Cause Principle Unity

Prefatory epistle
Mens, cognata vocat summo de culmine rerum,
discrimen quo sis manibus atque Iovi.
Ne perdas hic iura tui fundoque recumbens
implicitus tingas nigri Acherontis aquas.
At mage sublimeis tentet natura recessus,
nam, tangente Deo, fervidus ignis eris.
[To his own spirit
O mount, though the Earth bounds you, holding you by the deep
roots on which you repose, at the summit you can stretch to heaven.
O mind, a sister mind from the high summit of the world calls you, to
be the boundary between heaven and hell. Do not lose your rights here
below, and do not touch the black waters of Acheron, falling to the
bottom and becoming caught in it. Rather, investigate the sublime
recesses of nature, since, if God moves you, you will become ardent
fire.]
AL TEMPO
Lente senex, idemque celer, claudensque relaxans,
anne bonum quis te dixerit, anne malum?
Largus es, esque tenax: quae munera porrigis, aufers;
quique parens aderas, ipse peremptor ades;
visceribus educta tuis in viscera condis,
tu cui prompta sinu carpere fauce licet.
Omnia cumque facis cumque omnia destruis, hinc te
nonne bonum possem dicere, nonne malum?
Porro ubi tu diro rabidus frustraberis ictu,
falce minax illo tendere parce manus,
nulla ubi pressa Chaos atri vestigia parent
ne videare bonus, ne videare malus.
[To time
O old man, slow and swift, who opens and closes, must we speak well
or ill of you? You are generous and stingy; the gifts you offer, you take
back; you kill what you cause to be born, and what you generate from
your bowels, in your bowels you devour, you to whom it is allowed to
consume with your jaws the fruit of your bosom. You create all and
destroy all: could I not, then, call you good, and call you evil? But
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