So clear a torch aloft, who first shed light
Upon the profitable ends of man,
O thee I follow, glory of the Greeks,
And set my footsteps squarely planted now
Even in the impress and the marks of thine —
Less like one eager to dispute the palm,
More as one craving1 out of very love
That I may copy thee! — for how should swallow
Contend with swans or what compare could be
In a race between young kids with tumbling legs
And the strong might of the horse? Our father thou,
And finder-out of truth, and thou to us
Suppliest a father’s precepts3; and from out
Those scriven leaves of thine, renowned4 soul
(Like bees that sip5 of all in flowery wolds),
We feed upon thy golden sayings all —
Golden, and ever worthiest6 endless life.
For soon as ever thy planning thought that sprang
From god-like mind begins its loud proclaim
Of nature’s courses, terrors of the brain
Asunder8 flee, the ramparts of the world
Dispart away, and through the void entire
I see the movements of the universe.
Rises to vision the majesty10 of gods,
And their abodes11 of everlasting12 calm
Which neither wind may shake nor rain-cloud splash,
Nor snow, congealed14 by sharp frosts, may harm
With its white downfall: ever, unclouded sky
O’er roofs, and laughs with far-diffused16 light.
And nature gives to them their all, nor aught
May ever pluck their peace of mind away.
But nowhere to my vision rise no more
The vaults17 of Acheron, though the broad earth
Bars me no more from gazing down o’er all
Which under our feet is going on below
Along the void. O, here in these affairs
Some new divine delight and trembling awe18
Takes hold through me, that thus by power of thine
Nature, so plain and manifest at last,
Hath been on every side laid bare to man!
And since I’ve taught already of what sort
The seeds of all things are, and how, distinct
In divers19 forms, they flit of own accord,
Stirred with a motion everlasting on,
And in what mode things be from them create,
Now, after such matters, should my verse, meseems,
Make clear the nature of the mind and soul,
And drive that dread20 of Acheron without,
Headlong, which so confounds our human life
Unto its deeps, pouring o’er all that is
The black of death, nor leaves not anything
To prosper21 — a liquid and unsullied joy.
For as to what men sometimes will affirm:
That more than Tartarus (the realm of death)
They fear diseases and a life of shame,
And know the substance of the soul is blood,
Or rather wind (if haply thus their whim),
And so need naught23 of this our science, then
Thou well may’st note from what’s to follow now
That more for glory do they braggart24 forth25
Than for belief. For mark these very same:
Exiles from country, fugitives26 afar
From sight of men, with charges foul27 attaint,
Abased29 with every wretchedness, they yet
Live, and where’er the wretches31 come, they yet
Make the ancestral sacrifices there,
Butcher the black sheep, and to gods below
Offer the honours, and in bitter case
Turn much more keenly to religion.
Wherefore, it’s surer testing of a man
In doubtful perils32 — mark him as he is
Amid adversities; for then alone
Are the true voices conjured34 from his breast,
The mask off-stripped, reality behind.
And greed, again, and the blind lust36 of honours
Which force poor wretches past the bounds of law,
And, oft allies and ministers of crime,
To push through nights and days with hugest toil37
To rise untrammelled to the peaks of power —
These wounds of life in no mean part are kept
Festering and open by this fright of death.
For ever we see fierce Want and foul Disgrace
Dislodged afar from secure life and sweet,
Like huddling38 Shapes before the doors of death.
And whilst, from these, men wish to scape afar,
Driven by false terror, and afar remove,
With civic39 blood a fortune they amass40,
They double their riches, greedy, heapers-up
Of corpse41 on corpse they have a cruel laugh
For the sad burial of a brother-born,
And hatred42 and fear of tables of their kin43.
Likewise, through this same terror, envy oft
Makes them to peak because before their eyes
That man is lordly, that man gazed upon
Who walks begirt with honour glorious,
Whilst they in filth44 and darkness roll around;
Some perish away for statues and a name,
And oft to that degree, from fright of death,
Will hate of living and beholding45 light
Take hold on humankind that they inflict47
Their own destruction with a gloomy heart —
Forgetful that this fear is font of cares,
This fear the plague upon their sense of shame,
And this that breaks the ties of comradry
And oversets all reverence48 and faith,
Mid33 direst slaughter50. For long ere to-day
Often were traitors51 to country and dear parents
Through quest to shun52 the realms of Acheron.
For just as children tremble and fear all
In the viewless dark, so even we at times
Dread in the light so many things that be
No whit15 more fearsome than what children feign53,
Shuddering55, will be upon them in the dark.
This terror, then, this darkness of the mind,
Not sunrise with its flaring56 spokes57 of light,
Nor glittering arrows of morning sun disperse58,
But only nature’s aspect and her law.
Nature and Composition of the Mind
First, then, I say, the mind which oft we call
The intellect, wherein is seated life’s
Counsel and regimen, is part no less
Of man than hand and foot and eyes are parts
Of one whole breathing creature. [But some hold]
That sense of mind is in no fixed59 part seated,
But is of body some one vital state —
Named “harmony” by Greeks, because thereby60
We live with sense, though intellect be not
In any part: as oft the body is said
To have good health (when health, however, ‘s not
One part of him who has it), so they place
The sense of mind in no fixed part of man.
Mightily61, diversly, meseems they err7.
Often the body palpable and seen
Sickens, while yet in some invisible part
We feel a pleasure; oft the other way,
A miserable62 in mind feels pleasure still
Throughout his body — quite the same as when
A foot may pain without a pain in head.
Besides, when these our limbs are given o’er
To gentle sleep and lies the burdened frame
At random63 void of sense, a something else
Is yet within us, which upon that time
Bestirs itself in many a wise, receiving
All motions of joy and phantom64 cares of heart.
Now, for to see that in man’s members dwells
Also the soul, and body ne’er is wont65
To feel sensation by a “harmony”
Take this in chief: the fact that life remains66
Oft in our limbs, when much of body’s gone;
Yet that same life, when particles of heat,
Though few, have scattered68 been, and through the mouth
Air has been given forth abroad, forthwith
Forever deserts the veins69, and leaves the bones.
Thus mayst thou know that not all particles
Perform like parts, nor in like manner all
Are props70 of weal and safety: rather those —
The seeds of wind and exhalations warm —
Take care that in our members life remains.
Therefore a vital heat and wind there is
Within the very body, which at death
Deserts our frames. And so, since nature of mind
And even of soul is found to be, as ’twere,
A part of man, give over “harmony”—
Name to musicians brought from Helicon —
Unless themselves they filched71 it otherwise,
To serve for what was lacking name till then.
Whate’er it be, they’re welcome to it — thou,
Hearken my other maxims72.
Mind and soul,
I say, are held conjoined one with other,
And form one single nature of themselves;
But chief and regnant through the frame entire
Is still that counsel which we call the mind,
And that cleaves73 seated in the midmost breast.
