On the Soul and the Resurrection.
With a heart still fermenting with my pain, I asked— How can that ever be practised by mankind? There is such an instinctive and deep-seated abhorrenc
Why, what is the especial pain you feel, asked the Teacher, in the mere necessity itself of dying? This common talk of unthinking persons is no suffic
What! is there no occasion for grieving, I replied to her, when we see one who so lately lived and spoke becoming all of a sudden lifeless and motionl
Whilst I was thus enlarging on the subject, the Teacher signed to me with her hand , and said: Surely what alarms and disturbs your mind is not the th
I answered rather audaciously, and without due consideration of what I said, for my passionate grief had not yet given me back my judgment. In fact, I
Away, she cried, with that pagan nonsense! For therein the inventor of lies fabricates false theories only to harm the Truth. Observe this, and nothin
And pray how, I asked, are we to get a firm and unmovable belief in the soul’s continuance? I, too, am sensible of the fact that human life will be be
Well, replied the Teacher, we must seek where we may get a beginning for our discussion upon this point and if you please, let the defence of the opp
When she made this request, and I had deprecated the suspicion that I was making the objections in real earnest, instead of only wishing to get a firm
Would not the defenders of the opposite belief say this: that the body, being composite, must necessarily be resolved into that of which it is compose
The Teacher sighed gently at these words of mine, and then said Maybe these were the objections, or such as these, that the Stoics and Epicureans col
That is the very point, I said, upon which our adversaries cannot fail to have doubts viz. that all things depend on God and are encompassed by Him,
It would be more fitting, she cried, to be silent about such doubts, and not to deign to make any answer to such foolish and wicked propositions for
And pray how, I asked, does this belief in the existence of God prove along with it the existence of the human soul? For God, surely, is not the same
She replied: It has been said by wise men that man is a little world in himself and contains all the elements which go to complete the universe. If th
I rejoined, Nay, it may be very possible to infer a wisdom transcending the universe from the skilful and artistic designs observable in this harmoniz
Most certainly, the Virgin replied, the soul herself, to those who wish to follow the wise proverb and know themselves, is a competent instructress o
What then, I asked, is the soul? Perhaps there may be some possible means of delineating its nature so that we may have some comprehension of this su
Its definition, the Teacher replied, has been attempted in different ways by different writers, each according to his own bent but the following is o
But what, I asked, if, insisting on the great differences which, in spite of a certain quality of matter shared alike by all elements in their visible
Your instance, she replied, and your reasoning upon it, though belonging to the counter-argument, may both of them be made allies of our statement, an
Why, how can you say that?
Because, you see, so to understand, manipulate, and dispose the soulless matter, that the art which is stored away in such mechanisms becomes almost l
That the thing perceived, I replied, is not the same as the thing not perceived, I grant but I do not discover any answer to our question in such a s
We do learn, she replied, much about many things by this very same method, inasmuch as, in the very act of saying a thing is “not so and so,” we by im
Here I interrupted her discourse: If you leave all these out of the account I do not see how you can possibly avoid cancelling along with them the ver
Shame on such absurdity! said she, indignantly interrupting. A fine conclusion this narrow-minded, grovelling view of the world brings us to! If all t
Well, then, I retorted, we only exchange one paradox for another by arguing in this way for our reason will be reduced to the conclusion that the Dei
Say not so, she replied to talk so also is blasphemous. Rather, as the Scripture tells you, say that the one is like the other. For that which is “ma
That those atoms, I rejoined, should unite and again be separated, and that this constitutes the formation and dissolution of the body, no one would d
But the intelligent and undimensional, she replied, is neither contracted nor diffused (contraction and diffusion being a property of body only) but
Upon this I recurred to the definition which she had previously given of the soul, and I said that to my thinking her definition had not indicated dis
You are quite justified, she replied, in raising this question, and it has ere this been discussed by many elsewhere namely, what we are to think of
What then, I asked the Teacher, are we to think about this? For I cannot yet see how we can fitly repudiate faculties which are actually within us.
