Chapter XXXIII.—The Judicial Retribution of These Migrations Refuted with Raillery.

Forasmuch as this doctrine is vindicated even on the principle of judicial retribution, on the pretence that the souls of men obtain as their partners the kind of animals which are suited to their life and deserts,—as if they ought to be, according to their several characters, either slain in criminals destined to execution, or reduced to hard work in menials, or fatigued and wearied in labourers, or foully disgraced in the unclean; or, again, on the same principle, reserved for honour, and love, and care, and attentive regard in characters most eminent in rank and virtue, usefulness, and tender sensibility,—I must here also remark, that if souls undergo a transformation, they will actually not be able to accomplish and experience the destinies which they shall deserve; and the aim and purpose of judicial recompense will be brought to nought, as there will be wanting the sense and consciousness of merit and retribution. And there must be this want of consciousness, if souls lose their condition; and there must ensue this loss, if they do not continue in one stay. But even if they should have permanency enough to remain unchanged until the judgment,—a point which Mercurius Ægyptius recognised, when he said that the soul, after its separation from the body, was not dissipated back into the soul of the universe, but retained permanently its distinct individuality, “in order that it might render,” to use his own words, “an account to the Father of those things which it has done in the body;” —(even supposing all this, I say,) I still want to examine the justice, the solemnity, the majesty, and the dignity of this reputed judgment of God, and see whether human judgment has not too elevated a throne in it—exaggerated in both directions, in its office both of punishments and rewards, too severe in dealing out its vengeance, and too lavish in bestowing its favour. What do you suppose will become of the soul of the murderer? (It will animate), I suppose, some cattle destined for the slaughter-house and the shambles, that it may itself be killed, even as it has killed; and be itself flayed, since it has fleeced others; and be itself used for food, since it has cast to the wild beasts the ill-fated victims whom it once slew in woods and lonely roads. Now, if such be the judicial retribution which it is to receive, is not such a soul likely to find more of consolation than of punishment, in the fact that it receives its coup de grâce from the hands of most expert practitioners—is buried with condiments served in the most piquant styles of an Apicius or a Lurco, is introduced to the tables of your exquisite Ciceros, is brought up on the most splendid dishes of a Sylla, finds its obsequies in a banquet, is devoured by respectable (mouths) on a par with itself, rather than by kites and wolves, so that all may see how it has got a man’s body for its tomb, and has risen again after returning to its own kindred race—exulting in the face of human judgments, if it has experienced them? For these barbarous sentences of death consign to various wild beasts, which are selected and trained even against their nature for their horrible office the criminal who has committed murder, even while yet alive; nay, hindered from too easily dying, by a contrivance which retards his last moment in order to aggravate his punishment. But even if his soul should have anticipated by its departure the sword’s last stroke, his body at all events must not escape the weapon: retribution for his own crime is yet exacted by stabbing his throat and stomach, and piercing his side. After that he is flung into the fire, that his very grave may be cheated.234    Or, “that he may be punished even in his sepulture.” In no other way, indeed, is a sepulture allowed him. Not that any great care, after all, is bestowed on his pyre, so that other animals light upon his remains. At any rate, no mercy is shown to his bones, no indulgence to his ashes, which must be punished with exposure and nakedness. The vengeance which is inflicted among men upon the homicide is really as great as that which is imposed by nature. Who would not prefer the justice of the world, which, as the apostle himself testifies, “beareth not the sword in vain,”235    Rom. xiii. 4. and which is an institute of religion when it severely avenges in defence of human life? When we contemplate, too, the penalties awarded to other crimes—gibbets, and holocausts, and sacks, and harpoons, and precipices—who would not think it better to receive his sentence in the courts of Pythagoras and Empedocles?  