Here leap dismay and terror; round these haunts
Be blandishments of joys; and therefore here
The intellect, the mind. The rest of soul,
Throughout the body scattered, but obeys —
Moved by the nod and motion of the mind.
This, for itself, sole through itself, hath thought;
This for itself hath mirth, even when the thing
That moves it, moves nor soul nor body at all.
And as, when head or eye in us is smit
By assailing75 pain, we are not tortured then
Through all the body, so the mind alone
Is sometimes smitten77, or livens with a joy,
Whilst yet the soul’s remainder through the limbs
And through the frame is stirred by nothing new.
But when the mind is moved by shock more fierce,
We mark the whole soul suffering all at once
Along man’s members: sweats and pallors spread
Over the body, and the tongue is broken,
And fails the voice away, and ring the ears,
Mists blind the eyeballs, and the joints78 collapse80 —
Aye, men drop dead from terror of the mind.
Hence, whoso will can readily remark
That soul conjoined is with mind, and, when
’Tis strook by influence of the mind, forthwith
In turn it hits and drives the body too.
And this same argument establisheth
That nature of mind and soul corporeal81 is:
For when ’tis seen to drive the members on,
To snatch from sleep the body, and to change
The countenance82, and the whole state of man
To rule and turn — what yet could never be
Sans contact, and sans body contact fails —
Must we not grant that mind and soul consist
Of a corporeal nature? — And besides
Thou markst that likewise with this body of ours
Suffers the mind and with our body feels.
If the dire49 speed of spear that cleaves the bones
And bares the inner thews hits not the life,
Yet follows a fainting and a foul collapse,
And, on the ground, dazed tumult84 in the mind,
And whiles a wavering will to rise afoot.
So nature of mind must be corporeal, since
From stroke and spear corporeal ’tis in throes.
Now, of what body, what components86 formed
Is this same mind I will go on to tell.
First, I aver85, ’tis superfine, composed
Of tiniest particles — that such the fact
Thou canst perceive, if thou attend, from this:
Nothing is seen to happen with such speed
As what the mind proposes and begins;
Therefore the same bestirs itself more swiftly
Than aught whose nature’s palpable to eyes.
But what’s so agile87 must of seeds consist
Most round, most tiny, that they may be moved,
When hit by impulse slight. So water moves,
In waves along, at impulse just the least —
Being create of little shapes that roll;
But, contrariwise, the quality of honey
More stable is, its liquids more inert88,
More tardy89 its flow; for all its stock of matter
Cleaves more together, since, indeed, ’tis made
Of atoms not so smooth, so fine, and round.
For the light breeze that hovers90 yet can blow
High heaps of poppy-seed away for thee
Downward from off the top; but, contrariwise,
A pile of stones or spiny91 ears of wheat
It can’t at all. Thus, in so far as bodies
Are small and smooth, is their mobility92;
But, contrariwise, the heavier and more rough,
The more immovable they prove. Now, then,
Since nature of mind is movable so much,
Consist it must of seeds exceeding small
And smooth and round. Which fact once known to thee,
Good friend, will serve thee opportune93 in else.
This also shows the nature of the same,
How nice its texture94, in how small a space
‘Twould go, if once compacted as a pellet:
When death’s unvexed repose95 gets hold on man
And mind and soul retire, thou markest there
From the whole body nothing ta’en in form,
Nothing in weight. Death grants ye everything,
But vital sense and exhalation hot.
Thus soul entire must be of smallmost seeds,
Twined through the veins, the vitals, and the thews,
Seeing that, when ’tis from whole body gone,
The outward figuration of the limbs
Is unimpaired and weight fails not a whit.
Just so, when vanished the bouquet96 of wine,
Or when an unguent’s perfume delicate
Into the winds away departs, or when
From any body savour’s gone, yet still
The thing itself seems minished naught to eyes,
Thereby, nor aught abstracted from its weight —
No marvel97, because seeds many and minute
Produce the savours and the redolence
In the whole body of the things. And so,
Again, again, nature of mind and soul
’Tis thine to know created is of seeds
The tiniest ever, since at flying-forth
It beareth nothing of the weight away.
Yet fancy not its nature simple so.
For an impalpable aura, mixed with heat,
Deserts the dying, and heat draws off the air;
And heat there’s none, unless commixed with air:
For, since the nature of all heat is rare,
Athrough it many seeds of air must move.
Thus nature of mind is triple; yet those all
Suffice not for creating sense — since mind
Accepteth not that aught of these can cause
Sense-bearing motions, and much less the thoughts
A man revolves98 in mind. So unto these
Must added be a somewhat, and a fourth;
That somewhat’s altogether void of name;
Than which existeth naught more mobile, naught
More an impalpable, of elements
More small and smooth and round. That first transmits
Sense-bearing motions through the frame, for that
Is roused the first, composed of little shapes;
Thence heat and viewless force of wind take up
The motions, and thence air, and thence all things
Are put in motion; the blood is strook, and then
The vitals all begin to feel, and last
To bones and marrow99 the sensation comes —
Pleasure or torment100. Nor will pain for naught
Enter so far, nor a sharp ill seep101 through,
But all things be perturbed102 to that degree
That room for life will fail, and parts of soul
Will scatter67 through the body’s every pore.
Yet as a rule, almost upon the skin
These motion aIl76 are stopped, and this is why
We have the power to retain our life.
Now in my eagerness to tell thee how
They are commixed, through what unions fit
They function so, my country’s pauper-speech
Constrains103 me sadly. As I can, however,
I’ll touch some points and pass. In such a wise
Course these primordials ‘mongst one another
With inter-motions that no one can be
From other sundered105, nor its agency
Perform, if once divided by a space;
Like many powers in one body they work.
As in the flesh of any creature still
Is odour and savour and a certain warmth,
And yet from all of these one bulk of body
Is made complete, so, viewless force of wind
And warmth and air, commingled106, do create
One nature, by that mobile energy
Assisted which from out itself to them
Imparts initial motion, whereby first
Sense-bearing motion along the vitals springs.
For lurks107 this essence far and deep and under,
Nor in our body is aught more shut from view,
And ’tis the very soul of all the soul.
And as within our members and whole frame
The energy of mind and power of soul
Is mixed and latent, since create it is
Of bodies small and few, so lurks this fourth,
This essence void of name, composed of small,
And seems the very soul of all the soul,
And holds dominion108 o’er the body all.
And by like reason wind and air and heat
Must function so, commingled through the frame,
And now the one subside109 and now another
In interchange of dominance, that thus
From all of them one nature be produced,
Lest heat and wind apart, and air apart,
Make sense to perish, by disseverment.
There is indeed in mind that heat it gets
When seething110 in rage, and flashes from the eyes
More swiftly fire; there is, again, that wind,
Much, and so cold, companion of all dread,
Which rouses the shudder54 in the shaken frame;
There is no less that state of air composed,
Making the tranquil111 breast, the serene112 face.
