nam quod saepe homines morbos magis esse timendos infamemque ferunt vitam quam Tartara leti et se scire animi naturam sanguinis esse aut etiam venti, si fert ita forte voluntas, nec prorsum quicquam nostrae rationis egere, hinc licet advertas animum magis omnia laudis iactari causa quam quod res ipsa probetur: extorres idem patria longeque fugati conspectu ex hominum, foedati crimine turpi, omnibus aerumnis adfecti denique vivunt, et quocumque tamen miseri venere parentant et nigras mactant pecudes et manibu divis inferias mittunt multoque in rebus acerbis acrius advertunt animos ad religionem.
For when men often declare that disease and a life of infamy are more to be feared than the bottomless Pit of death, and that they know the nature of the soul to be that of blood or even air if their whim so direct, and that they have no need of our reasoning, what follows will show you that they make all these boasts in vainglory rather than because the fact itself is established. These same men, driven from their native land and banished far from the sight of men, stained with some disgraceful charge, in short afflicted with all tribulations, yet live; and in spite of all, wherever the wretches go they sacrifice to their ancestors, and slay black cattle, and send down oblations to the departed ghosts, and in their bitter days direct their minds far more eagerly to superstition.
final_alignments\Lucretius_De_Rerum_Natura_Book3.json