Sir J. Davies. _Immortality of the Soul_, sect 7.:
"And though the soul could cast spiritual seed,
Yet would she not, because she never dies;
For mortal things desire their like to breed,
That so they may their kind immortalise."
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Plato Sympos. §32. (p. 207. D. Steph.):
"Mortal natures seek to attain, suffer as they can, to immortality; but
they can attain to it by this generation only; for thus they ever leave
a new behind them to supply the place of the old." Compare § 31.
"Generation immortalises the mortal, so for as it can be
immortalised."--Plato _Leg_. iv. (p. 721. G.), vi. § 17. (p. 773. E.);
Ocell. Lucan. iv. § 2.
* * * * *
Butler, _Serm. I. on Human Nature_ (p. 12. Oxford, 1844):
"Which [external goods], according to a very ancient observation, the
most abandoned would choose to obtain by innocent means, if they there
as easy, and as effectual to their end."
Dr. Whewell has not, I think, in his edition, pointed out the passage
alluded to, Cic. _de Fin._ III., c. 11. § 36.:
"Quis est enim, aut quis unquam fuit aut avaritiâ tam ardenti, aut tam
effrenatis cupiditatibus, ut eamdem illam rem, quam adipisci scelere
quovis velit, non multis partibus malit ad sese, etiam omni impunitate
proposita, sine facinore, quam illo modo pervenire?"