But more of hot have they whose restive113 hearts,
Whose minds of passion quickly seethe114 in rage —
Of which kind chief are fierce abounding115 lions,
Who often with roaring burst the breast o’erwrought,
Unable to hold the surging wrath116 within;
But the cold mind of stags has more of wind,
And speedier through their inwards rouses up
The icy currents which make their members quake.
But more the oxen live by tranquil air,
Nor e’er doth smoky torch of wrath applied117,
O’erspreading with shadows of a darkling murk,
Rouse them too far; nor will they stiffen118 stark119,
Pierced through by icy javelins120 of fear;
But have their place half-way between the two —
Stags and fierce lions. Thus the race of men:
Though training make them equally refined,
It leaves those pristine121 vestiges122 behind
Of each mind’s nature. Nor may we suppose
Evil can e’er be rooted up so far
That one man’s not more given to fits of wrath,
Another’s not more quickly touched by fear,
A third not more long-suffering than he should.
And needs must differ in many things besides
The varied123 natures and resulting habits
Of humankind — of which not now can I
Expound124 the hidden causes, nor find names
Enough for all the divers shapes of those
Primordials whence this variation springs.
But this meseems I’m able to declare:
Those vestiges of natures left behind
Which reason cannot quite expel from us
Are still so slight that naught prevents a man
From living a life even worthy125 of the gods.
So then this soul is kept by all the body,
Itself the body’s guard, and source of weal:
For they with common roots cleave74 each to each,
Nor can be torn asunder without death.
Not easy ’tis from lumps of frankincense
To tear their fragrance126 forth, without its nature
Perishing likewise: so, not easy ’tis
From all the body nature of mind and soul
To draw away, without the whole dissolved.
With seeds so intertwined even from birth,
They’re dowered conjointly with a partner-life;
No energy of body or mind, apart,
Each of itself without the other’s power,
Can have sensation; but our sense, enkindled
Along the vitals, to flame is blown by both
With mutual127 motions. Besides the body alone
Is nor begot128 nor grows, nor after death
Seen to endure. For not as water at times
Gives off the alien heat, nor is thereby
Itself destroyed, but unimpaired remains —
Not thus, I say, can the deserted129 frame
Bear the dissevering of its joined soul,
But, rent and ruined, moulders130 all away.
Thus the joint79 contact of the body and soul
Learns from their earliest age the vital motions,
Even when still buried in the mother’s womb;
So no dissevering can hap22 to them,
Without their bane and ill. And thence mayst see
That, as conjoined is their source of weal,
Conjoined also must their nature be.
If one, moreover, denies that body feel,
And holds that soul, through all the body mixed,
Takes on this motion which we title “sense,”
He battles in vain indubitable facts:
For who’ll explain what body’s feeling is,
Except by what the public fact itself
Has given and taught us? “But when soul is parted,
Body’s without all sense.” True! — loses what
Was even in its life-time not its own;
And much beside it loses, when soul’s driven
Forth from that life-time. Or, to say that eyes
Themselves can see no thing, but through the same
The mind looks forth, as out of opened doors,
Is — a hard saying; since the feel in eyes
Says the reverse. For this itself draws on
And forces into the pupils of our eyes
Our consciousness. And note the case when often
We lack the power to see refulgent131 things,
Because our eyes are hampered132 by their light —
With a mere133 doorway134 this would happen not;
For, since it is our very selves that see,
No open portals undertake the toil.
Besides, if eyes of ours but act as doors,
Methinks that, were our sight removed, the mind
Ought then still better to behold46 a thing —
When even the door-posts have been cleared away.
Herein in these affairs nowise take up
What honoured sage135, Democritus, lays down —
That proposition, that primordials
Of body and mind, each super-posed on each,
Vary alternately and interweave
The fabric136 of our members. For not only
Are the soul-elements smaller far than those
Which this our body and inward parts compose,
But also are they in their number less,
And scattered sparsely137 through our frame. And thus
This canst thou guarantee: soul’s primal138 germs
Maintain between them intervals139 as large
At least as are the smallest bodies, which,
When thrown against us, in our body rouse
Sense-bearing motions. Hence it comes that we
Sometimes don’t feel alighting on our frames
The clinging dust, or chalk that settles soft;
Nor mists of night, nor spider’s gossamer140
We feel against us, when, upon our road,
Its net entangles141 us, nor on our head
The dropping of its withered143 garmentings;
Nor bird-feathers, nor vegetable down,
Flying about, so light they barely fall;
Nor feel the steps of every crawling thing,
Nor each of all those footprints on our skin
Of midges and the like. To that degree
Must many primal germs be stirred in us
Ere once the seeds of soul that through our frame
Are intermingled ‘gin to feel that those
Primordials of the body have been strook,
And ere, in pounding with such gaps between,
They clash, combine and leap apart in turn.
But mind is more the keeper of the gates,
Hath more dominion over life than soul.
For without intellect and mind there’s not
One part of soul can rest within our frame
Least part of time; companioning, it goes
With mind into the winds away, and leaves
The icy members in the cold of death.
But he whose mind and intellect abide144
Himself abides145 in life. However much
The trunk be mangled146, with the limbs lopped off,
The soul withdrawn147 and taken from the limbs,
Still lives the trunk and draws the vital air.
Even when deprived of all but all the soul,
Yet will it linger on and cleave to life —
Just as the power of vision still is strong,
If but the pupil shall abide unharmed,
Even when the eye around it’s sorely rent —
Provided only thou destroyest not
Wholly the ball, but, cutting round the pupil,
Leavest that pupil by itself behind —
For more would ruin sight. But if that centre,
That tiny part of eye, be eaten through,
Forthwith the vision fails and darkness comes,
Though in all else the unblemished ball be clear.
’Tis by like compact that the soul and mind
Are each to other bound forevermore.
The Soul is Mortal
Now come: that thou mayst able be to know
That minds and the light souls of all that live
Have mortal birth and death, I will go on
Verses to build meet for thy rule of life,
Sought after long, discovered with sweet toil.
But under one name I’d have thee yoke148 them both;
And when, for instance, I shall speak of soul,
Teaching the same to be but mortal, think
Thereby I’m speaking also of the mind —
Since both are one, a substance inter-joined.
First, then, since I have taught how soul exists
A subtle fabric, of particles minute,
Made up from atoms smaller much than those
Of water’s liquid damp, or fog, or smoke,
So in mobility it far excels,
More prone149 to move, though strook by lighter150 cause
Even moved by images of smoke or fog —
As where we view, when in our sleeps we’re lulled151,
The altars exhaling152 steam and smoke aloft —
For, beyond doubt, these apparitions153 come
To us from outward. Now, then, since thou seest,
Their liquids depart, their waters flow away,
When jars are shivered, and since fog and smoke
Depart into the winds away, believe
The soul no less is shed abroad and dies
More quickly far, more quickly is dissolved
Back to its primal bodies, when withdrawn
From out man’s members it has gone away.
