminat astans . hinc indignatur se mortalem esse creatum nec videt in vera nullum fore morte alium se , qui possit vivus sibi se lugere peremptum stansque iacentem lacerari urive dolere . nam si in morte malumst malis morsuque ferarum tractari , non invenio qui non sit acerbum ignibus inpositum calidis torrescere flammis aut in melle situm suffocari atque rigere frigore , cum summo gelidi cubat aequore saxi , urgerive superne obrutum pondere terrae .	Hence, where thou seest a man to grieve because When dead he rots with body laid away, Or perishes in flames or jaws of beasts, Know well: he rings not true, and that beneath Still works an unseen sting upon his heart, However he deny that he believes. His shall be aught of feeling after death. For he, I fancy, grants not what he says, Nor what that presupposes, and he fails To pluck himself with all his roots from life And cast that self away, quite unawares Feigning that some remainder's left behind. For when in life one pictures to oneself His body dead by beasts and vultures torn, He pities his state, dividing not himself Therefrom, removing not the self enough From the body flung away, imagining Himself that body, and projecting there His own sense, as he stands beside it: hence He grieves that he is mortal born, nor marks That in true death there is no second self Alive and able to sorrow for self destroyed, Or stand lamenting that the self lies there Mangled or burning. For if it an evil is Dead to be jerked about by jaw and fang Of the wild brutes, I see not why 'twere not Bitter to lie on fires and roast in flames, Or suffocate in honey, and, reclined On the smooth oblong of an icy slab, Grow stiff in cold, or sink with load of earth Down-crushing from above.
77	' Iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta neque uxor optima , nec dulces occurrent oscula nati praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent . non poteris factis florentibus esse tuisque praesidium . misero misere ' aiunt ' omnia ademit una dies infesta tibi tot praemia vitae . ' illud in his rebus non addunt ' nec tibi earum iam desiderium rerum super insidet una . ' quod bene si videant animo dictisque sequantur , dissoluant animi magno se angore metuque . ' tu quidem ut es leto sopitus , sic eris aevi quod super est cunctis privatus doloribus aegris ; at nos horrifico cinefactum te prope busto insatiabiliter deflevimus , aeternumque nulla dies nobis maerorem e pectore demet . ' illud ab hoc igitur quaerendum est , quid sit amari tanto opere , ad somnum si res redit atque quietem , cur quisquam aeterno possit tabescere luctu . Hoc etiam faciunt ubi discubuere tenentque pocula saepe homines et inumbrant ora coronis , ex animo ut dicant : ' brevis hic est fructus homullis ; iam fuerit neque post umquam revocare licebit . ' tam quam in morte mali cum primis hoc sit eorum , quod sitis exurat miseros atque arida torrat , aut aliae cuius desiderium insideat rei . nec sibi enim quisquam tum se vitamque requiret , cum pariter mens et corpus sopita quiescunt ; nam licet aeternum per nos sic esse soporem , nec desiderium nostri nos adficit ullum , et tamen haud quaquam nostros tunc illa per artus longe ab sensiferis primordia motibus errant , cum correptus homo ex somno se colligit ipse . multo igitur mortem minus ad nos esse putandumst , si minus esse potest quam quod nihil esse videmus ; maior enim turbae disiectus materiai consequitur leto nec quisquam expergitus extat , frigida quem semel est vitai pausa secuta .	"Thee now no more The joyful house and best of wives shall welcome, Nor little sons run up to snatch their kisses And touch with silent happiness thy heart. Thou shalt not speed in undertakings more, Nor be the warder of thine own no more. Poor wretch," they say, "one hostile hour hath ta'en Wretchedly from thee all life's many guerdons," But add not, "yet no longer unto thee Remains a remnant of desire for them" If this they only well perceived with mind And followed up with maxims, they would free Their state of man from anguish and from fear. "O even as here thou art, aslumber in death, So shalt thou slumber down the rest of time, Released from every harrying pang. But we, We have bewept thee with insatiate woe, Standing beside whilst on the awful pyre Thou wert made ashes; and no day shall take For us the eternal sorrow from the breast." But ask the mourner what's the bitterness That man should waste in an eternal grief, If, after all, the thing's but sleep and rest? For when the soul and frame together are sunk In slumber, no one then demands his self Or being. Well, this sleep may be forever, Without desire of any selfhood more, For all it matters unto us asleep. Yet not at all do those primordial germs Roam round our members, at that time, afar From their own motions that produce our senses- Since, when he's startled from his sleep, a man Collects his senses. Death is, then, to us Much less- if there can be a less than that Which is itself a nothing: for there comes Hard upon death a scattering more great Of the throng of matter, and no man wakes up On whom once falls the icy pause of life. This too, O often from the soul men say, Along their couches holding of the cups, With faces shaded by fresh wreaths awry: "Brief is this fruit of joy to paltry man, Soon, soon departed, and thereafter, no, It may not be recalled."- As if, forsooth, It were their prime of evils in great death To parch, poor tongues, with thirst and arid drought, Or chafe for any lack.
