E4P20S
Scholium — Part IV
Latin
Nemo igitur nisi a causis externis et suæ naturæ contrariis victus suum utile appetere sive suum esse conservare negligit. Nemo inquam ex necessitate suæ naturæ sed a causis externis coactus alimenta aversatur vel se ipsum interficit, quod multis modis fieri potest nempe interficit aliquis se ipsum coactus ab alio qui ejus dexteram qua ensem casu prehenderat, contorquet et cogit versus cor ipsum gladium dirigere vel quod ex mandato tyranni ut Seneca cogatur venas aperire suas hoc est majus malum minore vitare cupiat vel denique ex eo quod causæ latentes externæ ejus imaginationem ita disponunt et corpus ita afficiunt ut id aliam naturam priori contrariam induat et cujus idea in mente dari nequit (per propositionem 10 partis III). At quod homo ex necessitate suæ naturæ conetur non existere vel in aliam formam mutari, tam est impossibile quam quod ex nihilo aliquid fiat, ut unusquisque mediocri meditatione videre potest.
English (Elwes 1883)
No one, therefore, neglects seeking his own good, or preserving his own being, unless he be overcome by causes external and foreign to his nature. No one, I say, from the necessity of his own nature, or otherwise than under compulsion from external causes, shrinks from food, or kills himself: which latter may be done in a variety of ways. A man, for instance, kills himself under the compulsion of another man, who twists round his right hand, wherewith he happened to have taken up a sword, and forces him to turn the blade against his own heart; or, again, he may be compelled, like Seneca, by a tyrant's command, to open his own veins--that is, to escape a greater evil by incurring, a lesser; or, lastly, latent external causes may so disorder his imagination, and so affect his body, that it may assume a nature contrary to its former one, and whereof the idea cannot exist in the mind (III. x.) But that a man, from the necessity of his own nature, should endeavour to become non--existent, is as impossible as that something should be made out of nothing, as everyone will see for himself, after a little reflection.
Modern English
No one, then, neglects to seek his own advantage or to preserve his own being except when overcome by external causes contrary to his nature. No one, I say, from the necessity of his own nature — only under compulsion from external causes — shrinks from food or kills himself. This can happen in many ways: a person may kill himself when compelled by another who twists the right hand in which he happened to take up a sword and forces him to turn the blade toward his own heart; or as when Seneca was compelled by a tyrant's command to open his own veins — that is, to escape a greater bad by incurring a lesser; or finally when hidden external causes so dispose a person's imagination and so affect his body that it takes on a nature contrary to the former one, of which no idea can exist in the mind (E3P10).
That a human being should strive from the necessity of his own nature to cease to exist, or to be transformed into some other form, is as impossible as that something should come from nothing — as anyone can see with a little reflection.