For, sure, if body (container of the same
Like as a jar), when shivered from some cause,
And rarefied by loss of blood from veins,
Cannot for longer hold the soul, how then
Thinkst thou it can be held by any air —
A stuff much rarer than our bodies be?
Besides we feel that mind to being comes
Along with body, with body grows and ages.
For just as children totter154 round about
With frames infirm and tender, so there follows
A weakling wisdom in their minds; and then,
Where years have ripened155 into robust156 powers,
Counsel is also greater, more increased
The power of mind; thereafter, where already
The body’s shattered by master-powers of eld,
And fallen the frame with its enfeebled powers,
Thought hobbles, tongue wanders, and the mind gives way;
All fails, all’s lacking at the selfsame time.
Therefore it suits that even the soul’s dissolved,
Like smoke, into the lofty winds of air;
Since we behold the same to being come
Along with body and grow, and, as I’ve taught,
Crumble157 and crack, therewith outworn by eld.
Then, too, we see, that, just as body takes
Monstrous158 diseases and the dreadful pain,
So mind its bitter cares, the grief, the fear;
Wherefore it tallies159 that the mind no less
Partaker is of death; for pain and disease
Are both artificers of death — as well
We’ve learned by the passing of many a man ere now.
Nay160, too, in diseases of body, often the mind
Wanders afield; for ’tis beside itself,
And crazed it speaks, or many a time it sinks,
With eyelids161 closing and a drooping162 nod,
In heavy drowse, on to eternal sleep;
From whence nor hears it any voices more,
Nor able is to know the faces here
Of those about him standing163 with wet cheeks
Who vainly call him back to light and life.
Wherefore mind too, confess we must, dissolves,
Seeing, indeed, contagions164 of disease
Enter into the same. Again, O why,
When the strong wine has entered into man,
And its diffused fire gone round the veins,
Why follows then a heaviness of limbs,
A tangle142 of the legs as round he reels,
A stuttering tongue, an intellect besoaked,
Eyes all aswim, and hiccups165, shouts, and brawls166,
And whatso else is of that ilk? — Why this? —
If not that violent and impetuous wine
Is wont to confound the soul within the body?
But whatso can confounded be and balked167,
Gives proof, that if a hardier168 cause got in,
‘Twould hap that it would perish then, bereaved169
Of any life thereafter. And, moreover,
Often will some one in a sudden fit,
As if by stroke of lightning, tumble down
Before our eyes, and sputter170 foam171, and grunt172,
Blither, and twist about with sinews taut173,
Gasp174 up in starts, and weary out his limbs
With tossing round. No marvel, since distract
Through frame by violence of disease.
. . . . . .
Confounds, he foams175, as if to vomit176 soul,
As on the salt sea boil the billows round
Under the master might of winds. And now
A groan’s forced out, because his limbs are griped,
But, in the main, because the seeds of voice
Are driven forth and carried in a mass
Outwards177 by mouth, where they are wont to go,
And have a builded highway. He becomes
Mere fool, since energy of mind and soul
Confounded is, and, as I’ve shown, to-riven,
Asunder thrown, and torn to pieces all
By the same venom178. But, again, where cause
Of that disease has faced about, and back
Retreats sharp poison of corrupted179 frame
Into its shadowy lairs180, the man at first
Arises reeling, and gradually comes back
To all his senses and recovers soul.
Thus, since within the body itself of man
The mind and soul are by such great diseases
Shaken, so miserably181 in labour distraught,
Why, then, believe that in the open air,
Without a body, they can pass their life,
Immortal182, battling with the master winds?
And, since we mark the mind itself is cured,
Like the sick body, and restored can be
By medicine, this is forewarning too
That mortal lives the mind. For proper it is
That whosoe’er begins and undertakes
To alter the mind, or meditates183 to change
Any another nature soever, should add
New parts, or readjust the order given,
Or from the sum remove at least a bit.
But what’s immortal willeth for itself
Its parts be nor increased, nor rearranged,
Nor any bit soever flow away:
For change of anything from out its bounds
Means instant death of that which was before.
Ergo, the mind, whether in sickness fallen,
Or by the medicine restored, gives signs,
As I have taught, of its mortality.
So surely will a fact of truth make head
‘Gainst errors’ theories all, and so shut off
All refuge from the adversary184, and rout185
Error by two-edged confutation.
And since the mind is of a man one part,
Which in one fixed place remains, like ears,
And eyes, and every sense which pilots life;
And just as hand, or eye, or nose, apart,
Severed186 from us, can neither feel nor be,
But in the least of time is left to rot,
Thus mind alone can never be, without
The body and the man himself, which seems,
As ’twere the vessel187 of the same — or aught
Whate’er thou’lt feign as yet more closely joined:
Since body cleaves to mind by surest bonds.
Again, the body’s and the mind’s live powers
Only in union prosper and enjoy;
For neither can nature of mind, alone of self
Sans body, give the vital motions forth;
Nor, then, can body, wanting soul, endure
And use the senses. Verily, as the eye,
Alone, up-rended from its roots, apart
From all the body, can peer about at naught,
So soul and mind it seems are nothing able,
When by themselves. No marvel, because, commixed
Through veins and inwards, and through bones and thews,
Their elements primordial104 are confined
By all the body, and own no power free
To bound around through interspaces big,
Thus, shut within these confines, they take on
Motions of sense, which, after death, thrown out
Beyond the body to the winds of air,
Take on they cannot — and on this account,
Because no more in such a way confined.
For air will be a body, be alive,
If in that air the soul can keep itself,
And in that air enclose those motions all
Which in the thews and in the body itself
A while ago ’twas making. So for this,
Again, again, I say confess we must,
That, when the body’s wrappings are unwound,
And when the vital breath is forced without,
The soul, the senses of the mind dissolve —
Since for the twain the cause and ground of life
Is in the fact of their conjoined estate.
Once more, since body’s unable to sustain
Division from the soul, without decay
And obscene stench, how canst thou doubt but that
The soul, uprisen from the body’s deeps,
Has filtered away, wide-drifted like a smoke,
Or that the changed body crumbling189 fell
With ruin so entire, because, indeed,
Its deep foundations have been moved from place,
The soul out-filtering even through the frame,
And through the body’s every winding190 way
And orifice? And so by many means
Thou’rt free to learn that nature of the soul
Hath passed in fragments out along the frame,
And that ’twas shivered in the very body
Ere ever it slipped abroad and swam away
Into the winds of air. For never a man
Dying appears to feel the soul go forth
As one sure whole from all his body at once,
Nor first come up the throat and into mouth;
But feels it failing in a certain spot,
Even as he knows the senses too dissolve
Each in its own location in the frame.
