Lucius Seneca - Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 2)

Like him was ever; but, when images

Of horse and man by chance have come together,

They easily cohere, as aforesaid,

At once, through subtle nature and fabric thin.

In the same fashion others of this ilk

Created are. And when they're quickly borne

In their exceeding lightness, easily

(As earlier I showed) one subtle image,

Compounded, moves by its one blow the mind,

Itself so subtle and so strangely quick.

That these things come to pass as I record,

From this thou easily canst understand:

So far as one is unto other like,

Seeing with mind as well as with the eyes

Must come to pass in fashion not unlike.

Well, now, since I have shown that I perceive

Haply a lion through those idol-films

Such as assail my eyes, 'tis thine to know

Also the mind is in like manner moved,

And sees, nor more nor less than eyes do see

(Except that it perceives more subtle films)

The lion and aught else through idol-films.

And when the sleep has overset our frame,

The mind's intelligence is now awake,

Still for no other reason, save that these—

The self-same films as when we are awake—

Assail our minds, to such degree indeed

That we do seem to see for sure the man

Whom, void of life, now death and earth have gained

Dominion over. And nature forces this

To come to pass because the body's senses

Are resting, thwarted through the members all,

Unable now to conquer false with true;

And memory lies prone and languishes

In slumber, nor protests that he, the man

Whom the mind feigns to see alive, long since

Hath been the gain of death and dissolution.

And further, 'tis no marvel idols move

And toss their arms and other members round

In rhythmic time—and often in men's sleeps

It haps an image this is seen to do;

In sooth, when perishes the former image,

And other is gendered of another pose,

That former seemeth to have changed its gestures.

Of course the change must be conceived as speedy;

So great the swiftness and so great the store

Of idol-things, and (in an instant brief

As mind can mark) so great, again, the store

Of separate idol-parts to bring supplies.

It happens also that there is supplied

Sometimes an image not of kind the same;

But what before was woman, now at hand

Is seen to stand there, altered into male;

Or other visage, other age succeeds;

But slumber and oblivion take care

That we shall feel no wonder at the thing.

And much in these affairs demands inquiry,

And much, illumination—if we crave

With plainness to exhibit facts. And first,

Why doth the mind of one to whom the whim

To think has come behold forthwith that thing?

Or do the idols watch upon our will,

And doth an image unto us occur,

Directly we desire—if heart prefer

The sea, the land, or after all the sky?

Assemblies of the citizens, parades,

Banquets, and battles, these and all doth she,

Nature, create and furnish at our word?—

Maugre the fact that in same place and spot

Another's mind is meditating things

All far unlike. And what, again, of this:

When we in sleep behold the idols step,

In measure, forward, moving supple limbs,

Whilst forth they put each supple arm in turn

With speedy motion, and with eyeing heads

Repeat the movement, as the foot keeps time?

Forsooth, the idols they are steeped in art,

And wander to and fro well taught indeed,—

Thus to be able in the time of night

To make such games! Or will the truth be this:

Because in one least moment that we mark—

That is, the uttering of a single sound—

There lurk yet many moments, which the reason

Discovers to exist, therefore it comes

That, in a moment how so brief ye will,

The divers idols are hard by, and ready

Each in its place diverse? So great the swiftness,

So great, again, the store of idol-things,

And so, when perishes the former image,

And other is gendered of another pose,

The former seemeth to have changed its gestures.

And since they be so tenuous, mind can mark

Sharply alone the ones it strains to see;

And thus the rest do perish one and all,

Save those for which the mind prepares itself.

Further, it doth prepare itself indeed,

And hopes to see what follows after each—

Hence this result. For hast thou not observed

How eyes, essaying to perceive the fine,

Will strain in preparation, otherwise

Unable sharply to perceive at all?

Yet know thou canst that, even in objects plain,

If thou attendest not, 'tis just the same

As if 'twere all the time removed and far.

What marvel, then, that mind doth lose the rest,

Save those to which 'thas given up itself?

So 'tis that we conjecture from small signs

Things wide and weighty, and involve ourselves

In snarls of self-deceit.

Table of Contents

In these affairs

We crave that thou wilt passionately flee

The one offence, and anxiously wilt shun

The error of presuming the clear lights

Of eyes created were that we might see;

Or thighs and knees, aprop upon the feet,

Thuswise can bended be, that we might step

With goodly strides ahead; or forearms joined

Unto the sturdy uppers, or serving hands

On either side were given, that we might do

Life's own demands. All such interpretation

Is aft-for-fore with inverse reasoning,

Since naught is born in body so that we

May use the same, but birth engenders use:

No seeing ere the lights of eyes were born,

No speaking ere the tongue created was;

But origin of tongue came long before

Discourse of words, and ears created were

Much earlier than any sound was heard;

And all the members, so meseems, were there

Before they got their use: and therefore, they

Could not be gendered for the sake of use.

But contrariwise, contending in the fight

With hand to hand, and rending of the joints,

And fouling of the limbs with gore, was there,

O long before the gleaming spears ere flew;

And nature prompted man to shun a wound,

Before the left arm by the aid of art

Opposed the shielding targe. And, verily,

Yielding the weary body to repose,

Far ancienter than cushions of soft beds,

And quenching thirst is earlier than cups.

These objects, therefore, which for use and life

Have been devised, can be conceived as found

For sake of using. But apart from such

Are all which first were born and afterwards

Gave knowledge of their own utility—

Chief in which sort we note the senses, limbs:

Wherefore, again, 'tis quite beyond thy power

To hold that these could thus have been create

For office of utility.

Likewise,

'Tis nothing strange that all the breathing creatures

Seek, even by nature of their frame, their food.

Yes, since I've taught thee that from off the things

Stream and depart innumerable bodies

In modes innumerable too; but most

Must be the bodies streaming from the living—

Which bodies, vexed by motion evermore,

Are through the mouth exhaled innumerable,

When weary creatures pant, or through the sweat

Squeezed forth innumerable from deep within.

Thus body rarefies, so undermined

In all its nature, and pain attends its state.

And so the food is taken to underprop

The tottering joints, and by its interfusion

To re-create their powers, and there stop up