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38

the body that has cohabited with the soul being disposed, there is for it a certain latent relation and recognition of its own through the co-mingling, as if certain marks were impressed by nature, through which their community remains unconfused, being distinguished by its peculiarities. Therefore, since the soul draws again to itself what is kindred and its own, what trouble, tell me, is it for the divine power to hinder the concourse of what is its own, when they are urged by some ineffable attraction of nature towards their own?

For that some marks of our composite nature remain with the soul, even after dissolution, is shown by the dialogue in Hades, while the bodies have been given over to the tomb, but some bodily mark has remained with the souls, through which both Lazarus was recognized, and the rich man was not unknown. Therefore, it is not beyond likelihood to believe again that the resolution from the common to the particular happens for the rising bodies, and especially for the one who examines our nature more diligently. For our being is not entirely in flux and change. For then it would be wholly incomprehensible, having by nature no stability; but according to the more precise account, one part of us is stable, while the other proceeds through alteration. For the body is altered through growth and diminution, like certain garments, putting on the successive ages. But the form stands on its own, unchangeable through every turn, not departing from the marks once impressed upon it by nature, but appearing with its own distinguishing characteristics in all the changes of the body. But let the alteration from affliction, which happens to the form, be excluded from the account; for the deformity from sickness takes over the form like some alien mask, 228 and when this is removed, just as in the case of Naaman the Syrian, or in the cases of those recorded in the Gospel, again the form hidden by the affliction was revealed through health in its own characteristics. Therefore, it is not that which is flowing in alteration and changing, but that which is permanent and constant in our composite being, that adheres to the God-like part of the soul. And since the qualitative variations of the mixture transform the differences according to form, and the mixture is nothing other than the mingling of the elements, and we say the elements are those things underlying the constitution of the universe, through which the human body is also constituted, it is necessary that, as the form remains with the soul like the impress of a seal, the things which received the impression on the seal are not unknown by it, but at the time of the re-constitution from the elements it receives again to itself those things which would fit the impression of the form; and it would certainly fit those things which were originally impressed on the form. Therefore, it is not beyond likelihood that what is particular should be resolved again from the common to each individual. And it is said that quicksilver, when poured from its container, over some sloping and dusty place, formed into small spheres, is scattered over the ground, mixing with none of the things it meets.

But if someone were to gather again into one that which was scattered in many places, it automatically flows back to what is of its own kind, being hindered by no intermediary from its proper mixture. I think we must think something of this kind also concerning the human composite; if only the signal were given by God, the appropriate parts would automatically be re-mingled with their own, with no labor arising from these things for the one who re-constitutes nature from the elements. For in the case of things that grow in the earth, we see no labor of nature upon the wheat, or the millet, or any other of the grain or legume seeds, in changing into stalk and awns and ears of corn. For without effort, automatically, the appropriate nourishment passes from the common store to the particularity of each of the seeds. If, therefore, while a common moisture underlies all growing things, each of the things nourished by it has drawn what is appropriate for the increase of its own being; what is new, if also in the account of the resurrection from each of the rising

38

συνοικῆ σαν σῶμα τῆς ψυχῆς διακειμένης, ἔστι τις κατὰ τὸ λεληθὸς αὐτῇ διὰ τῆς συνανακράσεως τοῦ οἰκείου σχέσις τε καὶ ἐπίγνωσις, οἷον σημείων τινῶν παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἐπικειμένων, δι' ὧν ἡ κοινό της ἀσύγχυτος μένει διακρινομένη τοῖς ἰδιά ζουσι. Τῆς τοίνυν ψυχῆς τὸ συγγενές τε καὶ ἴδιον ἐφ' ἑαυτὴν πάλιν ἑλκούσης, τίς πόνος, εἰπέ μοι, τῇ θείᾳ δυνάμει κωλῦσαι τῶν οἰκείων τὴν συν δρομὴν, ἀῤῥήτῳ τινὶ τῇ τῆς φύσεως ὁλκῇ πρὸς τὸ ἴδιον ἐπειγομένων;