You see, she replied, there is a battle of the reason with them and a struggle to rid the soul of them and there are men in whom this struggle has en
And yet, I rejoined to the virgin, we see no slight help afforded for improvement to the virtuous from all these conditions. Daniel’s desire was his g
I think, replied the Teacher, that I am myself responsible for this confusion arising from different accounts of the matter for I did not state it as
Much moved by these words, I said: To any one who reflects indeed, your exposition, advancing as it does in this consecutive manner, though plain and
And who, she replied, could deny that truth is to be found only in that upon which the seal of Scriptural testimony is set? So, if it is necessary tha
She ceased after this statement and allowed the discussion a short interval, in which I reviewed mentally all that had been said and reverting to tha
Clearly, replied the Teacher, you have not quite attended to the argument. In speaking of the soul’s migration from the seen to the unseen, I thought
And how, then, I asked, is it that some think that by the underworld is meant an actual place, and that it harbours within itself
Well, replied the Teacher, our doctrine will be in no ways injured by such a supposition. For if it is true, what you say above
But what, I asked, if your opponent should shield himself behind the Apostle, where he says that every reasoning creature, in the restitution of all t
We shall stand by our doctrine, answered the Teacher, even if we should hear them adducing these words. For the existence of the soul (after death) we
But if some were to ask the meaning of the Apostle in this utterance, what is one to say? Would you remove all signification of place from the passage
I do not think, she replied, that the divine Apostle divided the intellectual world into localities, when he named part as in heaven, part as on earth
When she had finished, I hesitated a moment, and then said: I am not yet satisfied about the thing which we have been inquiring into after all that h
She waited a moment and then said: Give me leave to invent a fanciful simile in order to illustrate the matter before us: even though that which I sup
You seem, I interrupted, in this passing remark to have made an excellent defence of the faith in the Resurrection. By it, I think, the opponents of t
That is very true, the Teacher replied. For we may hear these opponents urging the following difficulty. “The atoms are resolved, like to like, into t
Then to meet such an objection, I rejoined, the above opinion about the soul will, as I said, avail namely, that she remains after dissolution in tho
The following illustration also, the Teacher went on, might be very properly added to those already brought forward, to show that the soul has not nee
I applauded this as well devised to bring out the natural features of the case before us and I said: It is very well to speak like this and to believ
The Teacher answered: The expressions of that narrative of the Word are certainly material but still many hints are interspersed in it to rouse the s
What then, I asked, are the fire and the gulf and the other features in the picture? Are they not that which they are said to be?
I think, she replied, that the Gospel signifies by means of each of them certain doctrines with regard to our question of the soul. For when the patri
What then, I asked, is the doctrine here?
Why, seeing that Lazarus’ soul is occupied with his present blessings and turns round to look at nothing that he has left, while the rich man is still
Then, after a moment’s reflection on the meaning of these latter words, I said: I think that a contradiction now arises between what you have said and
How so? she asked.
Why, when every unreasoning instinct is quenched within us after our purgation, this principle of desire will not exist any more than the other princi
To that objection, she replied, we answer this. The speculative and critical faculty is the property of the soul’s godlike part for it is by these th
Then it seems, I said, that it is not punishment chiefly and principally that the Deity, as Judge, afflicts sinners with but He operates, as your arg
That, said the Teacher, is my meaning and also that the agony will be measured by the amount of evil there is in each individual. For it would not be
But, said I, what help can one find in this devout hope, when one considers the greatness of the evil in undergoing torture even for a single year an
Why , either we must plan to keep the soul absolutely untouched and free from any stain of evil or, if our passionate nature makes that quite impossi
What then, I asked, are we to say to those whose hearts fail at these calamities ?
We will say to them, replied the Teacher, this. “It is foolish, good people, for you to fret and complain of the chain of this fixed sequence of life’
But it somehow seems to me now, I said, that the doctrine of the Resurrection necessarily comes on for our discussion a doctrine which I think is eve
As for the thinkers, the Teacher went on, outside our own system of thought, they have, with all their diverse ways of looking at things, one in one p
The Teacher finished her exposition and to the many persons sitting by her bedside the whole discussion seemed now to have arrived at a fitting concl
But, said she, which of these points has been left unnoticed in what has been said?
