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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=450295" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Book IV - Part 03 - The Senses And Mental Pictures</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Bodies that strike the eyes, awaking sight. <br>From certain things flow odours evermore, <br>As cold from rivers, heat from sun, and spray <br>From waves of ocean, eater-out of walls <br>Around the coasts. Nor ever cease to flit <br>The varied voices, sounds athrough the air. <br>Then too there comes into the mouth at times <br>The wet of a salt taste, when by the sea <br>We roam about; and so, whene'er we watch <br>The wormword being mixed, its bitter stings. <br>To such degree from all things is each thing <br>Borne streamingly along, and sent about <br>To every region round; and Nature grants <br>Nor rest nor respite of the onward flow, <br>Since 'tis incessantly we feeling have, <br>And all the time are suffered to descry <br>And smell all things at hand, and hear them sound. <br>Besides, since shape examined by our hands <br>Within the dark is known to be the same <br>As that by eyes perceived within the light <br>And lustrous day, both touch and sight must be <br>By one like cause aroused. So, if we test <br>A square and get its stimulus on us <br>Within the dark, within the light what square <br>Can fall upon our sight, except a square <br>That images the things? Wherefore it seems <br>The source of seeing is in images, <br>Nor without these can anything be viewed. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now these same films I name are borne about <br>And tossed and scattered into regions all. <br>But since we do perceive alone through eyes, <br>It follows hence that whitherso we turn <br>Our sight, all things do strike against it there <br>With form and hue. And just how far from us <br>Each thing may be away, the image yields <br>To us the power to see and chance to tell: <br>For when 'tis sent, at once it shoves ahead <br>And drives along the air that's in the space <br>Betwixt it and our eyes. And thus this air <br>All glides athrough our eyeballs, and, as 'twere, <br>Brushes athrough our pupils and thuswise <br>Passes across. Therefore it comes we see <br>How far from us each thing may be away, <br>And the more air there be that's driven before, <br>And too the longer be the brushing breeze <br>Against our eyes, the farther off removed <br>Each thing is seen to be: forsooth, this work <br>With mightily swift order all goes on, <br>So that upon one instant we may see <br>What kind the object and how far away. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Nor over-marvellous must this be deemed <br>In these affairs that, though the films which strike <br>Upon the eyes cannot be singly seen, <br>The things themselves may be perceived. For thus <br>When the wind beats upon us stroke by stroke <br>And when the sharp cold streams, 'tis not our wont <br>To feel each private particle of wind <br>Or of that cold, but rather all at once; <br>And so we see how blows affect our body, <br>As if one thing were beating on the same <br>And giving us the feel of its own body <br>Outside of us. Again, whene'er we thump <br>With finger-tip upon a stone, we touch <br>But the rock's surface and the outer hue, <br>Nor feel that hue by contact- rather feel <br>The very hardness deep within the rock. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now come, and why beyond a looking-glass <br>An image may be seen, perceive. For seen <br>It soothly is, removed far within. <br>'Tis the same sort as objects peered upon <br>Outside in their true shape, whene'er a door <br>Yields through itself an open peering-place, <br>And lets us see so many things outside <br>Beyond the house. Also that sight is made <br>By a twofold twin air: for first is seen <br>The air inside the door-posts; next the doors, <br>The twain to left and right; and afterwards <br>A light beyond comes brushing through our eyes, <br>Then other air, then objects peered upon <br>Outside in their true shape. And thus, when first <br>The image of the glass projects itself, <br>As to our gaze it comes, it shoves ahead <br>And drives along the air that's in the space <br>Betwixt it and our eyes, and brings to pass <br>That we perceive the air ere yet the glass. <br>But when we've also seen the glass itself, <br>Forthwith that image which from us is borne <br>Reaches the glass, and there thrown back again <br>Comes back unto our eyes, and driving rolls <br>Ahead of itself another air, that then <br>'Tis this we see before itself, and thus <br>It looks so far removed behind the glass. <br>Wherefore again, again, there's naught for wonder </div><div style="margin:10px 0">In those which render