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Rh ous mental diseases to which, through such a conjunction, it becomes unavoidably subject; for this description contains a threefold division; representing, in the first place, the external evils with which this material region is replete; in the second place, intimating that the life of the soul when merged in body is nothing but a dream; and, in the third place, under the disguise of omniform and terrific monsters, exhibiting the various vices of our irrational part. Hence Empedocles, in perfect conformity with the first part of this description, calls this material abode, or the realms of generation,—, a "joyless region,"

and into which those who fall,

And hence he justly says of such a soul, that

She flies from deity and heav'nly light,

To serve mad discord in the realms of night.

Where too you may observe that the discordia demens of Virgil is an exact translation of the of Empedocles.

In the lines too which immediately succeed, the sorrows and mournful miseries attending the soul's union with a material nature, are beautifully described.

Hinc via, Tartarei quæ fert Acherontis ad undas;

Turbidus hic cæeno vastaque voragine gurges

Æstuat, atque omnem Cocyto eructat arenam.

And when Charon calls out to Æneas to desist from entering any farther, and tells him,

Here to reside delusive shades delight;

For nought dwells here but sleep and drowsy night.

Nothing can more aptly express the condition of the dark regions of body, into which the soul, when descending, meets with nothing