Τὸ γὰρ ἐπιδιαμένειν τινὰ τῇ ψυχῇ, καὶ μετὰ τὴν διάλυσιν, σημεῖα τοῦ ἡμετέρου συγ κρίματος, δείκνυσιν ὁ κατὰ τὸν ᾅδην διάλογος, τῶν μὲν σωμάτων τῷ τάφῳ παραδοθέντων, γνωρίσματος δέ τινος σωματικοῦ ταῖς ψυχαῖς παραμείναντος, δι' οὗ καὶ ὁ Λάζαρος ἐγνωρίζετο, καὶ οὐκ ἠγνοεῖτο ὁ πλούσιος. Οὐκοῦν οὐδὲν ἕξω τοῦ εἰκότος ἐστὶ, πάλιν πιστεύειν ἐκ τοῦ κοινοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἴδιον τὴν ἀνάλυσιν γίνεσθαι τῶν ἀνισταμένων σωμάτων, καὶ μάλιστά γε τῷ φιλοπονώτερον τὴν φύσιν ἡμῶν κατεξετάζοντι. Οὔτε γὰρ δι' ὅλου ἐν ῥύσει καὶ μεταβολῇ τὸ ἡμέτερον. Ἦ γὰρ ἂν ἄληπτον ἦν καθόλου τῷ μηδεμίαν στάσιν ἔχειν ἐκ φύσεως· ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν ἀκριβέστερον λόγον, τὸ μέν τι ἔστηκε τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν, τὸ δὲ δι' ἀλλοιώ σεως πρόεισιν. Ἀλλοιοῦται μὲν γὰρ δι' αὐξήσεώς τε καὶ μειώσεως τὸ σῶμα, οἷον ἱμάτιά τινα, τὰς καθ εξῆς ἡλικίας μετενδυόμενον. Ἕστηκε δὲ διὰ πάσης τροπῆς ἀμετάβλητον ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ τὸ εἶδος, τῶν ἅπαξ ἐπιβληθέντων αὐτῷ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως σημείων οὐκ ἐξιστάμενον, ἀλλὰ πάσαις ταῖς κατὰ τὸ σῶμα τροπαῖς μετὰ τῶν ἰδίων ἐμφαινόμενον γνωρισμάτων. Ὑπεξ αιρείσθω δὲ τοῦ λόγου ἡ ἐκ πάθους ἀλλοίωσις, ἡ τῷ εἴδει ἐπισυμβαίνουσα· οἶον γάρ τι προσωπεῖον ἀλλό τριον ἡ κατὰ τὴν νόσον ἀμορφία διαλαμβάνει τὸ εἶδος, 228 ἧς τῷ λόγῳ περιαιρεθείσης. καθάπερ ἐπὶ Νεεμὰν τοῦ Σύρου, ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον ἱστορηθέντων, πάλιν τὸ κεκρυμμένον ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους εἶδος, διὰ τῆς ὑγείας ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνεφάνη γνωρίσμασι. Τῷ τοίνυν θεοειδεῖ τῆς ψυχῆς οὐ τὸ ῥέον ἐν τῇ ἀλ λοιώσει καὶ μεθιστάμενον, ἀλλὰ τὸ μόνιμόν τε καὶ ὡσ αύτως ἔχον ἐν τῷ καθ' ἡμᾶς συγκρίματι, τούτῳ προσ φύεται. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ τὰς κατὰ τὸ εἶδος διαφορὰς αἱ ποιαὶ τῆς κράσεως παραλλαγαὶ μεταμορφοῦσιν, ἡ δὲ κρᾶσις οὐκ ἄλλη τις παρὰ τὴν τῶν στοιχείων μίξιν ἐστὶ, στοι χεῖα δέ φαμεν τὰ τῇ κατασκευῇ τοῦ παντὸς ὑποκεί μενα, δι' ὧν καὶ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον συνέστηκε σῶμα, ἀναγ καίως τοῦ εἴδους οἷον ἐκμαγείῳ σφραγίδος τῇ ψυχῇ παραμείναντος, οὐδὲ τὰ ἐναπομαξάμενα τῇ σφραγῖδι τὸν τύπον ὑπ' αὐτῆς ἀγνοεῖται, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς ἀναστοιχειώσεως ἐκεῖνα δέχεται πάλιν πρὸς ἑαυτὴν, ἅπερ ἂν ἐναρμόσῃ τῷ τύπῳ τοῦ εἴδους· ἐναρμόσειε δὲ πάντως ἐκεῖνα, ὅσα κατ' ἀρχὰς ἐνετυπώθη τῷ εἴ δει. Οὐκοῦν οὐδὲν ἔξω τοῦ εἰκότος ἐστὶ, πάλιν ἐκ τοῦ κοινοῦ πρὸς τὸ καθέκαστον ἐπαναλύειν τὸ ἴδιον. Λέ γεται δὲ καὶ τὴν ὑδράργυρον προχεθεῖσαν τοῦ περι έχοντος, καθ' ὑπτίου τινὸς καὶ κονιορτώδους χωρίου. εἰς λεπτὰ σφαιρωθεῖσαν, κατὰ τὴν γῆν διασκίδνασθαι, πρὸς οὐδὲν τῶν ἐπιτυχόντων ἐμμιγνυμένην.

Εἰ δέ τις πάλιν τὸ πολλαχῆ κατεσπαρμένον εἰς ἒν συναγεί ρειεν, αὐτομάτως ἀναχεῖσθαι πρὸς τὸ ὁμόφυλον, οὐδενὶ μέσῳ πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν μίξιν διειργομένην. Τοιοῦτόν τι χρῆναι νομίζω καὶ περὶ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον σύγκριμα διανοεῖσθαι· εἰ μόνον γένοιτο παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ ἐν δόσιμον, αὐτομάτως τὰ κατάλληλα μέρη τοῖς οἰκείοις ἐπανακίρνασθαι, μηδεμιᾶς ἐργωδίας τῷ ἀναστοι χειοῦντι τὴν φύσιν διὰ τούτων ἐγγινομένης. Καὶ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐν τῇ γῇ φυομένων, οὐδένα πόνον ὁρῶμεν τῆς φύσεως ἐπὶ τὸν πυρὸν, ἢ τὴν κέγχρον, ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν σιτηρῶν ἢ χεδροπῶν σπερμάτων, ἐν τῷ μετα βάλλειν εἰς καλάμην καὶ ἀθέρικας καὶ ἀστάχυας. Ἀπραγματεύτως γὰρ κατὰ τὸ αὐτόματον ἡ κατάλ ληλος τροφὴ ἐκ τοῦ κοινοῦ πρὸς τὴν ἑκάστου τῶν σπερμάτων ἰδιότητα μεταβαίνει. Εἰ οὖν κοινῆς πᾶσι τοῖς φυομένοις τῆς ἰκμάδος ὑποκειμένης, ἕκαστον τῶν δι' αὐτῆς τρεφομένων τὸ κατάλληλον ἔσπασεν εἰς τὴν τοῦ οἰκείου προσθήκην· τί καινὸν, εἰ καὶ ἐν τῷ τῆς ἀναστάσεως λόγῳ παρ' ἑκάστου τῶν ἀνιστα