E4P39S
Scholium — Part IV
Latin
Quantum hæc menti obesse vel prodesse possunt in quinta parte explicabitur. Sed hic notandum quod corpus tum mortem obire intelligam quando ejus partes ita disponuntur ut aliam motus et quietis rationem ad invicem obtineant. Nam negare non audeo corpus humanum retenta sanguinis circulatione et aliis propter quæ corpus vivere existimatur, posse nihilominus in aliam naturam a sua prorsus diversam mutari. Nam nulla ratio me cogit ut statuam corpus non mori nisi mutetur in cadaver; quin ipsa experientia aliud suadere videtur. Fit namque aliquando ut homo tales patiatur mutationes ut non facile eundem illum esse dixerim, ut de quodam hispano poeta narrare audivi qui morbo correptus fuerat et quamvis ex eo convaluerit, mansit tamen præteritæ suæ vitæ tam oblitus ut fabulas et tragœdias quas fecerat suas non crediderit esse et sane pro infante adulto haberi potuisset si vernaculæ etiam linguæ fuisset oblitus. Et si hoc incredibile videtur, quid de infantibus dicemus? Quorum naturam homo provectæ ætatis a sua tam diversam esse credit ut persuaderi non posset se unquam infantem fuisse nisi ex aliis de se conjecturam faceret. Sed ne superstitiosis materiam suppeditem movendi novas quæstiones, malo hæc in medio relinquere.
English (Elwes 1883)
The extent to which such causes can injure or be of service to the mind will be explained in the Fifth Part. But I would here remark that I consider that a body undergoes death, when the proportion of motion and rest which obtained mutually among its several parts is changed. For I do not venture to deny that a human body, while keeping the circulation of the blood and other properties, wherein the life of a body is thought to consist, may none the less be changed into another nature totally different from its own. There is no reason, which compels me to maintain that a body does not die, unless it becomes a corpse; nay, experience would seem to point to the opposite conclusion. It sometimes happens, that a man undergoes such changes, that I should hardly call him the same. As I have heard tell of a certain Spanish poet, who had been seized with sickness, and though he recovered therefrom yet remained so oblivious of his past life, that he would not believe the plays and tragedies he had written to be his own: indeed, he might have been taken for a grown--up child, if he had also forgotten his native tongue. If this instance seems incredible, what shall we say of infants? A man of ripe age deems their nature so unlike his own, that he can only be persuaded that he too has been an infant by the analogy of other men. However, I prefer to leave such questions undiscussed, lest I should give ground to the superstitious for raising new issues.
Modern English
How much these things can harm or benefit the mind will be explained in Part Five. I note here, however, that I take a body to undergo death when its parts come to be so disposed as to maintain a different proportion of motion and rest relative to one another. I do not venture to deny that a human body — while still maintaining circulation of the blood and the other things from which a body is thought to be alive — can nonetheless be changed into a nature entirely different from its own. No reason compels me to hold that a body does not die unless it turns into a corpse; experience itself seems to suggest otherwise.
It sometimes happens that a person undergoes such changes that I would hardly say they are the same person. I have heard it told of a certain Spanish poet who was seized by an illness and, though he recovered from it, remained so oblivious of his past life that he would not believe the plays and tragedies he had written were his own. He could indeed have been taken for a grown child, had he also forgotten his native tongue.
And if this seems incredible, what shall we say of infants? A person of mature age considers their nature so different from what it was in infancy that they could not be persuaded they were ever infants, were it not for inferences drawn from others about themselves. But to avoid giving the superstitious grounds for raising new questions, I prefer to leave these matters open.