23. But as to thy question, who would grant, or to whom could it appear possible, that that which is in the subject should remain, while the subject perished? For it is monstrous and most utterly foreign to the truth that what would not be unless it were in the subject, could be even when the subject itself was no more. R. Then that which we were seeking is found. A. What dost thou mean? R. What you hear. A. And is it then now clearly made out that the mind is immortal? R. If these things which you have granted are true, with most indisputable clearness: unless perchance you would say that the mind, even though it die, is still the mind. A. I, at least, will never say that; but by this very fact that it perishes it then comes about that it is not the mind, is what I do say. Nor am I shaken in this opinion because it has been said by great philosophers that that thing which, wherever it comes, affords life, cannot admit death into itself. For although the light wheresoever it has been able to gain entrance, makes that place luminous, and, by virtue of that memorable force of contrarieties, cannot admit darkness into itself; yet it is extinguished, and that place is by its extinction made dark. So that which resisted the darkness, neither in any way admitted the darkness into it, and yet made place for it by perishing, as it could have made place for it by departing. Therefore I fear lest death should befall the body in such wise as darkness a place, the mind, like light, sometimes departing, but sometimes being extinguished on the spot; so that now not concerning every death of the body is there security, but a particular kind of death is to be chosen, by which the soul may be conducted out of the body unharmed, and guided to a place, if there is any such place, where it cannot be extinguished. Or, if not even this may be, and the mind, as it were a light, is kindled in the body itself, nor has capacity to endure elsewhere, and every death is a sort of extinction of the soul in the body, or of the life; some sort is to be chosen by which, so far as man is allowed, life, while it is lived, may be lived in security and tranquillity, although I know not how that can come to pass if the soul dies. O greatly blessed they, who, whether from themselves, or from whom you will, have gained the persuasion, that death is not to be feared, even if the soul should perish! But, wretched me, no reasonings, no books, have hitherto been able to persuade of this.

CAPUT XIII. Immortalitas animae colligitur.

23. Illud vero quod interrogasti, quis concesserit, aut cui posse fieri videatur, ut id quod in subjecto est, maneat ipso intereunte subjecto? Monstruosum enim et a veritate alienissimum est, ut id quod non esset nisi in ipso esset, etiam cum ipsum non fuerit possit esse. R. Illud igitur quod quaerebamus inventum est. A. Quid narras? R. Id quod audis. A. Jamne ergo liquido constat animum esse immortalem? R. Si ea quae concessisti vera sint, liquidissime: nisi forte animum dicis, etiamsi moriatur, animum esse. A. Nunquam equidem hoc dixerim; sed eo ipso quo interit, fieri ut animus non sit, dico. Nec me ab hac sententia revocat, quod a magnis philosophis dictum est, eam rem quae, quocumque venerit, vitam praestat, mortem in se admittere non posse. Quamvis enim lumen quocumque intrare potuerit, faciat id lucere, tenebrasque in se propter memorabilem illam vim contrariorum non possit admittere; tamen exstinguitur, locusque ille exstincto lumine tenebratur. Ita illud quod tenebris resistebat, neque ullo modo in se tenebras admisit, et sic eis intereundo locum fecit, ut poterat etiam discedendo. Itaque timeo ne mors ita contingat corpori, ut tenebrae loco, aliquando discedente animo ut lumine, aliquando autem ibidem exstincto; ut jam non de omni morte corporis securitas sit, sed aliquod genus mortis sit optandum, quo anima ex corpore incolumis educatur, perducaturque ad locum, si est ullus talis locus, ubi non possit exstingui. Aut, si ne hoc quidem potest, atque in ipso corpore anima quasi lumen accenditur, nec alibi potest durare, omnisque mors est exstinctio quaedam animae in corpore vel vitae; aliquod genus eligendum est quantum homo sinitur, quo idipsum quod vivitur, cum securitate ac tranquillitate vivatur, quanquam nescio quomodo istud possit fieri si anima moritur. O multum beatos, quibus sive ab ipsis, sive abs quolibet, non esse metuendam mortem, etiamsi anima intereat, persuasum est! At mihi misero nullae adhuc rationes, nulli libri persuadere potuerunt.