But were this mind of ours immortal mind,
Dying ‘twould scarce bewail a dissolution,
But rather the going, the leaving of its coat,
Like to a snake. Wherefore, when once the body
Hath passed away, admit we must that soul,
Shivered in all that body, perished too.
Nay, even when moving in the bounds of life,
Often the soul, now tottering191 from some cause,
Craves192 to go out, and from the frame entire
Loosened to be; the countenance becomes
Flaccid, as if the supreme193 hour were there;
And flabbily collapse the members all
Against the bloodless trunk — the kind of case
We see when we remark in common phrase,
“That man’s quite gone,” or “fainted dead away”;
And where there’s now a bustle194 of alarm,
And all are eager to get some hold upon
The man’s last link of life. For then the mind
And all the power of soul are shook so sore,
And these so totter along with all the frame,
That any cause a little stronger might
Dissolve them altogether. — Why, then, doubt
That soul, when once without the body thrust,
There in the open, an enfeebled thing,
Its wrappings stripped away, cannot endure
Not only through no everlasting age,
But even, indeed, through not the least of time?
Then, too, why never is the intellect,
The counselling mind, begotten195 in the head,
The feet, the hands, instead of cleaving196 still
To one sole seat, to one fixed haunt, the breast,
If not that fixed places be assigned
For each thing’s birth, where each, when ’tis create,
Is able to endure, and that our frames
Have such complex adjustments that no shift
In order of our members may appear?
To that degree effect succeeds to cause,
Nor is the flame once wont to be create
In flowing streams, nor cold begot in fire.
Besides, if nature of soul immortal be,
And able to feel, when from our frame disjoined,
The same, I fancy, must be thought to be
Endowed with senses five — nor is there way
But this whereby to image to ourselves
How under-souls may roam in Acheron.
Thus painters and the elder race of bards197
Have pictured souls with senses so endowed.
But neither eyes, nor nose, nor hand, alone
Apart from body can exist for soul,
Nor tongue nor ears apart. And hence indeed
Alone by self they can nor feel nor be.
And since we mark the vital sense to be
In the whole body, all one living thing,
If of a sudden a force with rapid stroke
Should slice it down the middle and cleave in twain,
Beyond a doubt likewise the soul itself,
Divided, dissevered, asunder will be flung
Along with body. But what severed is
And into sundry198 parts divides, indeed
Admits it owns no everlasting nature.
We hear how chariots of war, areek
With hurly slaughter, lop with flashing scythes200
The limbs away so suddenly that there,
Fallen from the trunk, they quiver on the earth,
The while the mind and powers of the man
Can feel no pain, for swiftness of his hurt,
And sheer abandon in the zest201 of battle:
With the remainder of his frame he seeks
Anew the battle and the slaughter, nor marks
How the swift wheels and scythes of ravin have dragged
Off with the horses his left arm and shield;
Nor other how his right has dropped away,
Mounting again and on. A third attempts
With leg dismembered to arise and stand,
Whilst, on the ground hard by, the dying foot
Twitches202 its spreading toes. And even the head,
When from the warm and living trunk lopped off,
Keeps on the ground the vital countenance
And open eyes, until ‘t has rendered up
All remnants of the soul. Nay, once again:
If, when a serpent’s darting203 forth its tongue,
And lashing199 its tail, thou gettest chance to hew83
With axe204 its length of trunk to many parts,
Thou’lt see each severed fragment writhing205 round
With its fresh wound, and spattering up the sod,
And there the fore-part seeking with the jaws206
After the hinder, with bite to stop the pain.
So shall we say that these be souls entire
In all those fractions? — but from that ‘twould follow
One creature’d have in body many souls.
Therefore, the soul, which was indeed but one,
Has been divided with the body too:
Each is but mortal, since alike is each
Hewn into many parts. Again, how often
We view our fellow going by degrees,
And losing limb by limb the vital sense;
First nails and fingers of the feet turn blue,
Next die the feet and legs, then o’er the rest
Slow crawl the certain footsteps of cold death.
And since this nature of the soul is torn,
Nor mounts away, as at one time, entire,
We needs must hold it mortal. But perchance
If thou supposest that the soul itself
Can inward draw along the frame, and bring
Its parts together to one place, and so
From all the members draw the sense away,
Why, then, that place in which such stock of soul
Collected is, should greater seem in sense.
But since such place is nowhere, for a fact,
As said before, ’tis rent and scattered forth,
And so goes under. Or again, if now
I please to grant the false, and say that soul
Can thus be lumped within the frames of those
Who leave the sunshine, dying bit by bit,
Still must the soul as mortal be confessed;
Nor aught it matters whether to wrack208 it go,
Dispersed209 in the winds, or, gathered in a mass
From all its parts, sink down to brutish death,
Since more and more in every region sense
Fails the whole man, and less and less of life
In every region lingers.
And besides,
If soul immortal is, and winds its way
Into the body at the birth of man,
Why can we not remember something, then,
Of life-time spent before? why keep we not
Some footprints of the things we did of, old?
But if so changed hath been the power of mind,
That every recollection of things done
Is fallen away, at no o’erlong remove
Is that, I trow, from what we mean by death.
Wherefore ’tis sure that what hath been before
Hath died, and what now is is now create.
Moreover, if after the body hath been built
Our mind’s live powers are wont to be put in,
Just at the moment that we come to birth,
And cross the sills of life, ‘twould scarcely fit
For them to live as if they seemed to grow
Along with limbs and frame, even in the blood,
But rather as in a cavern210 all alone.
(Yet all the body duly throngs211 with sense.)
But public fact declares against all this:
For soul is so entwined through the veins,
The flesh, the thews, the bones, that even the teeth
Share in sensation, as proven by dull ache,
By twinge from icy water, or grating crunch213
Upon a stone that got in mouth with bread.
Wherefore, again, again, souls must be thought
Nor void of birth, nor free from law of death;
Nor, if, from outward, in they wound their way,
Could they be thought as able so to cleave
To these our frames, nor, since so interwove,
Appears it that they’re able to go forth
Unhurt and whole and loose themselves unscathed
From all the thews, articulations, bones.
But, if perchance thou thinkest that the soul,
From outward winding in its way, is wont
To seep and soak along these members ours,
Then all the more ’twill perish, being thus
With body fused — for what will seep and soak
Will be dissolved and will therefore die.
For just as food, dispersed through all the pores
Of body, and passed through limbs and all the frame,
Perishes, supplying from itself the stuff
For other nature, thus the soul and mind,
Though whole and new into a body going,
Are yet, by seeping214 in, dissolved away,
Whilst, as through pores, to all the frame there pass
Those particles from which created is
This nature of mind, now ruler of our body,
Born from that soul which perished, when divided
Along the frame. Wherefore it seems that soul
Hath both a natal215 and funeral hour.