from the mirror's plane <br>A vision back, since each thing comes to pass <br>By means of the two airs. Now, in the glass <br>The right part of our members is observed <br>Upon the left, because, when comes the image <br>Hitting against the level of the glass, <br>'Tis not returned unshifted; but forced off <br>Backwards in line direct and not oblique,- <br>Exactly as whoso his plaster-mask <br>Should dash, before 'twere dry, on post or beam, <br>And it should straightway keep, at clinging there, <br>Its shape, reversed, facing him who threw, <br>And so remould the features it gives back: <br>It comes that now the right eye is the left, <br>The left the right. An image too may be <br>From mirror into mirror handed on, <br>Until of idol-films even five or six <br>Have thus been gendered. For whatever things <br>Shall hide back yonder in the house, the same, <br>However far removed in twisting ways, <br>May still be all brought forth through bending paths <br>And by these several mirrors seen to be <br>Within the house, since Nature so compels <br>All things to be borne backward and spring off <br>At equal angles from all other things. <br>To such degree the image gleams across <br>From mirror unto mirror; where 'twas left <br>It comes to be the right, and then again <br>Returns and changes round unto the left. <br>Again, those little sides of mirrors curved <br>Proportionate to the bulge of our own flank <br>Send back to us their idols with the right <br>Upon the right; and this is so because <br>Either the image is passed on along <br>From mirror unto mirror, and thereafter, <br>When twice dashed off, flies back unto ourselves; <br>Or else the image wheels itself around, <br>When once unto the mirror it has come, <br>Since the curved surface teaches it to turn <br>To usward. Further, thou might'st well believe <br>That these film-idols step along with us <br>And set their feet in unison with ours <br>And imitate our carriage, since from that <br>Part of a mirror whence thou hast withdrawn <br>Straightway no images can be returned. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Further, our eye-balls tend to flee the bright <br>And shun to gaze thereon; the sun even blinds, <br>If thou goest on to strain them unto him, <br>Because his strength is mighty, and the films <br>Heavily downward from on high are borne <br>Through the pure ether and the viewless winds, <br>And strike the eyes, disordering their joints. <br>So piecing lustre often burns the eyes, <br>Because it holdeth many seeds of fire <br>Which, working into eyes, engender pain. <br>Again, whatever jaundiced people view <br>Becomes wan-yellow, since from out their bodies <br>Flow many seeds wan-yellow forth to meet <br>The films of things, and many too are mixed <br>Within their eye, which by contagion paint <br>All things with sallowness. Again, we view <br>From dark recesses things that stand in light, <br>Because, when first has entered and possessed <br>The open eyes this nearer darkling air, <br>Swiftly the shining air and luminous <br>Followeth in, which purges then the eyes <br>And scatters asunder of that other air <br>The sable shadows, for in large degrees <br>This air is nimbler, nicer, and more strong. <br>And soon as ever 'thas filled and oped with light <br>The pathways of the eyeballs, which before <br>Black air had blocked, there follow straightaway <br>Those films of things out-standing in the light, <br>Provoking vision- what we cannot do <br>From out the light with objects in the dark, <br>Because that denser darkling air behind <br>Followeth in, and fills each aperture <br>And thus blockades the pathways of the eyes <br>That there no images of any things <br>Can be thrown in and agitate the eyes. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And when from far away we do behold <br>The squared towers of a city, oft <br>Rounded they seem,- on this account because <br>Each distant angle is perceived obtuse, <br>Or rather it is not perceived at all; <br>And perishes its blow nor to our gaze <br>Arrives its stroke, since through such length of air <br>Are borne along the idols that the air <br>Makes blunt the idol of the angle's point <br>By numerous collidings. When thuswise <br>The angles of the tower each and all <br>Have quite escaped the sense, the stones appear <br>As rubbed and rounded on a turner's wheel- <br>Yet not like objects near and truly round, <br>But with a semblance to them, shadowily. <br>Likewise, our shadow in the sun appears <br>To move along and follow our own steps <br>And imitate our carriage- if thou thinkest <br>Air that is thus bereft of light can walk, <br>Following the gait and motion of mankind. <br>For what we use to name a shadow, sure <br>Is naught but air deprived of light. No marvel: <br>Because the earth from spot to spot is reft <br>Progressively of light of sun, whenever <br>In moving round we get within its way, <br>While any spot of earth by us abandoned <br>Is filled with light again, on this account <br>It comes to pass that what was body's shadow <br>Seems still the same to follow after us <br>In one straight course. Since, evermore pour in <br>New lights of rays, and perish then the old, <br>Just like the wool that's drawn into the flame. <br>Therefore the earth is easily spoiled of light <br>And easily refilled and from herself <br>Washeth the black shadows quite away. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And yet in this we don't at all concede <br>That eyes be cheated. For their task it is <br>To note in whatsoever place be light, <br>In what be shadow: whether or no the gleams <br>Be still the same, and whether the shadow which <br>Just now was here is that one passing thither, <br>Or whether the facts be what we said above, <br>'Tis after all the reasoning of mind <br>That must decide; nor can our eyeballs know <br>The nature of reality. And so <br>Attach thou not this fault of mind to eyes, <br>Nor lightly think our senses everywhere <br>Are tottering. The ship in which we sail <br>Is borne along, although it seems to stand; <br>The ship that bides in roadstead is supposed <br>There to be passing by. And hills and fields <br>Seem fleeing fast astern, past which we urge <br>The ship and fly under the bellying sails. <br>The stars, each one, do seem to pause, affixed <br>To the ethereal caverns, though they all <br>Forever are in motion, rising out <br>And thence revisiting their far descents <br>When they have measured with their bodies bright <br>The span of heaven. And likewise sun and moon <br>Seem biding in a roadstead,- objects which, <br>As plain fact proves, are really borne along. <br>Between two mountains far away aloft <br>From midst the whirl of waters open lies <br>A gaping exit for the fleet, and yet <br>They seem conjoined in a single isle. <br>When boys themselves have stopped their spinning round, <br>The halls still seem to whirl and posts to reel, <br>Until they now must almost think the roofs <br>Threaten to ruin down upon their heads. <br>And now, when Nature begins to lift on high <br>The sun's red splendour and the tremulous fires, <br>And raise him o'er the mountain-tops, those mountains- <br>O'er which he seemeth then to thee to be, <br>His glowing self hard by atingeing them <br>With his own fire- are yet away from us <br>Scarcely two thousand arrow-shots, indeed <br>Oft scarce five hundred courses of a dart; <br>Although between those mountains and the sun <br>Lie the huge plains of ocean spread beneath <br>The vasty shores of ether, and intervene <br>A thousand lands, possessed by many a folk <br>And generations of wild beasts. Again, <br>A pool of water of but a finger's depth, <br>Which lies between the stones along the pave, <br>Offers a vision downward into earth <br>As far, as from the earth o'erspread on high <br>The gulfs of heaven; that thus thou seemest to view <br>Clouds down below and heavenly bodies plunged <br>Wondrously in heaven under earth. <br>Then too, when in the middle of the stream <br>Sticks fast our dashing horse, and down we gaze <br>Into the river's rapid waves, some force <br>Seems then to bear the body of the horse, <br>Though standing still, reversely from his course, <br>And swiftly push up-stream. And wheresoe'er <br>We cast our eyes across, all objects seem <br>Thus to be onward borne and flow along <br>In the same way as we. A portico, <br>Albeit it stands well propped from end to end <br>On equal columns, parallel and big, <br>Contracts by stages in a narrow cone, <br>When from one end the long, long whole is seen,- <br>Until, conjoining ceiling with the floor, <br>And the whole right side with the left, it draws <br>Together to a cone's nigh-viewless point. <br>To sailors on the main the sun he seems <br>From out the waves to rise, and in the waves <br>To set and bury his light- because indeed <br>They gaze on naught but water and the sky. <br>Again, to gazers ignorant of the sea, <br>Vessels in port seem, as with broken poops, <br>To lean upon the water, quite agog; <br>For any portion of the oars that's raised <br>Above the briny spray is straight, and straight <br>The rudders from above. But other parts, <br>Those sunk, immersed below the water-line, <br>Seem broken all and bended and inclined <br>Sloping to upwards, and turned back to float <br>Almost atop the water. And when the winds <br>Carry the scattered drifts along the sky <br>In the night-time, then seem to glide along <br>The radiant constellations 'gainst the clouds <br>And there on high to take far other course <br>From that whereon in truth they're borne. And then, <br>If