Seneca, Troas, Act II: The Chorus Translated

Is it a Truth, or but a well told Lye
That Souls have being, when their Bodies Dye.
When the sad Wife has clos'd her Husbands Eyes
And pierc'd the ecchoing Vaults with doleful crys,
Is not the Husbands life entirely fled.
His Soul extinguish'd as the Body dead ;
Or does that other part of Him remain
Stil chain'd to Life, and stil condemn'd to Pain ?
No no, before Our Friends officious Care,
Can light the Torch and solemn rites prepare.
Our breath is mix'd, and lost, with common air.
As far as East or West extended go.
As far as Sun-beams gild or Waters flow,
All beings have a destin'd space to run.
And all must Perish, as they all begun.
The Sun, the Moon, and every Sign above
Fix'd by strong Fate, in destin'd Courses move
Like Us for certain Periods they endure,
Their life much longer, but their end as sure.
As smoke which rises from the kinling Fires
Is seen this moment, and the next expires ;
As empty Clouds by rising winds are tost,
Their fleeting forms scarce sooner found, then lost,
So vanishes our State, so pass our days.
So life but opens now, and now decays
The Cradle and the Tomb alas ! too nigh
To live is scarce distinguish 'd from to Dye
After Death nothing is, and very Death,
It self is nothing, 'tis but want of breath,
The utmost Limit of a narrow span,
An end of Motion which with life began.
Death shows us only what we know was near,
It cures the Misers wish, and checks the Cowards fear,
Where shalt Thou be when thou art laid in Earth
Where we'rt Thou timorous thing, before thy birth ?
Disolv'd in Chaos, on the formless Mass,
Of what may be contending with what was,
Old Night and Death extend their noxious Pow'r,
O'er all the Man, the Body they devour.
Nor spare the Soul, a Kingdom in the dark
Furies that Howl three headed Dogs that bark
Are empty Rumors form'd in Childrens Schools
The Tales of Pedants, and the Dreams of Fools.