John Stewart

“ So neither can this soul, this mind perceive,
Without these hands, these eyes, these ears, nor live.
⁠Besides, our vital sense is spread o'er all;
The whole composure makes one animal:
So that if sudden violent strokes divide
This whole, and cast the parts on either side,
The soul and mind too suffer the same fate,
And part remains in this, and part in that.
Now what can be divided, what can lie
And waste in several parts, can likewise die.
⁠Besides, were souls immortal, ne'er began,
But crept into the limbs to make up man,
Why cannot they remember what was done
In former times? ”

“ It rises from, and makes up things again.
⁠Besides, the sun, that constant spring of light,
Still cuts the heaven with streams of shining white,
And the decaying old, with new supplies,
For every portion of the beam that flies;
Nor should we see, but all lie blind in night,
Unless new streams flow'd from the spring of light.
⁠Again, the strongest rocks, and towers do feel the rage
Of powerful time, e'en temples wast by age;
Nor can the gods themselves prolong their date,
Change Nature's law, or get reprieve from fate.
E'en tombs grow old and waste, by years o'rethrown ”

“ Scipio, that scourge of Carthage, now the grave
Keeps prisoner, like the meanest common slave.
Nay, greatest wits, and poets too, that give
Eternity to others, cease to live.
Homer, their prince, is nothing now but fame,
A lasting, far diffus'd, but empty name.
⁠Nay, Epicurus' race of life is run,
The man of wit, who other men out-shone,
As far as meaner stars the mid-day sun.
Then how dar'st thou repine to die, and grieve,
Thou meaner soul, thou dead, e'en whilst alive?
That sleep'st and dream'st the most of life away:
Thy night is full as rational as thy day ”

“ Or into beasts retires—
⁠These fears, that darkness that o'erspreads our souls,
Day can't disperse, but those eternal rules
Which from firm premises true reason draws,
And a deep insight into Nature's laws.
⁠Well, then, let this as the first rule be laid,
Nothing was by the gods of nothing made.
But this once prov'd, it gives an open way
To Nature's secrets, and we walk in day.
If nothing can be fertile, what law binds
All beings still to generate their own kinds?
Why do not all things variously proceed
From every thing? what use of similar seed? ”

“ Through closest stones, and waste, and then return.
'Tis then, the dreadful thunder roars aloud,
When fighting winds drive heavy cloud on cloud.
⁠But if these bolts were thrown by gods above
Or if they were the proper arms of Jove,
Why do the daring wicked still provoke,
Why still sin on secure from thunder's stroke?
Why are not such shot through, and plac'd on high,
As sad examples of impiety,
That men may sin no more, no more defy?
And why doth heedless lightning blast the good,
And break his bones, or curdle all his blood?
Why good and pious men these bolts endure? ”

“ Prov'd mortal, think I likewise mean the mind,
Since both do make but one, two natures join'd.
And first 'tis plain, that souls are born and grow,
And all by age decay as bodies do.
To prove this truth: In infants, minds appear
Infirm and tender as their bodies are:
In man, the mind is strong ”

“ Grows less; the streets by often treading wear.
Besides, none, not the sharpest eye, e'er sees
What parts to make things grow by just degrees
Nature doth add, nor what she takes away,
When age steals softly on, and things decay. ”

“ They are immortal, and from death secure,
And therefore cannot into nothing fall.
For death dissolves alone, he breaks the chain,
And scatters things to their first seeds again.
And therefore bodies cannot fall to nought,
Since one thing still is from another brought
By provident Nature; who lets nothing rise,
And be, unless from something else that dies.
⁠Now, since we have by various reasons taught
That nothing rises from, or falls to nought,
Lest you dissent, because these seeds must lie
Beyond the ken e'en of the sharpest eye ”

“ And things fell heretofore e'en just as now.
And still decaying things shall new produce;
For life's not given to possess, but use.
⁠Besides, what dreadful things in death appear,
What tolerable cause for all our fear? ”