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suspensions of the senses and of the natural powers, while men sleep for equal intervals of time and in a certain way come to life again, we refuse to call it the same life; for which reason, I think, some call sleep the brother of death, not as though tracing their genealogy from the same ancestors or fathers, but as similar states happen both to the dead and to the sleeping, on account of the stillness and the perceiving nothing of things present or happening, or rather, not even of being and of one's own life. If, therefore, the life of men, being full of so much irregularity from birth to dissolution and interrupted by all that we have mentioned before, we do not refuse to call the same life, neither ought we to despair of the life beyond dissolution, which brings with it the resurrection, even if it is interrupted for a time by the separation of the soul from the body. For this nature of men, having from the beginning and by the will of the Creator an allotted irregularity, has an irregular life and duration, being interrupted sometimes by sleep, sometimes by death and by the changes in each stage of life, the things that happen later not being clearly apparent in the first stages. Or who would have believed, not having been taught by experience, that in a homogeneous and unformed seed are stored up so many and so great powers or such a variety of bulks being formed and solidified, I mean of bones and nerves and cartilages, and further of muscles and flesh and entrails and the other parts of the body? For neither in the still liquid seeds can any of these things be seen, nor indeed in infants does anything of what happens to adults appear, nor in the age of adults that of those past their prime, nor in these that of the aged. But indeed although some of the things mentioned do not at all, and others dimly, show the natural sequence and the changes that happen to the nature of men, nevertheless all who are not blinded by wickedness or apathy in their judgment of these things know, that first there must be the casting of seeds, and when these have been articulated in each part and particle and what was conceived has come forth into the light, there follows the growth of the first age and the perfection that comes with growth, and after perfection, the decline of the natural powers until old age, then, when the bodies are worn out, dissolution. Just as, therefore, in these cases, with neither the seed having inscribed in it the nature or form of men nor life its dissolution into its first principles, the succession of what happens naturally provides faith to those who do not have what is credible from the phenomena themselves, much more does reason, tracking the truth from the natural sequence, confirm the resurrection, being safer and better than experience for the confirmation of truth.

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παρέσεις τῶν αἰσθήσεων καὶ τῶν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων, ἰσομέτροις χρόνου διαστήμασιν ὑπνούντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ τρόπον τινὰ πάλιν ἀναβιωσκόντων, τὴν αὐτὴν παραιτούμεθα λέγειν ζωήν· παρ' ἣν αἰτίαν, οἶμαι, τινὲς ἀδελφὸν τοῦ θανάτου τὸν ὕπνον ὀνομά- ζουσιν, οὐχ ὡς ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν προγόνων ἢ πατέρων φύντας γενεα- λογοῦντες, ἀλλ' ὡς τῶν ὁμοίων παθῶν τοῖς τε θανοῦσι καὶ τοῖς ὑπνοῦσιν ἐγγινομένων, ἕνεκα γε τῆς ἠρεμίας καὶ τοῦ μηδενὸς ἐπαισθάνεσθαι τῶν παρόντων ἢ γινομένων, μᾶλλον δὲ μηδὲ τοῦ εἶναι καὶ τῆς ἰδίας ζωῆς. εἴπερ οὖν τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ζωὴν τοσαύτης γέμουσαν ἀνωμαλίας ἀπὸ γενέσεως μέχρι διαλύσεως καὶ διακοπτομένην πᾶσιν οἷς προείπομεν, οὐ παραιτούμεθα τὴν αὐτὴν λέγειν ζωήν, οὐδὲ τὴν ἐπέκεινα τῆς διαλύσεως ζωήν, ἥτις ἑαυτῇ συνεισάγει τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἀπογινώσκειν ὀφείλομεν, κἂν ἐπὶ ποσὸν διακόπτηται τῷ χωρισμῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος. αὕτη γὰρ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἡ φύσις ἄνωθεν καὶ κατὰ γνώμην τοῦ ποιήσαντος συγκεκληρωμένην ἔχουσα τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν, ἀνώμαλον ἔχει τὴν ζωὴν καὶ τὴν διαμονὴν, ποτὲ μὲν ὕπνῳ ποτὲ δὲ θανάτῳ διακοπτομένην καὶ ταῖς καθ' ἑκάστην ἡλικίαν μεταβολαῖς, οὐκ ἐμφαινομένων ἐναργῶς τοῖς πρώτοις τῶν ὕστερον ἐπιγινομένων. ἢ τίς ἂν ἐπίστευσεν μὴ τῇ πείρᾳ δεδιδαγμένος, ἐν ὁμοιομερεῖ καὶ ἀδιαπλάστῳ τῷ σπέρματι τοσούτων καὶ τηλικούτων ἀποκεῖσθαι δυνάμεων ἢ τοσαύτην ἐπισυνισταμένων καὶ πηγνυμένων ὄγκων διαφορὰν, ὀστέων φημὶ καὶ νεύρων καὶ χόνδρων, ἔτι δὲ μυῶν καὶ σαρκῶν καὶ σπλάγχνων καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν τοῦ σώματος μερῶν; οὔτε γὰρ ἐν ὑγροῖς ἔτι τοῖς σπέρμασι τούτων ἔστιν ἰδεῖν οὐδὲν οὔτε μὴν τοῖς νηπίοις ἐμφαίνεταί τι τῶν τοῖς τελείοις ἐπιγινομένων ἢ τῇ τῶν τελείων ἡλικίᾳ τὰ τῶν παρηβηκότων ἢ τούτοις τὰ τῶν γεγηρα- κότων. ἀλλὰ δὴ καίτοι τῶν εἰρημένων τινῶν μὲν οὐδ' ὅλως τινῶν δὲ ἀμυδρῶς ἐμφαινόντων τὴν φυσικὴν ἀκολουθίαν καὶ τὰς τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπιγινομένας μεταβολὰς, ὅμως ἴσασιν ὅσοι μὴ τυφλώττουσιν ὑπὸ κακίας ἢ ·ᾳθυμίας περὶ τὴν τούτων κρίσιν, ὅτι δεῖ πρῶτον μὲν γενέσθαι τῶν σπερμάτων καταβολήν, διαρθρω- θέντων δὲ τούτων καθ' ἕκαστον μέρος καὶ μόριον καὶ προελθόν- των εἰς φῶς τῶν κυηθέντων ἐπιγίνεται μὲν ἡ κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἡλικίαν αὔξησις ἥ τε κατ' αὔξησιν τελείωσις, τελειωθέντων δὲ ὕφεσις τῶν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων μέχρι γήρως, εἶτα πεπονηκότων τῶν σωμάτων ἡ διάλυσις. ὥσπερ οὖν ἐπὶ τούτων, οὔτε τοῦ σπέρ- ματος ἐγγεγραμμένην ἔχοντος τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων φυὴν ἢ μορφὴν οὔτε τῆς ζωῆς τὴν εἰς τὰς πρώτας ἀρχὰς διάλυσιν, ὁ τῶν φυσικῶς γινομένων εἱρμὸς παρέχει τὴν πίστιν τοῖς οὐκ ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν φαι- νομένων ἔχουσι τὸ πιστόν, πολὺ μᾶλλον ὁ λόγος ἐκ τῆς φυσικῆς ἀκολουθίας ἀνιχνεύων τὴν ἀλήθειαν πιστοῦται τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἀσφαλέστερος ὢν καὶ κρείττων τῆς πείρας πρὸς πίστωσιν ἀληθείας.