78	Denique si vocem rerum natura repente . mittat et hoc alicui nostrum sic increpet ipsa : ' quid tibi tanto operest , mortalis , quod nimis aegris luctibus indulges ? quid mortem congemis ac fles ? nam grata fuit tibi vita ante acta priorque et non omnia pertusum congesta quasi in vas commoda perfluxere atque ingrata interiere ; cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis aequo animoque capis securam , stulte , quietem ? sin ea quae fructus cumque es periere profusa vitaque in offensost , cur amplius addere quaeris , rursum quod pereat male et ingratum occidat omne , non potius vitae finem facis atque laboris ? nam tibi praeterea quod machiner inveniamque , quod placeat , nihil est ; eadem sunt omnia semper . si tibi non annis corpus iam marcet et artus confecti languent , eadem tamen omnia restant , omnia si perges vivendo vincere saecla , atque etiam potius , si numquam sis moriturus ' , quid respondemus , nisi iustam intendere litem naturam et veram verbis exponere causam ? grandior hic vero si iam seniorque queratur atque obitum lamentetur miser amplius aequo , non merito inclamet magis et voce increpet acri : ' aufer abhinc lacrimas , baratre , et compesce querellas . omnia perfunctus vitai praemia marces ; sed quia semper aves quod abest , praesentia temnis , inperfecta tibi elapsast ingrataque vita , et nec opinanti mors ad caput adstitit ante quam satur ac plenus possis discedere rerum . nunc aliena tua tamen aetate omnia mitte aequo animoque , age dum , magnis concede necessis ? ' iure , ut opinor , agat , iure increpet inciletque ; cedit enim rerum novitate extrusa vetustas semper , et ex aliis aliud reparare necessest . Nec quisquam in barathrum nec Tartara deditur atra ; materies opus est , ut crescant postera saecla ; quae tamen omnia te vita perfuncta sequentur ; nec minus ergo ante haec quam tu cecidere cadentque . sic alid ex alio numquam desistet oriri vitaque mancipio nulli datur , omnibus usu . respice item quam nil ad nos ante acta vetustas temporis aeterni fuerit , quam nascimur ante . hoc igitur speculum nobis natura futuri temporis exponit post mortem denique nostram . numquid ibi horribile apparet , num triste videtur quicquam , non omni somno securius exstat ?	Once more, if Nature Should of a sudden send a voice abroad, And her own self inveigh against us so: "Mortal, what hast thou of such grave concern That thou indulgest in too sickly plaints? Why this bemoaning and beweeping death? For if thy life aforetime and behind To thee was grateful, and not all thy good Was heaped as in sieve to flow away And perish unavailingly, why not, Even like a banqueter, depart the halls, Laden with life? why not with mind content Take now, thou fool, thy unafflicted rest? But if whatever thou enjoyed hath been Lavished and lost, and life is now offence, Why seekest more to add- which in its turn Will perish foully and fall out in vain? O why not rather make an end of life, Of labour? For all I may devise or find To pleasure thee is nothing: all things are The same forever. Though not yet thy body Wrinkles with years, nor yet the frame exhausts Outworn, still things abide the same, even if Thou goest on to conquer all of time With length of days, yea, if thou never diest"- What were our answer, but that Nature here Urges just suit and in her words lays down True cause of action? Yet should one complain, Riper in years and elder, and lament, Poor devil, his death more sorely than is fit, Then would she not, with greater right, on him Cry out, inveighing with a voice more shrill: "Off with thy tears, and choke thy whines, buffoon! Thou wrinklest- after thou hast had the sum Of the guerdons of life; yet, since thou cravest ever What's not at hand, contemning present good, That life has slipped away, unperfected And unavailing unto thee. And now, Or ere thou guessed it, death beside thy head Stands- and before thou canst be going home Sated and laden with the goodly feast. But now yield all that's alien to thine age,- Up, with good grace! make room for sons: thou must." Justly, I fancy, would she reason