terça-feira, 12 de janeiro de 2010

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"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 fixed part seated,

But is of body some one vital state, -

Named "harmony" by Greeks, because thereby

We live with sense, though intellect be not

In any part: as oft the body is said

(…)

And so, since nature of mind

And even of soul is found to be, as 'twere,

A part of man, given over "harmony"

(…)

That nature of mind and soul corporeal is:

For when 'tis seen to drive the members on,

To snatch from sleep the body, and to change

The countenance, 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? "


excerpts from Book II, The nature and composition of mind,

in "De rerum natura", by Titus Lucretius Carus

in Gutenberg

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