Besides are seeds of soul there left behind
In the breathless body, or not? If there they are,
It cannot justly be immortal deemed,
Since, shorn of some parts lost, ‘thas gone away:
But if, borne off with members uncorrupt,
‘Thas fled so absolutely all away
It leaves not one remainder of itself
Behind in body, whence do cadavers216, then,
From out their putrid217 flesh exhale218 the worms,
And whence does such a mass of living things,
Boneless and bloodless, o’er the bloated frame
Bubble and swarm219? But if perchance thou thinkest
That souls from outward into worms can wind,
And each into a separate body come,
And reckonest not why many thousand souls
Collect where only one has gone away,
Here is a point, in sooth, that seems to need
Inquiry220 and a putting to the test:
Whether the souls go on a hunt for seeds
Of worms wherewith to build their dwelling221 places,
Or enter bodies ready-made, as ’twere.
But why themselves they thus should do and toil
’Tis hard to say, since, being free of body,
They flit around, harassed222 by no disease,
Nor cold nor famine; for the body labours
By more of kinship to these flaws of life,
And mind by contact with that body suffers
So many ills. But grant it be for them
However useful to construct a body
To which to enter in, ’tis plain they can’t.
Then, souls for self no frames nor bodies make,
Nor is there how they once might enter in
To bodies ready-made — for they cannot
Be nicely interwoven with the same,
And there’ll be formed no interplay of sense
Common to each.
Again, why is’t there goes
Impetuous rage with lion’s breed morose223,
And cunning with foxes, and to deer why given
The ancestral fear and tendency to flee,
And why in short do all the rest of traits
Engender224 from the very start of life
In the members and mentality225, if not
Because one certain power of mind that came
From its own seed and breed waxes the same
Along with all the body? But were mind
Immortal, were it wont to change its bodies,
How topsy-turvy would earth’s creatures act!
The Hyrcan hound would flee the onset226 oft
Of antlered stag, the scurrying227 hawk228 would quake
Along the winds of air at the coming dove,
And men would dote, and savage229 beasts be wise;
For false the reasoning of those that say
Immortal mind is changed by change of body —
For what is changed dissolves, and therefore dies.
For parts are re-disposed and leave their order;
Wherefore they must be also capable
Of dissolution through the frame at last,
That they along with body perish all.
But should some say that always souls of men
Go into human bodies, I will ask:
How can a wise become a dullard soul?
And why is never a child’s a prudent230 soul?
And the mare’s filly why not trained so well
As sturdy strength of steed? We may be sure
They’ll take their refuge in the thought that mind
Becomes a weakling in a weakling frame.
Yet be this so, ’tis needful to confess
The soul but mortal, since, so altered now
Throughout the frame, it loses the life and sense
It had before. Or how can mind wax strong
Coequally with body and attain28
The craved231 flower of life, unless it be
The body’s colleague in its origins?
Or what’s the purport232 of its going forth
From aged233 limbs? — fears it, perhaps, to stay,
Pent in a crumbled234 body? Or lest its house,
Outworn by venerable length of days,
May topple down upon it? But indeed
For an immortal perils are there none.
Again, at parturitions of the wild
And at the rites235 of Love, that souls should stand
Ready hard by seems ludicrous enough —
Immortals236 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 rivalries237 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 boulders238: 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, discrepant240, ill-assorted,
Than something mortal in a union joined
With an immortal and a secular241
To bear the outrageous242 tempests?
Then, again,
Whatever abides eternal must indeed
Either repel243 all strokes, because ’tis made
Of solid body, and permit no entrance
Of aught with power to sunder9 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 exempt244,
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 smite245,
And thus dissolve them by the blows of might.
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,
Repelled246 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 torments247 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 gnaw248 the old transgressions249 bitterly.
Add, too, that frenzy250, peculiar251 to the mind,
And that oblivion of the things that were;
Add its submergence in the murky252 waves
Of drowse and torpor253.
Folly254 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
Shuddered255 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 sundering256 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 severance257 from this body of ours,
Yet nothing ’tis to us who in the bonds
And wedlock258 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 distress259. For shouldst thou gaze
Backwards260 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 woe261 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.
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
Feigning262 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 lamenting263 that the self lies there
Mangled or burning. For if it an evil is
Dead to be jerked about by jaw207 and fang265
Of the wild brutes266, I see not why ’twere not
Bitter to lie on fires and roast in flames,
Or suffocate267 in honey, and, reclined
On the smooth oblong of an icy slab268,
Grow stiff in cold, or sink with load of earth
Down-crushing from above.
“Thee now no more
The joyful269 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 undertakings270 more,
Nor be the warder of thine own no more.
Poor wretch30,” 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 anguish271 and from fear.
“O even as here thou art, aslumber in death,
So shalt thou slumber272 down the rest of time,
Released from every harrying273 pang274. 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 scattering275 more great
Of the throng212 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 awry276:
“Brief is this fruit of joy to paltry277 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 parch278, poor tongues, with thirst and arid279 drought,
Or chafe280 for any lack.
Once more, if Nature
Should of a sudden send a voice abroad,
And her own self inveigh281 against us so:
“Mortal, what hast thou of such grave concern
That thou indulgest in too sickly plaints?
Why this bemoaning282 and beweeping death?
For if thy life aforetime and behind
To thee was grateful, and not all thy good
Was heaped as in sieve283 to flow away
And perish unavailingly, why not,
Even like a banqueter, depart the halls,
Laden284 with life? why not with mind content
Take now, thou fool, thy unafflicted rest?
But if whatever thou enjoyed hath been
Lavished285 and lost, and life is now offence,
Why seekest more to add — which in its turn
Will perish foully286 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 lament264,
Poor devil, his death more sorely than is fit,
Then would she not, with greater right, on him
Cry out, inveighing287 with a voice more shrill288:
“Off with thy tears, and choke thy whines289, buffoon290!
Thou wrinklest — after thou hast had the sum
Of the guerdons of life; yet, since thou cravest ever
What’s not at hand, contemning292 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 consigned293 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 serener294 far than any sleep?
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 fables295 tell,
Fears the huge boulder239 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
Prostrate296 in Acheron, nor can they find,
Forsooth, throughout eternal ages, aught
To pry297 around for in that mighty298 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 rend188
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 ingrate299 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 virgins300 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 dungeon301 and the leap
From that dread rock of infamy302, the stripes,
The executioners, the oaken rack,
The iron plates, bitumen303, and the torch.
And even though these are absent, yet the mind,
With a fore-fearing conscience, plies2 its goads304
And burns beneath the lash13, 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.
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 hind35;
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 contemn291,
Trampling305 upon it with his cavalry306,
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 dames307,
Among whom Homer, sceptered o’er them all,
Now lies in slumber sunken with the rest.
Then, too, Democritus, when ripened eld
Admonished308 him his memory waned309 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.
Wilt310 thou, then, dally311, 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 beset312
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.”