thus, Justly inveigh and gird: since ever the old Outcrowded by the new gives way, and ever The one thing from the others is repaired. Nor no man is consigned to the abyss Of Tartarus, the black. For stuff must be, That thus the after-generations grow,- Though these, their life completed, follow thee; And thus like thee are generations all- Already fallen, or some time to fall. So one thing from another rises ever; And in fee-simple life is given to none, But unto all mere usufruct. Look back: Nothing to us was all fore-passed eld Of time the eternal, ere we had a birth. And Nature holds this like a mirror up Of time-to-be when we are dead and gone. And what is there so horrible appears? Now what is there so sad about it all? Is't not serener far than any sleep?
79	Atque ea ni mirum quae cumque Acherunte profundo prodita sunt esse , in vita sunt omnia nobis . nec miser inpendens magnum timet aëre saxum Tantalus , ut famast , cassa formidine torpens ; sed magis in vita divom metus urget inanis mortalis casumque timent quem cuique ferat fors . nec Tityon volucres ineunt Acherunte iacentem nec quod sub magno scrutentur pectore quicquam perpetuam aetatem possunt reperire profecto . quam libet immani proiectu corporis exstet , qui non sola novem dispessis iugera membris optineat , sed qui terrai totius orbem , non tamen aeternum poterit perferre dolorem nec praebere cibum proprio de corpore semper . sed Tityos nobis hic est , in amore iacentem quem volucres lacerant atque exest anxius angor aut alia quavis scindunt cuppedine curae . Sisyphus in vita quoque nobis ante oculos est , qui petere a populo fasces saevasque secures imbibit et semper victus tristisque recedit . nam petere imperium , quod inanest nec datur umquam , atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem , hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte saxum , quod tamen summo iam vertice rusum volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi . deinde animi ingratam naturam pascere semper atque explere bonis rebus satiareque numquam , quod faciunt nobis annorum tempora , circum cum redeunt fetusque ferunt variosque lepores , nec tamen explemur vitai fructibus umquam , hoc , ut opinor , id est , aevo florente puellas quod memorant laticem pertusum congerere in vas , quod tamen expleri nulla ratione potestur . Cerberus et Furiae iam vero et lucis egestas , Tartarus horriferos eructans faucibus aestus ! qui neque sunt usquam nec possunt esse profecto ; sed metus in vita poenarum pro male factis est insignibus insignis scelerisque luela , carcer et horribilis de saxo iactus deorsum , verbera carnifices robur pix lammina taedae ; quae tamen etsi absunt , at mens sibi conscia factis praemetuens adhibet stimulos torretque flagellis , nec videt interea qui terminus esse malorum possit nec quae sit poenarum denique finis , atque eadem metuit magis haec ne in morte gravescant . hic Acherusia fit stultorum denique vita .	And, verily, those tortures said to be In Acheron, the deep, they all are ours Here in this life. No Tantalus, benumbed With baseless terror, as the fables tell, Fears the huge boulder hanging in the air: But, rather, in life an empty dread of Gods Urges mortality, and each one fears Such fall of fortune as may chance to him. Nor eat the vultures into Tityus Prostrate in Acheron, nor can they find, Forsooth, throughout eternal ages, aught To pry around for in that mighty breast. However hugely he extend his bulk- Who hath for outspread limbs not acres nine, But the whole earth- he shall not able be To bear eternal pain nor furnish food From his own frame forever. But for us A Tityus is he whom vultures rend Prostrate in love, whom anxious anguish eats, Whom troubles of any unappeased desires Asunder rip. We have before our eyes Here in this life also a Sisyphus In him who seeketh of the populace The rods, the axes fell, and evermore Retires a beaten and a gloomy man. For to seek after power- an empty name, Nor given at all- and ever in the search To endure a world of toil, O this it is To shove with shoulder up the hill a stone