haply our hand be set beneath one eye <br>And press below thereon, then to our gaze <br>Each object which we gaze on seems to be, <br>By some sensation twain- then twain the lights <br>Of lampions burgeoning in flowers of flame, <br>And twain the furniture in all the house, <br>Two-fold the visages of fellow-men, <br>And twain their bodies. And again, when sleep <br>Has bound our members down in slumber soft <br>And all the body lies in deep repose, <br>Yet then we seem to self to be awake <br>And move our members; and in night's blind gloom <br>We think to mark the daylight and the sun; <br>And, shut within a room, yet still we seem <br>To change our skies, our oceans, rivers, hills, <br>To cross the plains afoot, and hear new sounds, <br>Though still the austere silence of the night <br>Abides around us, and to speak replies, <br>Though voiceless. Other cases of the sort <br>Wondrously many do we see, which all <br>Seek, so to say, to injure faith in sense- <br>In vain, because the largest part of these <br>Deceives through mere opinions of the mind, <br>Which we do add ourselves, feigning to see <br>What by the senses are not seen at all. <br>For naught is harder than to separate <br>Plain facts from dubious, which the mind forthwith <br>Adds by itself. <br>Again, if one suppose <br>That naught is known, he knows not whether this <br>Itself is able to be known, since he <br>Confesses naught to know. Therefore with him <br>I waive discussion- who has set his head <br>Even where his feet should be. But let me grant <br>That this he knows,- I question: whence he knows <br>What 'tis to know and not-to-know in turn, <br>And what created concept of the truth, <br>And what device has proved the dubious <br>To differ from the certain?- since in things <br>He's heretofore seen naught of true. Thou'lt find <br>That from the senses first hath been create <br>Concept of truth, nor can the senses be <br>Rebutted. For criterion must be found <br>Worthy of greater trust, which shall defeat <br>Through own authority the false by true; <br>What, then, than these our senses must there be <br>Worthy a greater trust? Shall reason, sprung <br>From some false sense, prevail to contradict <br>Those senses, sprung as reason wholly is <br>From out of the senses?- For lest these be true, <br>All reason also then is falsified. <br>Or shall the ears have power to blame the eyes, <br>Or yet the touch the ears? Again, shall taste <br>Accuse this touch or shall the nose confute <br>Or eyes defeat it? Methinks not so it is: <br>For unto each has been divided of <br>Its function quite apart, its power to each; <br>And thus we're still constrained to perceive <br>The soft, the cold, the hot apart, apart <br>All divers hues and whatso things there be <br>Conjoined with hues. Likewise the tasting tongue <br>Has its own power apart, and smells apart <br>And sounds apart are known. And thus it is <br>That no one sense can e'er convict another. <br>Nor shall one sense have power to blame itself, <br>Because it always must be deemed the same, <br>Worthy of equal trust. And therefore what <br>At any time unto these senses showed, <br>The same is true. And if the reason be <br>Unable to unravel us the cause <br>Why objects, which at hand were square, afar <br>Seemed rounded, yet it more availeth us, <br>Lacking the reason, to pretend a cause <br>For each configuration, than to let <br>From out our hands escape the obvious things <br>And injure primal faith in sense, and wreck <br>All those foundations upon which do rest <br>Our life and safety. For not only reason <br>Would topple down; but even our very life <br>Would straightaway collapse, unless we dared <br>To trust our senses and to keep away <br>From headlong heights and places to be shunned <br>Of a like peril, and to seek with speed <br>Their opposites! Again, as in a building, <br>If the first plumb-line be askew, and if <br>The square deceiving swerve from lines exact, <br>And if the level waver but the least <br>In any part, the whole construction then <br>Must turn out faulty- shelving and askew, <br>Leaning to back and front, incongruous, <br>That now some portions seem about to fall, <br>And falls the whole ere long- betrayed indeed <br>By first deceiving estimates: so too <br>Thy calculations in affairs of life <br>Must be askew and false, if sprung for thee <br>From senses false. So all that troop of words <br>Marshalled against the senses is quite vain. <br>And now remains to demonstrate with ease <br>How other senses each their things perceive. <br>Firstly, a sound and every voice is heard, <br>When, getting into ears, they strike the sense <br>With their own body. For confess we must <br>Even voice and sound to be corporeal, <br>Because they're able on the sense to strike. <br>Besides voice often scrapes against the throat, <br>And screams in going out do make more rough <br>The wind-pipe- naturally enough, methinks, <br>When, through the narrow exit rising up <br>In larger throng, these primal germs of voice <br>Have thus begun to issue forth. In sooth, <br>Also the door of the mouth is scraped against <br>By air blown outward from distended cheeks. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And thus no doubt there is, that voice and words <br>Consist of elements corporeal, <br>With power to pain. Nor art thou unaware <br>Likewise how much of body's ta'en away, <br>How much from very thews and powers of men <br>May be withdrawn by steady talk, prolonged <br>Even from the rising splendour of the morn <br>To shadows of black evening,- above all <br>If 't be outpoured with most exceeding shouts. <br>Therefore the voice must be corporeal, <br>Since the long talker loses from his frame <br>A part. <br>Moreover, roughness in the sound <br>Comes from the roughness in the primal germs, <br>As a smooth sound from smooth ones is create; <br>Nor have these elements a form the same <br>When the trump rumbles with a hollow roar, <br>As when barbaric Berecynthian pipe <br>Buzzes with raucous boomings, or when swans <br>By night from icy shores of Helicon <br>With wailing voices raise their liquid dirge. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus, when from deep within our frame we force <br>These voices, and at mouth expel them forth, <br>The mobile tongue, artificer of words, <br>Makes them articulate, and too the lips <br>By their formations share in shaping them. <br>Hence when the space is short from starting-point <br>To where that voice arrives, the very words <br>Must too be plainly heard, distinctly marked. <br>For then the voice conserves its own formation, <br>Conserves its shape. But if the space between <br>Be longer than is fit, the words must be <br>Through the much air confounded, and the voice <br>Disordered in its flight across the winds- <br>And so it haps, that thou canst sound perceive, <br>Yet not determine what the words may mean; <br>To such degree confounded and encumbered <br>The voice approaches us. Again, one word, <br>Sent from the crier's mouth, may rouse all ears <br>Among the populace. And thus one voice <br>Scatters asunder into many voices, <br>Since it divides itself for separate ears, <br>Imprinting form of word and a clear tone. <br>But whatso part of voices fails to hit <br>The ears themselves perishes, borne beyond, <br>Idly diffused among the winds. A part, <br>Beating on solid porticoes, tossed back <br>Returns a sound; and sometimes mocks the ear <br>With a mere phantom of a word. When this <br>Thou well hast noted, thou canst render count <br>Unto thyself and others why it is <br>Along the lonely places that the rocks <br>Give back like shapes of words in order like, <br>When search we after comrades wandering <br>Among the shady mountains, and aloud <br>Call unto them, the scattered. I have seen <br>Spots that gave back even voices six or seven <br>For one thrown forth- for so the very hills, <br>Dashing them back against the hills, kept on <br>With their reverberations. And these spots <br>The neighbouring country-side doth feign to be <br>Haunts of the goat-foot satyrs and the nymphs; <br>And tells ye there be fauns, by whose night noise <br>And antic revels yonder they declare <br>The voiceless silences are broken oft, <br>And tones of strings are made and wailings sweet <br>Which the pipe, beat by players' finger-tips, <br>Pours out; and far and wide the farmer-race <br>Begins to hear, when, shaking the garmentings <br>Of pine upon his half-beast head, god-Pan <br>With puckered lip oft runneth o'er and o'er <br>The open reeds,- lest flute should cease to pour <br>The woodland music! Other prodigies <br>And wonders of this ilk they love to tell, <br>Lest they be thought to dwell in lonely spots <br>And even by gods deserted. This is why <br>They boast of marvels in their story-tellings; <br>Or by some other reason are led on- <br>Greedy, as all mankind hath ever been, <br>To prattle fables into ears. <br>Again, <br>One need not wonder how it comes about <br>That through those places (through which eyes cannot <br>View objects manifest) sounds yet may pass <br>And assail the ears. For often we observe <br>People conversing, though the doors be closed; <br>No marvel either, since all voice unharmed <br>Can wind through bended apertures of things, <br>While idol-films decline to- for they're rent, <br>Unless along straight apertures they swim, <br>Like those in glass, through which all images <br>Do fly across. And yet this voice itself, <br>In passing through shut chambers of a house, <br>Is dulled, and in a jumble enters ears, <br>And sound we seem to hear far more than words. <br>Moreover, a voice is into all directions <br>Divided up, since off from one another <br>New voices are engendered, when one voice <br>Hath once leapt forth, outstarting into many- <br>As oft a spark of fire is wont to sprinkle <br>Itself into its several fires. And so, <br>Voices do fill those places hid behind, <br>Which all are in a hubbub round about, <br>Astir with sound. But idol-films do tend, <br>As once set forth, in straight directions all; <br>Wherefore one can inside a wall see naught, <br>Yet catch the voices from beyond the same. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Nor tongue and palate, whereby we flavour feel, <br>Present more problems for more work of thought. <br>Firstly, we feel a flavour in the mouth, <br>When forth we squeeze it, in chewing up our food,- <br>As any one perchance begins to squeeze <br>With hand and dry a sponge with water soaked. <br>Next, all which forth we squeeze is spread about <br>Along the pores and intertwined paths <br>Of the loose-textured tongue. And so, when smooth <br>The bodies of the oozy flavour, then <br>Delightfully they touch, delightfully <br>They treat all spots, around the wet and trickling <br>Enclosures of the tongue. And contrariwise, <br>They sting and pain the sense with their assault, <br>According as with roughness they're supplied. <br>Next, only up to palate is the pleasure <br>Coming from flavour; for in truth when down <br>'Thas plunged along the throat, no pleasure is, <br>Whilst into all the frame it spreads around; <br>Nor aught it matters with what food is fed <br>The body, if only what thou take thou canst <br>Distribute well digested to the frame <br>And keep the stomach in a moist career. <br>Now, how it is we see some food for some, <br>Others for others.... </div><div style="margin:10px 0">I will unfold, or wherefore what to some <br>Is foul and bitter, yet the same to others <br>Can seem delectable to eat,- why here <br>So great the distance and the difference is <br>That what is food to one to some becomes <br>Fierce poison, as a certain snake there is <br>Which, touched by spittle of a man, will waste <br>And end itself by gnawing up its coil. <br>Again, fierce poison is the hellebore <br>To us, but puts the fat on goats and quails. <br>That thou mayst know by what devices this <br>Is brought about, in chief thou must recall <br>What we have said before, that seeds are kept <br>Commixed in things in divers modes. Again, <br>As all the breathing creatures which take food <br>Are outwardly unlike, and outer cut <br>And contour of their members bounds them round, <br>Each differing kind by kind, they thus consist <br>Of seeds of varying shape. And furthermore, <br>Since seeds do differ, divers too must be <br>The interstices and paths (which we do call <br>The apertures) in all the members, even <br>In mouth and palate too. Thus some must be <br>More small or yet more large, three-cornered some <br>And others squared, and many others round, <br>And certain of them many-angled too <br>In many modes. For, as the combination <br>And motion of their divers shapes demand, <br>The shapes of apertures must be diverse <br>And paths must vary according to their walls <br>That bound them. Hence when what is sweet to some, <br>Becomes to others bitter, for him to whom <br>'Tis sweet, the smoothest particles must needs <br>Have entered caressingly the palate's pores. <br>And, contrariwise, with those to whom that sweet <br>Is sour within the mouth, beyond a doubt <br>The rough and barbed particles have got <br>Into the narrows of the apertures. <br>Now easy it is from these affairs to know <br>Whatever... </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Indeed, where one from o'er-abundant bile <br>Is stricken with fever, or in other wise <br>Feels the roused violence of some malady, <br>There the whole frame is now upset, and there <br>All the positions of the seeds are changed,- <br>So that the bodies which before were fit <br>To cause the savour, now are fit no more, <br>And now more apt are others which be able <br>To get within the pores and gender sour. <br>Both sorts, in sooth, are intermixed in honey- <br>What oft we've proved above to thee before. <br>Now come, and I will indicate what wise <br>Impact of odour on the nostrils touches. <br>And first, 'tis needful there be many things <br>From whence the streaming flow of varied odours <br>May roll along, and we're constrained to think <br>They stream and dart and sprinkle themselves about <br>Impartially. But for some breathing creatures <br>One odour is more apt, to others another- <br>Because of differing forms of seeds and pores. <br>Thus on and on along the zephyrs bees <br>Are led by odour of honey, vultures too <br>By carcasses. Again, the forward power <br>Of scent in dogs doth lead the hunter on <br>Whithersoever the splay-foot of wild beast <br>Hath hastened its career; and the white goose, <br>The saviour of the Roman citadel, <br>Forescents afar the odour of mankind. <br>Thus, diversely to divers ones is given <br>Peculiar smell that leadeth each along <br>To his own food or makes him start aback <br>From loathsome poison, and in this wise are <br>The generations of the wild preserved. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet is this pungence not alone in odours <br>Or in the class of flavours; but, likewise, <br>The look of things and hues agree not all <br>So well with senses unto all, but that <br>Some unto some will be, to gaze upon, <br>More keen and painful. Lo, the raving lions, <br>They dare not face and gaze upon the cock <br>Who's wont with wings to flap away the night <br>From off the stage, and call the beaming morn <br>With clarion voice- and lions straightway thus <br>Bethink themselves of flight, because, ye see, <br>Within the body of the cocks there be <br>Some certain seeds, which, into lions' eyes <br>Injected, bore into the pupils deep <br>And yield such piercing pain they can't hold out <br>Against the cocks, however fierce they be- <br>Whilst yet these seeds can't hurt our gaze the least, <br>Either because they do not penetrate, <br>Or since they have free exit from the eyes <br>As soon as penetrating, so that thus <br>They cannot hurt our eyes in any part <br>By there remaining. <br>To speak once more of odour; <br>Whatever assail the nostrils, some can travel <br>A longer way than others. None of them, <br>However, 's borne so far as sound or voice- <br>While I omit all mention of such things <br>As hit the eyesight and assail the vision. <br>For slowly on a wandering course it comes <br>And perishes sooner, by degrees absorbed <br>Easily into all the winds of air; <br>And first, because from deep inside the thing <br>It is discharged with labour (for the fact <br>That every object, when 'tis shivered, ground, <br>Or crumbled by the fire, will smell the stronger <br>Is sign that odours flow and part away <br>From inner regions of the things). And next, <br>Thou mayest see that odour is create <br>Of larger primal germs than voice, because <br>It enters not through stony walls, wherethrough <br>Unfailingly the voice and sound are borne; <br>Wherefore, besides, thou wilt observe 'tis not <br>So easy to trace out in whatso place <br>The smelling object is. For, dallying on <br>Along the winds, the particles cool off, <br>And then the scurrying messengers of things <br>Arrive our senses, when no longer hot. <br>So dogs oft wander astray, and hunt the scent. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now mark, and hear what objects move the mind, <br>And learn, in few, whence unto intellect <br>Do come what come. And first I tell thee this: <br>That many images of objects rove <br>In many modes to every region round- <br>So thin that easily the one with other, <br>When once they meet, uniteth in mid-air, <br>Like gossamer or gold-leaf. For, indeed, <br>Far thinner are they in their fabric than <br>Those images which take a hold on eyes <br>And smite the vision, since through body's pores <br>They penetrate, and inwardly stir up <br>The subtle nature of mind and smite the sense. <br>Thus, Centaurs and the limbs of Scyllas, thus <br>The Cerberus-visages of dogs we see, <br>And images of people gone before- <br>Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long ago; <br>Because the images of every kind <br>Are everywhere about us borne- in part <br>Those which are gendered in the very air <br>Of own accord, in part those others which <br>From divers things do part away, and those <br>Which are compounded, made from out their shapes. <br>For soothly from no living Centaur is <br>That phantom gendered, since no breed of beast <br>Like him was ever; but, when images <br>Of horse and man by chance have come together, <br>They easily cohere, as aforesaid, <br>At once, through subtle nature and fabric thin. <br>In the same fashion others of this ilk <br>Created are. And when they're quickly borne <br>In their exceeding lightness, easily <br>(As earlier I showed) one subtle image, <br>Compounded, moves by its one blow the mind, <br>Itself so subtle and so strangely quick. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">That these things come to pass as I record, <br>From this thou easily canst understand: <br>So far as one is unto other like, <br>Seeing with mind as well as with the eyes <br>Must come to pass in fashion not unlike. <br>Well, now, since I have shown that I perceive <br>Haply a lion through those idol-films <br>Such as assail my eyes, 'tis thine to know <br>Also the mind is in like manner moved, <br>And sees, nor more nor less than eyes do see <br>(Except that it perceives more subtle films) <br>The lion and aught else through idol-films. <br>And when the sleep has overset our frame, <br>The mind's intelligence is now awake, <br>Still for no other reason, save that these- <br>The self-same films as when we are awake- <br>Assail our minds, to such degree indeed <br>That we do seem to see for sure the man <br>Whom, void of life, now death and earth have gained <br>Dominion over. And Nature forces this <br>To come to pass because the body's senses <br>Are resting, thwarted through the members all, <br>Unable now to conquer false with true; <br>And memory lies prone and languishes <br>In slumber, nor protests that he, the man <br>Whom the mind feigns to see alive, long since <br>Hath been the gain of death and dissolution. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And further, 'tis no marvel idols move <br>And toss their arms and other members round <br>In rhythmic time- and often in men's sleeps <br>It haps an image this is seen to do; <br>In sooth, when perishes the former image, <br>And other is gendered of another pose, <br>That former seemeth to have changed its gestures. <br>Of course the change must be conceived as speedy; <br>So great the swiftness and so great the store <br>Of idol-things, and (in an instant brief <br>As mind can mark) so great, again, the store <br>Of separate idol-parts to bring supplies. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">It happens also that there is supplied <br>Sometimes an image not of kind the same; <br>But what before was woman, now at hand <br>Is seen to stand there, altered into male; <br>Or other visage, other age succeeds; <br>But slumber and oblivion take care <br>That we shall feel no wonder at the thing. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And much in these affairs demands inquiry, <br>And much, illumination- if we crave <br>With plainness to exhibit facts. And first, <br>Why doth the mind of one to whom the whim <br>To think has come behold forthwith that thing? <br>Or do the idols watch upon our will, <br>And doth an image unto us occur, <br>Directly we desire- if heart prefer <br>The sea, the land, or after all the sky? <br>Assemblies of the citizens, parades, <br>Banquets, and battles, these and all doth she, <br>Nature, create and furnish at our word? <br>Maugre the fact that in same place and spot <br>Another's mind is meditating things <br>All far unlike. And what, again, of this: <br>When we in sleep behold the idols step, <br>In measure, forward, moving supple limbs, <br>Whilst forth they put each supple arm in turn <br>With speedy motion, and with eyeing heads <br>Repeat the movement, as the foot keeps time? <br>Forsooth, the idols they are steeped in art, <br>And wander to and fro well taught indeed,- <br>Thus to be able in the time of night <br>To make such games! Or will the truth be this: <br>Because in one least moment that we mark- <br>That is, the uttering of a single sound- <br>There lurk yet many moments, which the reason <br>Discovers to exist, therefore it comes <br>That, in a moment how so brief ye will, <br>The divers idols are hard by, and ready <br>Each in its place diverse? So great the swiftness, <br>So great, again, the store of idol-things, <br>And so, when perishes the former image, <br>And other is gendered of another pose, <br>The former seemeth to have changed its gestures. <br>And since they be so tenuous, mind can mark <br>Sharply alone the ones it strains to see; <br>And thus the rest do perish one and all, <br>Save those for which the mind prepares itself. <br>Further, it doth prepare itself indeed, <br>And hopes to see what follows after each- <br>Hence this result. For hast thou not observed <br>How eyes, essaying to perceive the fine, <br>Will strain in preparation, otherwise <br>Unable sharply to perceive at all? <br>Yet know thou canst that, even in objects plain, <br>If thou attendest not, 'tis just the same <br>As if 'twere all the time removed and far. <br>What marvel, then, that mind doth lose the rest, <br>Save those to which 'thas given up itself? <br>So 'tis that we conjecture from small signs <br>Things wide and weighty, and involve ourselves <br>In snarls of self-deceit.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Lucretius">Lucretius</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=450295" data-title="Book IV - Part 03 - The Senses And Mental Pictures de Lucretius" data-description="Bodies that strike the eyes, awaking sight. 
From certain things flow odours evermore, 
As cold from rivers, heat from sun, and spray 
From waves of ocean, eater-out of walls 
Around the coasts. Nor ever cease to flit 
The varied voices, sounds at..."></div>
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