Why, the actual doctrine of the Resurrection, I replied.
And yet, she answered, much in our long and detailed discussion pointed to that.
Then are you not aware, I insisted, of all the objections, a very swarm of them, which our antagonists bring against us in connection with that hope o
She, however, replied, First, I think, we must briefly run over the scattered proclamations of this doctrine in Holy Scripture they shall give the fi
But that, said I, was not the point in question. Most of your hearers will assent to the fact that there will some day be a Resurrection, and that man
When I had finished, the Teacher thus replied, You have attacked the doctrines connected with the Resurrection with some spirit, in the way of rhetori
And who, she replied, could deny that truth is to be found only in that upon which the seal of Scriptural testimony is set? So, if it is necessary that something from the Gospels should be adduced in support of our view, a study of the Parable of the Wheat and Tares will not be here out of place. The Householder there sowed good seed; (and we are plainly the “house”). But the “enemy,” having watched for the time when men slept, sowed that which was useless in that which was good for food, setting the tares in the very middle of the wheat. The two kinds of seed grew up together; for it was not possible that seed put into the very middle of the wheat should fail to grow up with it. But the Superintendent of the field forbids the servants to gather up the useless crop, on account of their growing at the very root of the contrary sort; so as not to root up59 There is a variety of readings from the Codd. here; συνεγκαταλείη, συνεκτάλῃ, συνεκταλείη, συνεκταλαί& 219·, συγκαταλύ& 219·: in two (and on the margins of two others), συνεκτίλῃ, which Krabinger has adopted. The Paris Editt. have συνεκτίνει the nutritious along with that foreign growth. Now we think that Scripture means by the good seed the corresponding impulses of the soul, each one of which, if only they are cultured for good, necessarily puts forth the fruit of virtue within us. But since there has been scattered60 παρενεσπάρη, the idea of badness being contained in παρὰ, which in such cases is always the first compound. One Cod. has the curious inversion ἐνπαρεσπάρη amongst these the bad seed of the error of judgment as to the true Beauty which is alone in its intrinsic nature such, and since this last has been thrown into the shade by the growth of delusion which springs up along with it (for the active principle of desire does not germinate and increase in the direction of that natural Beauty which was the object of its being sown in us, but it has changed its growth so as to move towards a bestial and unthinking state, this very error as to Beauty carrying its impulse towards this result; and in the same way the seed of anger does not steel us to be brave, but only arms us to fight with our own people; and the power of loving deserts its intellectual objects and becomes completely mad for the immoderate enjoyment of pleasures of sense; and so in like manner our other affections put forth the worse instead of the better growths),—on account of this the wise Husbandman leaves this growth that has been introduced amongst his seed to remain there, so as to secure our not being altogether stripped of better hopes by desire having been rooted out along with that good-for-nothing growth. If our nature suffered such a mutilation, what will there be to lift us up to grasp the heavenly delights? If love is taken from us, how shall we be united to God? If anger is to be extinguished, what arms shall we possess against the adversary? Therefore the Husbandman leaves those bastard seeds within us, not for them always to overwhelm the more precious crop, but in order that the land itself (for so, in his allegory, he calls the heart) by its native inherent power, which is that of reasoning, may wither up the one growth and may render the other fruitful and abundant: but if that is not done, then he commissions the fire to mark the distinction in the crops. If, then, a man indulges these affections in a due proportion and holds them in his own power instead of being held in theirs, employing them for an instrument as a king does his subjects’ many hands, then efforts towards excellence more easily succeed for him. But should he become theirs, and, as when any slaves mutiny against their master, get enslaved61 ἐξανδραποδισθείη; this is adopted by Krabinger from the Haselman Cod. for the common ἐξ ὧν δραποδισθείη by those slavish thoughts and ignominiously bow before them; a prey to his natural inferiors, he will be forced to turn to those employments which his imperious masters command. This being so, we shall not pronounce these emotions of the soul, which lie in the power of their possessors for good or ill, to be either virtue or vice. But, whenever their impulse is towards what is noble, then they become matter for praise, as his desire did to Daniel, and his anger to Phineas, and their grief to those who nobly mourn. But if they incline to baseness, then these are, and they are called, bad passions.
_Μ. Ἡ δὲ, Καὶ τίς ἂν ἀντείποι, φησὶ, μὴ οὐχὶ ἐν τούτῳ μόνῳ τὴν ἀλήθειαν τιθέσθω, ᾧ σφραγὶς ἔπεστι τῆς γραφικῆς μαρτυρίας; Οὐκοῦν εἰ χρή τι καὶ τῆς τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου διδασκαλίας πρὸς τὴν τοῦ δόγματος τούτου συνηγορίαν παραληφθῆναι, οὐκ ἀπὸ καιροῦ γένοιτ' ἂν ἡμῖν τῆς παραβολῆς τῶν ζιζανίων ἡ θεωρία. Ἔσπειρε γὰρ ἐκεῖ τὸ καλὸν σπέρμα ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης (ἡμεῖς δὲ πάντως ὁ οἶκός ἐσμεν): καθεύδοντας δὲ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐπιφυλάξας ἐνέσπειρεν ὁ ἐχθρὸς τῷ τροφίμῳ τὸ ἄχρηστον, αὐτῷ τῷ σίτῳ κατὰ τὸ μέσον ἐνθεὶς τὸ ζιζάνιον. Καὶ συνεβλάστησαν ἀλλήλοις τὰ σπέρματα. Οὐ γὰρ ἦν δυνατὸν τὸ αὐτῷ τῷ σίτῳ ἐντεθὲν σπέρμα μὴ σὺν ἐκείνῳ βλαστῆσαι. Κωλύει δὲ τοὺς ὑπηρέτας ὁ τῆς γεωργίας ἔφορος μὴ ἀποτίλλειν τὸ ἄχρηστον διὰ τὴν ἐν τῇ ῥίζῃ τῶν ἐναντίων συμφυΐαν, ὡς ἂν μὴ τὸ ἀλλότριον συνεκτίνει τὸ τρόφιμον. Τὰς γὰρ τοιαύτας τῆς ψυχῆς ὁρμὰς διὰ τῶν καλῶν σπερμάτων οἰόμεθα τὸν λόγον ἐνδείκνυσθαι, ὧν ἕκαστον, εἰ μόνον πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐγεωργεῖτο, τὸν τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐν ἡμῖν καρπὸν πάντως ἐβλάστησεν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ παρενεσπάρη τούτοις ἡ περὶ τὴν τοῦ καλοῦ κρίσιν δι' ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ τὸ ὄντως καὶ μόνον κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν φύσιν καλὸν, διὰ τοῦ συναναφυέντος βλαστοῦ τῆς ἀπάτης ἐπεσκοτίσθη: (τὸ γὰρ ἐπιθυμητικὸν οὐ πρὸς τὸ φύσει καλὸν οὗ χάριν κατεσπάρη ἡμῖν ἐφύη τε καὶ ἀνέδραμεν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ κτηνῶδες καὶ ἄλογον τὸν βλαστὸν μετεποίησε τῆς περὶ τὸ καλὸν ἀκρισίας, πρὸς τοῦτο τὴν τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐνεγκοῦσαν ὁρμήν. Ὡσαύτως καὶ τὸ τοῦ θυμοῦ σπέρμα οὐ πρὸς ἀνδρείαν ἐστόμωσεν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὁμοφύλων μάχην ἐξώπλισεν: ἥ τε τῆς ἀγάπης δύναμις τῶν νοητῶν ἀπέστη, περὶ τὴν τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἀπόλαυσιν πέρα τοῦ μέτρου ὁλομανήσασα, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον, τοὺς χείρονας βλαστοὺς ἀντὶ τῶν κρειττόνων ἐξήνθησεν:) τούτου χάριν ἀφίησιν ὁ σοφὸς γεωργὸς τὸ ἐμφυὲν τῷ σπέρματι βλάστημα ἐν αὐτῷ εἶναι, προμηθείᾳ τοῦ μὴ γυμνωθῆναι τῶν κρειττόνων ἡμᾶς, καθόλου τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τῷ ἀχρήστῳ βλαστῷ συνεκριζωθείσης. Εἰ γὰρ τοῦτο πάθῃ ἡ φύσις, τί ἔσται τὸ ἐπαῖρον ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἐπουρανίων συνάφειαν; ἢ τῆς ἀγάπης ἀφαιρεθείσης, τίνι τρόπῳ πρὸς τὸ Θεῖον συναφθησόμεθα; Τοῦ δὲ θυμοῦ κατασκευασθέντος, ποῖον ὅπλον κατὰ τοῦ προσπαλαίοντος ἕξομεν; Ἐφίησι τοίνυν τὰ νόθα τῶν σπερμάτων ἐν ἡμῖν ὁ γεωργὸς, οὐχ ὡς ἀεὶ κατακρατεῖν τῆς τιμιωτέρας σπορᾶς, ἀλλ' ὡς αὐτὴν τὴν ἄρουραν (οὕτω γὰρ τὴν καρδίαν τροπικῶς ὀνομάζει) διὰ τῆς ἐγκειμένης αὐτῇ φυσικῆς δυνάμεως, ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁ λογισμὸς, τὸ μὲν ξηρᾶναι τῶν βλαστημάτων, τὸ δὲ κάρπιμον καὶ εὐθαλὲς ἀπεργάσασθαι. Εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτο γένοιτο, τῷ πυρὶ τὴν τῆς γεωργίας διάκρισιν ταμιεύεται.
Οὐκοῦν εἰ μέν τις τούτοις κατὰ τὸν δέοντα χρήσαι λόγον, ἐν αὐτῷ λαμβάνηται ἐκεῖνα, καὶ μὴ αὐτὸς ἐν ἐκείνοις, ἀλλ' οἷόν τις βασιλεὺς τῇ πολυχειρίᾳ τῶν ὑπηκόων συνεργῷ χρώμενος, ῥᾷον κατορθώσει τὸ κατ' ἀρετὴν σπουδαζόμενον. Εἰ δὲ ἐκείνοις γένοιτο, καθάπερ δούλων τινῶν ἐπαναστάντων τῷ κεκτημένῳ, καὶ ἐξ ὧν δραποδισθείη ταῖς δουλικαῖς ἐπινοίαις ἀγεννῶς ὑποκύψαι, καὶ κτῆμα γένοιτο τῶν ὑπεζευγμένων κατὰ τὴν φύσιν αὐτῷ, πρὸς ἐκεῖνα κατ' ἀνάγκην μετατεθήσεται, πρὸς ἅπερ ἂν ἡ ἐπικράτησις τῶν καθηγουμένων βιάζεται. Εἰ δὲ ταῦτα τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον, οὔτε ἀρετὴν, οὔτε κακίαν ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν ταῦτα ἀποφανούμεθα, ὅσα κινήματα τῆς ψυχῆς ὄντα ἐπὶ τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ τῶν χρωμένων κεῖται, ἢ καλῶς ἢ ἑτέρως ἔχειν. Ἀλλ' ὅταν μὲν αὐτοῖς πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἡ κίνησις ᾖ, ἐπαίνων γίνεσθαι ὕλην, ὡς τῷ Δανιὴλ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν, καὶ τῷ Φινεὲς τὸν θυμὸν, καὶ τῷ καλῶς πενθοῦντι τὴν λύπην. Εἰ δὲ πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον γένοιτο ἡ ῥοπὴ, τότε πάθη γίνεσθαι ταῦτα καὶ ὀνομάζεσθαι.