Which yet comes rolling back from off the top, And headlong makes for levels of the plain. Then to be always feeding an ingrate mind, Filling with good things, satisfying never- As do the seasons of the year for us, When they return and bring their progenies And varied charms, and we are never filled With the fruits of life- O this, I fancy, 'tis To pour, like those young virgins in the tale, Waters into a sieve, unfilled forever. . . . . . . Cerberus and Furies, and that Lack of Light . . . . . . Tartarus, out-belching from his mouth the surge Of horrible heat- the which are nowhere, nor Indeed can be: but in this life is fear Of retributions just and expiations For evil acts: the dungeon and the leap From that dread rock of infamy, the stripes, The executioners, the oaken rack, The iron plates, bitumen, and the torch. And even though these are absent, yet the mind, With a fore-fearing conscience, plies its goads And burns beneath the lash, nor sees meanwhile What terminus of ills, what end of pine Can ever be, and feareth lest the same But grow more heavy after death. Of truth, The life of fools is Acheron on earth.
80	Hoc etiam tibi tute interdum dicere possis . ' lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancus reliquit , qui melior multis quam tu fuit , improbe , rebus . inde alii multi reges rerumque potentes occiderunt , magnis qui gentibus imperitarunt . ille quoque ipse , viam qui quondam per mare magnum stravit iterque dedit legionibus ire per altum ac pedibus salsas docuit super ire lucunas et contempsit equis insultans murmura ponti , lumine adempto animam moribundo corpore fudit . Scipiadas , belli fulmen , Carthaginis horror , ossa dedit terrae proinde ac famul infimus esset . adde repertores doctrinarum atque leporum , adde Heliconiadum comites ; quorum unus Homerus sceptra potitus eadem aliis sopitus quietest . denique Democritum post quam matura vetustas admonuit memores motus languescere mentis , sponte sua leto caput obvius optulit ipse . ipse Epicurus obit decurso lumine vitae , qui genus humanum ingenio superavit et omnis restinxit stellas exortus ut aetherius sol . tu vero dubitabis et indignabere obire ? mortua cui vita est prope iam vivo atque videnti , qui somno partem maiorem conteris aevi , et viligans stertis nec somnia cernere cessas sollicitamque geris cassa formidine mentem nec reperire potes tibi quid sit saepe mali , cum ebrius urgeris multis miser undique curis atque animo incerto fluitans errore vagaris . '	This also to thy very self sometimes Repeat thou mayst: "Lo, even good Ancus left The sunshine with his eyes, in divers things A better man than thou, O worthless hind; And many other kings and lords of rule Thereafter have gone under, once who swayed O'er mighty peoples. And he also, he- Who whilom paved a highway down the sea, And gave his legionaries thoroughfare Along the deep, and taught them how to cross The pools of brine afoot, and did contemn, Trampling upon it with his cavalry, The bellowings of ocean- poured his soul From dying body, as his light was ta'en. And Scipio's son, the thunderbolt of war, Horror of Carthage, gave his bones to earth, Like to the lowliest villein in the house. Add finders-out of sciences and arts; Add comrades of the Heliconian dames, Among whom Homer, sceptered o'er them all, Now lies in slumber sunken with the rest. Then, too, Democritus, when ripened eld Admonished him his memory waned away, Of own accord offered his head to death. Even Epicurus went, his light of life Run out, the man in genius who o'er-topped The human race, extinguishing all others, As sun, in ether arisen, all the stars. Wilt thou, then, dally, thou complain to go?- For whom already life's as good as dead, Whilst yet thou livest and lookest?- who in sleep Wastest thy life- time's major part, and snorest Even when awake, and ceasest not to see The stuff of dreams, and bearest a mind beset By baseless terror, nor discoverest oft What's wrong with thee, when, like a sotted wretch, Thou'rt jostled along by many crowding cares, And wanderest reeling round, with mind aswim."