If men, in that same way as on the mind
They feel the load that wearies with its weight,
Could also know the causes whence it comes,
And why so great the heap of ill on heart,
O not in this sort would they live their life,
As now so much we see them, knowing not
What ’tis they want, and seeking ever and ever
A change of place, as if to drop the burden.
The man who sickens of his home goes out,
Forth from his splendid halls, and straight — returns,
Feeling i’faith no better off abroad.
He races, driving his Gallic ponies313 along,
Down to his villa314, madly — as in haste
To hurry help to a house afire. — At once
He yawns, as soon as foot has touched the threshold,
Or drowsily315 goes off in sleep and seeks
Forgetfulness, or maybe bustles316 about
And makes for town again. In such a way
Each human flees himself — a self in sooth,
As happens, he by no means can escape;
And willy-nilly he cleaves to it and loathes317,
Sick, sick, and guessing not the cause of ail.
Yet should he see but that, O chiefly then,
Leaving all else, he’d study to divine
The nature of things, since here is in debate
Eternal time and not the single hour,
Mortal’s estate in whatsoever318 remains
After great death.
And too, when all is said,
What evil lust of life is this so great
Subdues319 us to live, so dreadfully distraught
In perils and alarms? one fixed end
Of life abideth for mortality;
Death’s not to shun, and we must go to meet.
Besides we’re busied with the same devices,
Ever and ever, and we are at them ever,
And there’s no new delight that may be forged
By living on. But whilst the thing we long for
Is lacking, that seems good above all else;
Thereafter, when we’ve touched it, something else
We long for; ever one equal thirst of life
Grips us agape. And doubtful ’tis what fortune
The future times may carry, or what be
That chance may bring, or what the issue next
Awaiting us. Nor by prolonging life
Take we the least away from death’s own time,
Nor can we pluck one moment off, whereby
To minish the aeons of our state of death.
Therefore, O man, by living on, fulfil
As many generations as thou may:
Eternal death shall there be waiting still;
And he who died with light of yesterday
Shall be no briefer time in death’s No-more
Than he who perished months or years before.
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收听单词发音
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1
craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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2
plies
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的第三人称单数 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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precepts
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| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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4
renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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5
sip
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| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
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worthiest
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| 应得某事物( worthy的最高级 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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err
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| vi.犯错误，出差错 | |
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asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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sunder
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| v.分开；隔离；n.分离，分开 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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11
abodes
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| 住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留 | |
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12
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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13
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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14
congealed
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| v.使凝结，冻结( congeal的过去式和过去分词 )；（指血）凝结 | |
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15
whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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17
vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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18
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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19
divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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20
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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21
prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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22
hap
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| n.运气；v.偶然发生 | |
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23
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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24
braggart
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| n.吹牛者；adj.吹牛的，自夸的 | |
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25
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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26
fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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27
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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28
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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29
abased
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| 使谦卑( abase的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到羞耻； 使降低（地位、身份等）； 降下 | |
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30
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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31
wretches
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| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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32
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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33
mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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34
conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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35
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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36
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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37
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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38
huddling
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| n. 杂乱一团, 混乱, 拥挤 v. 推挤, 乱堆, 草率了事 | |
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39
civic
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| adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的 | |
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40
amass
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| vt.积累，积聚 | |
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41
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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42
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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43
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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44
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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45
beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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46
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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47
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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48
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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49
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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50
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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51
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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52
shun
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| vt.避开，回避，避免 | |
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53
feign
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| vt.假装，佯作 | |
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54
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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55
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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56
flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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57
spokes
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| n.（车轮的）辐条( spoke的名词复数 )；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 | |
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58
disperse
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| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
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59
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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60
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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61
mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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62
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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63
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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64
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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65
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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66
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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67
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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68
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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69
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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70
props
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| 小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋 | |
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71
filched
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| v.偷（尤指小的或不贵重的物品）( filch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
maxims
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| n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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73
cleaves
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的第三人称单数 ) | |
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74
cleave
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| v．(clave；cleaved)粘着，粘住；坚持；依恋 | |
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75
assailing
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| v.攻击( assail的现在分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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76
ail
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| v.生病，折磨，苦恼 | |
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77
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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78
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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79
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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80
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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81
corporeal
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| adj.肉体的，身体的；物质的 | |
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82
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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83
hew
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| v.砍；伐；削 | |
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84
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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85
aver
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| v.极力声明；断言；确证 | |
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86
components
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| （机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分 | |
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87
agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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88
inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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89
tardy
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| adj.缓慢的，迟缓的 | |
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90
hovers
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| 鸟( hover的第三人称单数 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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91
spiny
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| adj.多刺的，刺状的；n.多刺的东西 | |
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92
mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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93
opportune
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| adj.合适的，适当的 | |
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94
texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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95
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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96
bouquet
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| n.花束，酒香 | |
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97
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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98
revolves
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的第三人称单数 )；细想 | |
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99
marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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100
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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101
seep
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| v.渗出，渗漏；n.渗漏，小泉，水（油）坑 | |
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102
perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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103
constrains
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| 强迫( constrain的第三人称单数 )； 强使； 限制； 约束 | |
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104
primordial
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| adj.原始的；最初的 | |
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105
sundered
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| v.隔开，分开( sunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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106
commingled
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| v.混合，掺和，合并( commingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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107
lurks
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| n.潜在，潜伏；（lurk的复数形式）vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的第三人称单数形式） | |
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108
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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109
subside
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| vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降 | |
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110
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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111
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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112
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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113
restive
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| adj.不安宁的，不安静的 | |
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114
seethe
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| vi.拥挤，云集；发怒，激动，骚动 | |
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115
abounding
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| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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116
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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117
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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118
stiffen
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| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
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119
stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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120
javelins
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| n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 ) | |
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121
pristine
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| adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的 | |
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122
vestiges
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| 残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不 | |
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123
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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124
expound
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| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
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125
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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126
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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127
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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128
begot
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去式 )；产生，引起 | |
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129
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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130
moulders
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| v.腐朽( moulder的第三人称单数 )；腐烂，崩塌 | |
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131
refulgent
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| adj.辉煌的，灿烂的 | |
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132
hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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133
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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134
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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135
sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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136
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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137
sparsely
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| adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地 | |
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138
primal
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| adj.原始的；最重要的 | |
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139
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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140
gossamer
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| n.薄纱，游丝 | |
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141
entangles
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| v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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142
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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143
withered
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|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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144
abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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145
abides
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| 容忍( abide的第三人称单数 )； 等候； 逗留； 停留 | |
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146
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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147
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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148
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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149
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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150
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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151
lulled
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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152
exhaling
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的现在分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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153
apparitions
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| n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 )；幽灵；鬼；（特异景象等的）出现 | |
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154