For even the wretches whom they will send into the bodies of asses and mules to be punished by drudgery and slavery, how will they congratulate themselves on the mild labour of the mill and the water-wheel, when they recollect the mines, and the convict-gangs, and the public works, and even the prisons and black-holes, terrible in their idle, do-nothing routine? Then, again, in the case of those who, after a course of integrity, have surrendered their life to the Judge, I likewise look for rewards, but I rather discover punishments. To be sure, it must be a handsome gain for good men to be restored to life in any animals whatsoever! Homer, so dreamt Ennius, remembered that he was once a peacock; however, I cannot for my part believe poets, even when wide awake. A peacock, no doubt, is a very pretty bird, pluming itself, at will, on its splendid feathers; but then its wings do not make amends for its voice, which is harsh and unpleasant; and there is nothing that poets like better than a good song. His transformation, therefore, into a peacock was to Homer a penalty, not an honour.  The world’s remuneration will bring him a much greater joy, when it lauds him as the father of the liberal sciences; and he will prefer the ornaments of his fame to the graces of his tail! But never mind! let poets migrate into peacocks, or into swans, if you like, especially as swans have a respectable voice: in what animal will you invest that righteous hero Æacus? In what beast will you clothe the chaste and excellent Dido?  What bird shall fall to the lot of Patience? what animal to the lot of Holiness? what fish to that of Innocence?  Now all creatures are the servants of man; all are his subjects, all his dependants. If by and by he is to become one of these creatures, he is by such a change debased and degraded, he to whom, for his virtues, images, statues, and titles are freely awarded as public honours and distinguished privileges, he to whom the senate and the people vote even sacrifices! Oh, what judicial sentences for gods to pronounce, as men’s recompense after death! They are more mendacious than any human judgments; they are contemptible as punishments, disgusting as rewards; such as the worst of men could never fear, nor the best desire; such indeed, as criminals will aspire to, rather than saints,—the former, that they may escape more speedily the world’s stern sentence,—the latter that they may more tardily incur it. How well, (forsooth), O ye philosophers do you teach us, and how usefully do you advise us, that after death rewards and punishments fall with lighter weight! whereas, if any judgment awaits souls at all, it ought rather to be supposed that it will be heavier at the conclusion of life than in the conduct236    In administratione. thereof, since nothing is more complete than that which comes at the very last—nothing, moreover, is more complete than that which is especially divine. Accordingly, God’s judgment will be more full and complete, because it will be pronounced at the very last, in an eternal irrevocable sentence, both of punishment and of consolation, (on men whose) souls are not to transmigrate into beasts, but are to return into their own proper bodies. And all this once for all, and on “that day, too, of which the Father only knoweth;”237    Mark xiii. 32. (only knoweth,) in order that by her trembling expectation faith may make full trial of her anxious sincerity, keeping her gaze ever fixed on that day, in her perpetual ignorance of it, daily fearing that for which she yet daily hopes.

CAPUT XXXIII.

