This isn't terribly different than Plato, but it's interesting to hear it attempted in verse. Versifying or translating a thought to another language quickly purifies the fluff and nonsense. This is Father Anisches:
“Principio caelum ac terras camposque liquentis
lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra
spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.
Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitaeque volantum,
et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus.
Igneus est ollis vigor et caelestis origo
seminibus, quantum non noxia corpora tardant,
terrenique hebetant artus moribundaque membra.
Hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque, neque auras
dispiciunt clausae tenebris et carcere caeco.
Quin et supremo cum lumine vita reliquit,
non tamen omne malum miseris nec funditus omnes
corporeae excedunt pestes, penitusque necesse est
multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris.
Ergo exercentur poenis, veterumque malorum
supplicia expendunt: aliae panduntur inanes
suspensae ad ventos; aliis sub gurgite vasto
infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni;
quisque suos patimur Manes; exinde per amplum
mittimur Elysium, et pauci laeta arva tenemus;
donec longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe,
concretam exemit labem, purumque relinquit
aetherium sensum atque auraï simplicis ignem.
Has omnes, ubi mille rotam volvere per annos,
Lethaeum ad fluvium deus evocat agmine magno,
scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisant,
rursus et incipiant in corpora velle reverti.”
In the beginning heaven and earth and the fields of water and light and the orb of the moon and the Titanian stars nourish the spirit within, and the mind poured through the members moves the whole mass within the vast frame and mixes itself with the body. Thence the races of man and cattle, and living things of flight, and the monsters under the deep of the marble sea. Fiery force and heavenly origin there is to theses seeds, so far as their harmful bodies do not slow them, and their terrestrial limbs and mortal members do not blunt them. Hence (coming) they fear and desire, they sorrow and laugh, nor do they discern the light closed in darkness and in blind prison. Nay, even when life has left them at the last light, nevertheless all the wickedness from their sorrows nor do all the plagues from the bottom of the body pass out, and inside it must be long having hardened to grown in marvelous ways. Therefore by penalties they are purified, and these punishments cleanse them of old evils: some are stretched hanging to the winds; others are under a vast whirlpool steeped are washed of wickedness; or they are burned with fire; and we each suffer our own in Manes; from thence we are sent through spacious Elysium, and we have a few joys in the region. Until the long day, with the time of earth having been completed, the hardened disgrace is removed, and it leaves pure aethereal sense and the flame of simple light (wind?). All these, when through a thousand years the wheel is turned, the god calls to the river Lethe in a great column, namely that without memory they may revisit the vaults above, and willingly they begin again returned to body.
That does NOT translate very well.
