Some Vital Functions
In these affairsWe crave that thou wilt passionately fleeThe one offence, and anxiously wilt shunThe error of presuming the clear lightsOf eyes created were that we might see;Or thighs and knees, aprop upon the feet,Thuswise can bended be, that we might stepWith goodly strides ahead; or forearms joinedUnto the sturdy uppers, or serving handsOn either side were given, that we might doLife’s own demands. All such interpretationIs aft-for-fore with inverse reasoning,Since naught is born in body so that weMay use the same, but birth engenders use:No seeing ere the lights of eyes were born,No speaking ere the tongue created was;But origin of tongue came long beforeDiscourse of words, and ears created wereMuch earlier than any sound was heard;And all the members, so meseems, were thereBefore they got their use: and therefore, theyCould not be gendered for the sake of use.But contrariwise, contending in the fightWith hand to hand, and rending of the joints,And fouling of the limbs with gore, was there,O long before the gleaming spears ere flew;And nature prompted man to shun a wound,Before the left arm by the aid of artOpposed the shielding targe. And, verily,Yielding the weary body to repose,Far ancienter than cushions of soft beds,And quenching thirst is earlier than cups.These objects, therefore, which for use and lifeHave been devised, can be conceived as foundFor sake of using. But apart from suchAre all which first were born and afterwardsGave knowledge of their own utility—Chief in which sort we note the senses, limbs:Wherefore, again, ’tis quite beyond thy powerTo hold that these could thus have been createFor office of utility.
Likewise,’Tis nothing strange that all the breathing creaturesSeek, even by nature of their frame, their food.Yes, since I’ve taught thee that from off the thingsStream and depart innumerable bodiesIn modes innumerable too; but mostMust be the bodies streaming from the living—Which bodies, vexed by motion evermore,Are through the mouth exhaled innumerable,When weary creatures pant, or through the sweatSqueezed forth innumerable from deep within.Thus body rarefies, so underminedIn all its nature, and pain attends its state.And so the food is taken to underpropThe tottering joints, and by its interfusionTo re-create their powers, and there stop upThe longing, open-mouthed through limbs and veins,For eating. And the moist no less departsInto all regions that demand the moist;And many heaped-up particles of hot,Which cause such burnings in these bellies of ours,The liquid on arriving dissipatesAnd quenches like a fire, that parching heatNo longer now can scorch the frame. And so,Thou seest how panting thirst is washed awayFrom off our body, how the hunger-pangIt, too, appeased.
Now, how it comes that we,Whene’er we wish, can step with strides ahead,And how ’tis given to move our limbs about,And what device is wont to push aheadThis the big load of our corporeal frame,I’ll say to thee—do thou attend what’s said.I say that first some idol-films of walkingInto our mind do fall and smite the mind,As said before. Thereafter will arises;For no one starts to do a thing, beforeThe intellect previsions what it wills;And what it there pre-visioneth dependsOn what that image is. When, therefore, mindDoth so bestir itself that it doth willTo go and step along, it strikes at onceThat energy of soul that’s sown aboutIn all the body through the limbs and frame—And this is easy of performance, sinceThe soul is close conjoined with the mind.Next, soul in turn strikes body, and by degreesThus the whole mass is pushed along and moved.Then too the body rarefies, and air,Forsooth as ever of such nimbleness,Comes on and penetrates aboundinglyThrough opened pores, and thus is sprinkled roundUnto all smallest places in our frame.Thus then by these twain factors, severally,Body is borne like ship with oars and wind.Nor yet in these affairs is aught for wonderThat particles so fine can whirl aroundSo great a body and turn this weight of ours;For wind, so tenuous with its subtle body,Yet pushes, driving on the mighty shipOf mighty bulk; one hand directs the same,Whatever its momentum, and one helmWhirls it around, whither ye please; and loads,Many and huge, are moved and hoisted highBy enginery of pulley-blocks and wheels,With but light strain.
Now, by what modes this sleepPours through our members waters of reposeAnd frees the breast from cares of mind, I’ll tellIn verses sweeter than they many are;Even as the swan’s slight note is better farThan that dispersed clamour of the cranesAmong the southwind’s aery clouds. Do thouGive me sharp ears and a sagacious mind,—That thou mayst not deny the things to beWhereof I’m speaking, nor depart awayWith bosom scorning these the spoken truths,Thyself at fault unable to perceive.Sleep chiefly comes when energy of soulHath now been scattered through the frame, and partExpelled abroad and gone away, and partCrammed back and settling deep within the frame—Whereafter then our loosened members droop.For doubt is none that by the work of soulExist in us this sense, and when by slumberThat sense is thwarted, we are bound to thinkThe soul confounded and expelled abroad—Yet not entirely, else the frame would lieDrenched in the everlasting cold of death.In sooth, where no one part of soul remainedLurking among the members, even as fireLurks buried under many ashes, whenceCould sense amain rekindled be in members,As flame can rise anew from unseen fire?
By what devices this strange state and newMay be occasioned, and by what the soulCan be confounded and the frame grow faint,I will untangle: see to it, thou, that IPour forth my words not unto empty winds.In first place, body on its outer parts—Since these are touched by neighbouring aery gusts—Must there be thumped and strook by blows of airRepeatedly. And therefore almost allAre covered either with hides, or else with shells,Or with the horny callus, or with bark.Yet this same air lashes their inner parts,When creatures draw a breath or blow it out.Wherefore, since body thus is flogged alikeUpon the inside and the out, and blowsCome in upon us through the little poresEven inward to our body’s primal partsAnd primal elements, there comes to passBy slow degrees, along our members then,A kind of overthrow; for then confoundedAre those arrangements of the primal germsOf body and of mind. It comes to passThat next a part of soul’s expelled abroad,A part retreateth in recesses hid,A part, too, scattered all about the frame,Cannot become united nor engageIn interchange of motion. Nature nowSo hedges off approaches and the paths;And thus the sense, its motions all deranged,Retires down deep within; and since there’s naught,As ‘twere, to prop the frame, the body weakens,And all the members languish, and the armsAnd eyelids fall, and, as ye lie abed,Even there the houghs will sag and loose their powers.Again, sleep follows after food, becauseThe food produces same result as air,Whilst being scattered round through all the veins;And much the heaviest is that slumber which,Full or fatigued, thou takest; since ’tis thenThat the most bodies disarrange themselves,Bruised by labours hard. And in same wise,This three-fold change: a forcing of the soulDown deeper, more a casting-forth of it,A moving more divided in its partsAnd scattered more.
And to whate’er pursuitA man most clings absorbed, or what the affairsOn which we theretofore have tarried much,And mind hath strained upon the more, we seemIn sleep not rarely to go at the same.The lawyers seem to plead and cite decrees,Commanders they to fight and go at frays,Sailors to live in combat with the winds,And we ourselves indeed to make this book,And still to seek the nature of the worldAnd set it down, when once discovered, hereIn these my country’s leaves. Thus all pursuits,All arts in general seem in sleeps to mockAnd master the minds of men. And whosoeverDay after day for long to games have givenAttention undivided, still they keep(As oft we note), even when they’ve ceased to graspThose games with their own senses, open pathsWithin the mind wherethrough the idol-filmsOf just those games can come. And thus it isFor many a day thereafter those appearFloating before the eyes, that even awakeThey think they view the dancers moving roundTheir supple limbs, and catch with both the earsThe liquid song of harp and speaking chords,And view the same assembly on the seats,And manifold bright glories of the stage—So great the influence of pursuit and zest,And of the affairs wherein ‘thas been the wontOf men to be engaged-nor only men,But soothly all the animals. Behold,Thou’lt see the sturdy horses, though outstretched,Yet sweating in their sleep, and panting ever,And straining utmost strength, as if for prize,As if, with barriers opened now…And hounds of huntsmen oft in soft reposeYet toss asudden all their legs about,And growl and bark, and with their nostrils sniffThe winds again, again, as though indeedThey’d caught the scented foot-prints of wild beasts,And, even when wakened, often they pursueThe phantom images of stags, as thoughThey did perceive them fleeing on before,Until the illusion’s shaken off and dogsCome to themselves again. And fawning breedOf house-bred whelps do feel the sudden urgeTo shake their bodies and start from off the ground,As if beholding stranger-visages.And ever the fiercer be the stock, the moreIn sleep the same is ever bound to rage.But flee the divers tribes of birds and vexWith sudden wings by night the groves of gods,When in their gentle slumbers they have dreamedOf hawks in chase, aswooping on for fight.Again, the minds of mortals which performWith mighty motions mighty enterprises,Often in sleep will do and dare the sameIn manner like. Kings take the towns by storm,Succumb to capture, battle on the field,Raise a wild cry as if their throats were cutEven then and there. And many wrestle onAnd groan with pains, and fill all regions roundWith mighty cries and wild, as if then gnawedBy fangs of panther or of lion fierce.Many amid their slumbers talk aboutTheir mighty enterprises, and have oftenEnough become the proof of their own crimes.Many meet death; many, as if headlongFrom lofty mountains tumbling down to earthWith all their frame, are frenzied in their fright;And after sleep, as if still mad in mind,They scarce come to, confounded as they areBy ferment of their frame. The thirsty man,Likewise, he sits beside delightful springOr river and gulpeth down with gaping throatNigh the whole stream. And oft the innocent young,By sleep o’ermastered, think they lift their dressBy pail or public jordan and then voidThe water filtered down their frame entireAnd drench the Babylonian coverlets,Magnificently bright. Again, those malesInto the surging channels of whose yearsNow first has passed the seed (engenderedWithin their members by the ripened days)Are in their sleep confronted from withoutBy idol-images of some fair form—Tidings of glorious face and lovely bloom,Which stir and goad the regions turgid nowWith seed abundant; so that, as it wereWith all the matter acted duly out,They pour the billows of a potent streamAnd stain their garment.
And as said before,That seed is roused in us when once ripe ageHas made our body strong…As divers causes give to divers thingsImpulse and irritation, so one forceIn human kind rouses the human seedTo spurt from man. As soon as ever it issues,Forced from its first abodes, it passes downIn the whole body through the limbs and frame,Meeting in certain regions of our thews,And stirs amain the genitals of man.The goaded regions swell with seed, and thenComes the delight to dart the same at whatThe mad desire so yearns, and body seeksThat object, whence the mind by love is pierced.For well-nigh each man falleth toward his wound,And our blood spurts even toward the spot from whenceThe stroke wherewith we are strook, and if indeedThe foe be close, the red jet reaches him.Thus, one who gets a stroke from Venus’ shafts—Whether a boy with limbs effeminateAssault him, or a woman darting loveFrom all her body—that one strains to getEven to the thing whereby he’s hit, and longsTo join with it and cast into its frameThe fluid drawn even from within its own.For the mute craving doth presage delight.