31. A certain neutral character, then, and undecided and doubtful nature of the soul, has made room for philosophy, and found out a reason for its being sought after: while, that is, that fellow373    i.e., the abandoned and dissolute immortal spoken of in last chapter. is full of dread because of evil deeds of which he is guilty; another conceives great hopes if he shall do no evil, and pass his life in obedience to374    Lit., “with.” duty and justice. Thence it is that among learned men, and men endowed with excellent abilities, there is strife as to the nature of the soul, and some say that it is subject to death, and cannot take upon itself the divine substance; while others maintain that it is immortal, and cannot sink under the power of death.375    Lit., “degenerate into mortal nature.” But this is brought about by the law ofthe soul’s neutral character:376    Arnobius seems in this chapter to refer to the doctrine of the Stoics, that the soul must be material, because, unless body and soul were of one substance, there could be no common feeling or mutual affection (so Cleanthes in Nemes. de Nat. Hom., ii. p. 33); and to that held by some of them, that only the souls of the wise remained after death, and these only till the conflagration (Stob., Ecl. Phys., p. 372) which awaits the world, and ends the Stoic great year or cycle. Others, however, held that the souls of the wise became dæmons and demigods (Diog., Lært., vii. 157 and 151). because, on the one hand, arguments present themselves to the one party by which it is found that the soul377    Lit., “they”—eas. is capable of suffering, and perishable; and, on the other hand, are not wanting to their opponents, by which it is shown that the soul is divine and immortal.

XXXI. Medietas ergo quaedam, et animarum anceps ambiguaque natura, locum philosophiae peperit, et causam cur appeteretur, invenit: dum periculum scilicet ex malis iste formidat admissis: alter concipit spes bonas, si nihil sceleris faciat, et cum officio 0859B vitam justitiaque traducat. Inde est quod inter doctos viros, et ingeniorum excellentia praeditos, de animarum qualitate certamen est: et eas alii dicunt mortali esse natura, nec divinam posse substantiam 0860A sustinere: alii vero perpetuas, nec in natura posse degenerare mortali. Quod istud ut fiat, medietatis efficitur lege: quod et illis argumenta sunt praesto, quibus eas passivas atque interibiles invenitur: et his contra non desunt, quibus esse divinas immortalesque monstratur.