totter
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| v.蹒跚， 摇摇欲坠；n.蹒跚的步子 | |
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155
ripened
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|
| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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156
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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157
crumble
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|
| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
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158
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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159
tallies
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| n.账( tally的名词复数 )；符合；（计数的）签；标签v.计算，清点( tally的第三人称单数 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合 | |
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160
nay
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|
| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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161
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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162
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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163
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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164
contagions
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| 传染( contagion的名词复数 )； 接触传染； 道德败坏； 歪风 | |
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165
hiccups
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| n.嗝( hiccup的名词复数 )；连续地打嗝；暂时性的小问题；短暂的停顿v.嗝( hiccup的第三人称单数 )；连续地打嗝；暂时性的小问题；短暂的停顿 | |
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166
brawls
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| 吵架，打架( brawl的名词复数 ) | |
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167
balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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168
hardier
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| 能吃苦耐劳的，坚强的( hardy的比较级 )； （植物等）耐寒的 | |
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169
bereaved
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|
| adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去（希望、生命等）( bereave的过去式和过去分词)；（尤指死亡）使丧失（亲人、朋友等）；使孤寂；抢走（财物） | |
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170
sputter
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| n.喷溅声；v.喷溅 | |
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171
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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172
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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173
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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174
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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175
foams
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| n.泡沫，泡沫材料( foam的名词复数 ) | |
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176
vomit
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| v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物 | |
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177
outwards
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| adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形 | |
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178
venom
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| n.毒液，恶毒，痛恨 | |
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179
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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180
lairs
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| n.（野兽的）巢穴，窝( lair的名词复数 )；（人的）藏身处 | |
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181
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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182
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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183
meditates
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的第三人称单数 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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184
adversary
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| adj.敌手，对手 | |
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185
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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186
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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187
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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188
rend
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| vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取 | |
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189
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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190
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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191
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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192
craves
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| 渴望，热望( crave的第三人称单数 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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193
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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194
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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195
begotten
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去分词 )；产生，引起 | |
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196
cleaving
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
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197
bards
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| n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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198
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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199
lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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200
scythes
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|
| n.（长柄）大镰刀( scythe的名词复数 )v.（长柄）大镰刀( scythe的第三人称单数 ) | |
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201
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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202
twitches
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| n.（使）抽动， （使）颤动， （使）抽搐( twitch的名词复数 ) | |
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203
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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204
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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205
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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206
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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207
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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208
wrack
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| v.折磨；n.海草 | |
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209
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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210
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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211
throngs
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| n.人群( throng的名词复数 )v.成群，挤满( throng的第三人称单数 ) | |
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212
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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213
crunch
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| n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声 | |
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214
seeping
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| v.（液体）渗( seep的现在分词 )；渗透；渗出；漏出 | |
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215
natal
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| adj.出生的，先天的 | |
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216
cadavers
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| n.尸体( cadaver的名词复数 ) | |
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217
putrid
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| adj.腐臭的；有毒的；已腐烂的；卑劣的 | |
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218
exhale
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| v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发 | |
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219
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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220
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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221
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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222
harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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223
morose
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| adj.脾气坏的，不高兴的 | |
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224
engender
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| v.产生，引起 | |
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225
mentality
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| n.心理，思想，脑力 | |
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226
onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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227
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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228
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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229
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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230
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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231
craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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232
purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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233
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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234
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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235
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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236
immortals
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| 不朽的人物( immortal的名词复数 )； 永生不朽者 | |
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237
rivalries
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| n.敌对，竞争，对抗( rivalry的名词复数 ) | |
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238
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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239
boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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240
discrepant
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| 差异的 | |
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241
secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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242
outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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243
repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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244
exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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245
smite
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| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
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246
repelled
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| v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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247
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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248
gnaw
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| v.不断地啃、咬；使苦恼，折磨 | |
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249
transgressions
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| n.违反，违法，罪过( transgression的名词复数 ) | |
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250
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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251
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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252
murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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253
torpor
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| n.迟钝；麻木；（动物的）冬眠 | |
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254
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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255
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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256
sundering
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| v.隔开，分开( sunder的现在分词 ) | |
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257
severance
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| n.离职金；切断 | |
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258
wedlock
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| n.婚姻，已婚状态 | |
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259
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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260
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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261
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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262
feigning
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| 假装，伪装( feign的现在分词 )； 捏造（借口、理由等） | |
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263
lamenting
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| adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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264
lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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265
fang
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| n.尖牙，犬牙 | |
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266
brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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267
suffocate
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| vt.使窒息，使缺氧，阻碍；vi.窒息，窒息而亡，阻碍发展 | |
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268
slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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269
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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270
undertakings
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| 企业( undertaking的名词复数 )； 保证； 殡仪业； 任务 | |
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271
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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272
slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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273
harrying
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| v.使苦恼( harry的现在分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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274
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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275
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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276
awry
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| adj.扭曲的，错的 | |
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277
paltry
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| adj.无价值的，微不足道的 | |
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278
parch
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| v.烤干，焦干 | |
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279
arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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280
chafe
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| v.擦伤；冲洗；惹怒 | |
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281
inveigh
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| v.痛骂 | |
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282
bemoaning
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| v.为（某人或某事）抱怨( bemoan的现在分词 )；悲悼；为…恸哭；哀叹 | |
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283
sieve
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| n.筛，滤器，漏勺 | |
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284
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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285
lavished
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| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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286
foully
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| ad.卑鄙地 | |
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287
inveighing
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| v.猛烈抨击，痛骂，谩骂( inveigh的现在分词 ) | |
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288
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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289
whines
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| n.悲嗥声( whine的名词复数 )；哀鸣者v.哀号( whine的第三人称单数 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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290
buffoon
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| n.演出时的丑角 | |
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291
contemn
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| v.蔑视 | |
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292
contemning
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| v.侮辱，蔑视( contemn的现在分词 ) | |
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293
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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294
serener
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| serene（沉静的，宁静的，安宁的）的比较级形式 | |
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295
fables
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| n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说 | |
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296
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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297
pry
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| vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起) | |
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298
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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299
ingrate
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| n.忘恩负义的人 | |
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300
virgins
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| 处女，童男( virgin的名词复数 )； 童贞玛利亚（耶稣之母） | |
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301
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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302
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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303
bitumen
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| n.沥青 | |
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304
goads
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| n.赶牲口的尖棒( goad的名词复数 )v.刺激( goad的第三人称单数 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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305
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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306
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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307
dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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308
admonished
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| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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309
waned
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| v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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310
wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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311
dally
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| v.荒废(时日)，调情 | |
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312
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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313
ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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314
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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315
drowsily
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| adv.睡地，懒洋洋地，昏昏欲睡地 | |
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316
bustles
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| 热闹( bustle的名词复数 )； （女裙后部的）衬垫； 撑架 | |
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317
loathes
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的第三人称单数 )；极不喜欢 | |
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318
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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319
subdues
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| 征服( subdue的第三人称单数 )； 克制； 制服 | |
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