Etiam cum judicii nomine vindicatur hoc dogma, 0705B quod animae humanae pro vita et meritis genera animalium sortiantur, jugulandae quaeque in occisoriis, et subigendae quaeque in famulatoriis, et fatigandae in operariis, et foedandae in immundis, perinde honorandae, et diligendae, et curandae, et adpetendae in speciosissimis, et probissimis, et utilissimis, et delicatissimis. Et hic dicam: Si mutantur, non ipsae dispungentur quae merebuntur; evacuabitur ratio judicii, si meritorum decrit sensus; deerit autem sensus meritorum, si status verterit animarum; vertit autem status animarum, si non eaedem perseveraverint: aeque si perseveraverint in judicium, quod et Mercurius Aegyptius novit, dicens animam, digressam a corpore, non refundi in animam universi, sed manere determinatam, uti rationem (inquit) Patri reddat eorum quae 0705C in corpore gesserit. Volo judicii utique divini justitiam, gravitatem, majestatem, dignitatem recensere; si non sublimiore fastigio praesidet humana censura, plenior utriusque sententiae honore, poenarum et gratiarum, severior in ulciscendo, et liberalior in largiendo. Quid putas futuram animam homicidae? Aliquod, 0706A credo, pecus lanienae et macello destinatum, ut perinde juguletur, quia et ipsa jugulaverit; perinde decorietur, quia et ipsa despoliaverit; perinde in pabulum proponatur, quia et ipsa bestiis objecerit eos quos in sylvis et aviis trucidaverit . Si ita judicabitur, nonne illa anima plus solatii quam supplicii relatura est? quod funus inter coccos pretiosissimos invenit, quod condimentis apicianis et lurconianis humatur, quod mensis ciceronianis infertur, quod lancibus splendidissimis syllanis effertur, quod exsequias convivium patitur , quod a coaequalibus devoratur potius quam a milvis et lupis, ut in hominis corpore tumulata, et in suum genus regressa, resurrexisse videatur, exsultans adversus humana judicia, si ea experta est. Namque 0706B illa sicarium variis et exquisitis, etiam praeter naturam eruditis feris dissipant , et quidem viventem, imo nec facile morientem , curata mora finis ad plenitudinem poenae: sed et si anima praefugerit ultimo gladio, ne corpus quoque evaserit ferrum, nihilominus jugulo ventreque confossis , costisque transfixis, compensatio proprii facinoris exigitur; inde in ignem datur, ut et sepultura puniatur : aliter denique non licet. Nec tamen tanta est rogi cura , ut reliquias aliae bestiae inveniant . Certe nec ossibus parcitur , nec cineribus indulgetur, nuditate plectendis. Tanta est apud homines homicidii vindicta, quanta ipsa quae vindicatur natura. Quis non praeferat saeculi justitiam, quam et Apostolus non frustra gladio armatam contestatur (Rom., XIII), quae pro homine 0706C saeviendo religiosa est? Si caeterorum quoque scelerum mercedem cogitemus, patibula, et vivicomburia, et culeos, et uncos, et scopulos, cui non expediat apud Pythagoram et Empedoclem sententiam pati? Nam et qui laboribus atque servitiis puniendi, in asinos utique et mulos recorporabuntur, quantum 0707A sibi de pistrinis et aquilegis rotis gratulabuntur , si metallorum, et ergastulorum, et operum publicorum, ipsorumque carcerum, licet otiosorum, recordentur. Perinde qui integre morati commendaverint judici vitam, quaero praemia; sed potius invenio supplicia. Nimirum magna merces bonis in animalia quaecumque restitui? Pavum se meminit Homerus , Ennio somniante; sed poetis nec vigilantibus credam. Etsi pulcherrimus pavus, et quo velit colore cultissimus; sed tacent pinnae , sed displicet vox; et poetae nihil aliud quam cantare malunt. Damnatus est igitur Homerus in pavum, non honoratus. Plus de saeculi remuneratione gaudebit, pater habitus liberalium disciplinarum, ut malit famae suae ornamenta, quam caudae . Age nunc, ut poetae in pavos vel in 0707B cycnos transeant, si vel cycnis decora vox est; quod animal indues viro justo Aeaco , quam bestiam integrae foeminae Didoni? quam volucrem patientia, quam pecudem sanctimonia, quem piscem innocentia sortientur? Omnia famula sunt hominis, omnia subjecta, omnia mancipata. Si quid horum futurus est, deminoratur . Illic ille, cui ob merita vitae imagines, statuae, et tituli, honores publici, privilegia rependuntur? cui curia, cui populus suffragiis immolat? O judicia divina post mortem humanis mendaciora , contemptibilia de poenis, fastidibilia de gratiis, quae nec pessimi metuant, nec optimi cupiant; ad quae magis scelesti, quam sancti quique properabunt: illi, ut justitiam saeculi citius evadant; isti, ut tardius eam capiant? Bene, philosophi, docetis, utiliter suadetis, leviora post mortem supplicia vel 0708A praemia; cum si quod judicium animas manet, gravius debeat credi in dispunctione vitae, quam in administratione: quia nihil plenius, quam quod extremius; nihil autem plenius, quam quod divinius. Deus itaque judicabit plenius , quia extremius, per sententiam aeternam tam supplicii quam refrigerii, nec in bestias, sed in sua corpora revertentibus animabus: et hoc semel, et in eum diem quem solus Pater novit, ut pendula expectatione sollicitudo fidei probetur; semper diem observans, dum semper ignorat; quotidie timens, quod quotidie sperat.