Yet would she not, because she never dies;
For mortal things desire their like to breed,
That so they may their kind immortalise."
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.: