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 those very atoms in which she first grew up, and, like a guardian placed over private property, does not abandon them when they are mingled with their kindred atoms, and by the subtle ubiquity of her intelligence makes no mistake about them, with all their subtle minuteness, but diffuses herself along with those which belong to herself when they are being mingled with their kindred dust, and suffers no exhaustion in keeping up with the whole number of them when they stream back into the universe, but remains with them, no matter in what direction or in what fashion Nature may arrange them. But should the signal be given by the All-disposing Power for these scattered atoms to combine again, then, just as when every one of the various ropes that hang from one block answer at one and the same moment76    same moment. κατὰ ταὐτὸν: on the authority of 2 Codd. Mon. to the pull from that centre, so, following this force of the soul which acts upon the various atoms, all these, once so familiar with each other, rush simultaneously together and form the cable of the body by means of the soul, each single one of them being wedded to its former neighbour and embracing an old acquaintance.

_Γ. Οὐκοῦν, ὡς εἶπον, αὐτάρκης ἡμῖν πρὸς ταύτην τὴν ἔνστασιν ἡ τοιαύτη περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἂν εἴη ὑπόληψις: τὸ οἷς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐνεφύη στοιχείοις τούτοις, καὶ μετὰ τὴν διάλυσιν παραμένειν, οἷον εἰ φύλακα τῶν οἰκείων καθισταμένην, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀνακράσει τῇ πρὸς τὸ ὁμόφυλον οὐ διαφιεῖσαν τὸ ἴδιον ἐν τῷ λεπτῷ τε καὶ εὐκινήτῳ τῆς νοερᾶς δυνάμεως, οὐδεμίαν ἐν τῇ λεπτομερίᾳ τῶν στοιχείων ὑπομένουσαν πλάνην: ἀλλὰ συνδιαλύεσθαι τοῖς ἰδίοις καταμιγνυμένοις πρὸς τὸ ὁμόφυλον, καὶ μὴ ἀτονεῖν συνδιεξιοῦσαν αὐτοῖς, ὅταν πρὸς τὸ πᾶν ἀναχέωνται, ἀλλ' ἐν αὐτῷ ἀεὶ μένειν ὅποιπερ αὐτὰ, καὶ ὅπως παρασκευάσῃ ἡ φύσις.
Εἰ δὲ γένοιτο πάλιν παρὰ τῆς τὸ πᾶν οἰκονομούσης δυνάμεως τοῖς διαλυθεῖσι πρὸς τὴν συνδρομὴν τὸ ἐνδόσιμον: τότε καθάπερ εἰ μιᾶς ἀρχῆς ἐξαφθεῖεν σχοῖνοι διάφοροι, ὁμοῦ καὶ κατ' αὐτὸν αἱ πᾶσαι τῷ ἐφελκομένῳ συνέπονται: οὕτως ἐν μιᾷ τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμει, τῆς τῶν στοιχείων διαφορᾶς ἑλκομένης, ἀθρόως ἐν τῇ συνδρομῇ τῶν οἰκείων, ἡ τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν σειρὰ διὰ τῆς ψυχῆς συμπλακήσεται, καταλλήλως ἑκάστου πάλιν πρὸς τὸ ἀρχαῖον καὶ σύνηθες πλακουμένου, καὶ περιπτυσσομένου τὸ γνώριμον