Dialogue on the Threshold

Schwellendialog

24 April 2018

Totus mundus verminosus

Sed age ducam te per vastum Macrocosmum, ut innumera vermium agmina, seu tamen excrementa eorum animata, vel seminia foecunda, aut ovula, sicque mortem vivam in quovis angello et rimula speculeris, vereque cum Drexelio dicas ubique mors est, omnibus locis, omnibusque momentis insidiatur: quaqua venies, paratam invenies, nusquam non praesto est, occurrit undique. Sic animarum omnia, τρόπον τίνα, quodammodo plena, i.e. totus mundus verminosus.

Christiani Francisci Paullini, Disquisitio curiosa an mors naturalis plerumque sit substantia verminosa? Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1703

But come, let me lead you through the vast Macrocosm, that you may observe the countless multitudes of worms, likewise their animate faeces, their fertile seed or ovules, and thus living death in every nook and cranny, and that you may affirm, like Drexel: "Death is everywhere, in all places, and at every moment it lies in wait: from whatever direction you come, you will find it ready, nowhere is it not at hand, everywhere does it attend." Hence, τρόπον τίνα [in a fashion], all things are full of living beings, that is, the whole world is vermicular.

Christian Franz Paullini, Painstaking Disquisition on whether Natural Death be Wholly a Vermicular Substance

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