Chap. XIII.—Of the Soul, and the Testimonies Concerning Its Eternity.

I have made it evident, as I think, that the soul is not subject to dissolution. It remains that I bring forward witnesses by whose authority my arguments may be confirmed. And I will not now allege the testimony of the prophets, whose system and divination consist in this alone, the teaching that man was created for the worship of God, and for receiving immortality from Him; but I will rather bring forward those whom they who reject the truth cannot but believe. Hermes, describing the nature of man, that he might show how he was made by God, introduced this statement: “And the same out of two natures—the immortal and the mortal—made one nature, that of man, making the same partly immortal, and partly mortal; and bringing this, he placed it in the midst, between that nature which was divine and immortal, and that which was mortal and changeable, that seeing all things, he may admire all things.” But some one may perhaps reckon him in the number of the philosophers, although he has been placed among the gods, and honoured by the Egyptians under the name of Mercury, and may give no more authority to him than to Plato or Pythagoras. Let us therefore seek for greater testimony. A certain Polites asked Apollo of Miletus whether the soul remains after death or goes to dissolution; and he replied in these verses:—  

What do the Sibylline poems say? Do they not declare that this is so, when they say that the time will come when God will judge the living and the dead?—whose authority we will hereafter bring forward.1361    [     “Dies iræ, dies illa,…     Teste David et Sibylla ”     i.e., divine and ethnic oracles alike are full of it. See note 9, p. 116, supra. Elucidation V.]   Therefore the opinion entertained by Democritus, and Epicurus, and Dicæarchus concerning the dissolution of the soul is false; and they would not venture to speak concerning the destruction of souls, in the presence of any magician, who knew that souls are called forth from the lower regions by certain incantations, and that they are at hand, and afford themselves to be seen by human eyes, and speak, and foretell future events; and if they should thus venture, they would be overpowered by the fact itself, and by proofs presented to them. But because they did not comprehend the nature of the soul, which is so subtle that it escapes the eyes of the human mind, they said that it perishes. What of Aristoxenus, who denied that there is any soul at all, even while it lives in the body? But as on the lyre harmonious sound, and the strain which musicians call harmony, is produced by the tightening of the strings, so he thought that the power of perception existed in bodies from the joining together of the vitals, and from the vigour of the limbs; than which nothing can be said more senseless. Truly he had his eyes uninjured, but his heart was blind, with which he did not see that he lived, and had the mind by which he had conceived that very thought. But this has happened to many philosophers, that they did not believe in the existence of any object which is not apparent to the eyes; whereas the sight of the mind ought to be much clearer than that of the body, for perceiving those things the force and nature of which are rather felt than seen.  

CAPUT XIII. De Anima, ac testimonia de ejus aeternitate.

Declaravi, ut opinor, animam non esse solubilem. Superest citare testes, quorum auctoritate argumenta firmentur. Neque nunc Prophetas in testimonium vocabo, 0777B quorum ratio et divinatio in hoc solo posita est, ut ad cultum Dei, et ad immortalitatem ab eo accipiendam creari hominem doceant: sed eos potius, quibus istos, qui respuunt veritatem, credere sit necesse. Hermes naturam hominis describens, ut doceret quemadmodum esset a Deo factus, haec intulit: καὶ τὸ αὐτό ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων φύσεων τῆς τε ἀθανάτου καὶ τῆς θνητῆς μίαν ἐποίει φύσιν ἀνθρώπου, τὸν αὐτὸν τῇ μὲν 0778A ἀθάνατον πῇ δὲ θνητὸν ποιήσας, καὶ τοῦτον φέρων ἐν μέσῳ θείας και ἀθανάτου φύσεως, καὶ τῆς θνητῆς, καὶ μεταβλητοῦ κατεστήσατο, ἵνα ὁρῶν ἅπαντα, ἅπαντα καὶ θαυμάσῃ. Sed hunc fortasse aliquis in numero philosophorum computet, quamvis in deos relatus Mercurii nomine ab Aegyptiis honoretur, nec plus ei auctoritatis tribuat, quam Platoni, aut Pythagorae. Majus igitur testimonium requiramus. Polites quidam consuluit Appollinem Milesium, utrumne maneat anima post mortem, an dissolvatur; et respondit his versibus: Ψυχὴ μὲν μέχρι οὖ δεσμοῖς πρὸς σῶμα κρατεῖται, Φθαρτὰ νοοῦσα πάθη, θνηταῖς ἀλγηδόσιν εἴκει. Ἡνίκα δ᾽ ἀνάλυσιν βροτέην μετὰ σῶμα μαρανθὲν Ὡκίστην εὔρηται, ἐς αἰθέρα πᾶσα φορεῖται Αἰὲν ἀγήραος οὖσα, μένει δ᾽ εἰς πάμπαν ἀπειρὴς. Πρωτόγονος γὰρ τοῦτο Θεοῦ διέταξε πρόνοια.

0778B Quid carmina Sibyllina? Nonne hoc ita esse declarant, cum fore aliquando denuntiant, ut a Deo de vivis ac mortuis judicetur? quorum exempla paulo post inferemus. Falsa est ergo Democriti, et Epicuri, et Dicaearchi de animae dissolutione sententia: qui profecto non auderent de interitu animarum mago aliquo praesente disserere, qui sciret certis carminibus ciere ab inferis animas, et adesse, et praebere se humanis 0779A oculis videndas, et loqui, et futura praedicere; et si auderent, re ipsa et documentis praesentibus vincerentur. Sed quia non pervidebant animae rationem, quae tam subtilis est, ut oculos humanae mentis effugiat, interire dixerunt. Quid Aristoxenus, 0779A qui negavit omnino ullam esse animam, etiam cum vivit in corpore? sed sicut in fidibus ex intentione nervorum effici concordem sonum, atque cantum, quem musici harmoniam vocant: ita in corporibus ex compage viscerum ac vigore membrorum vim sentiendi existere; quo nihil dici delirius potest. Verum ille oculos quidem habuit incolumes, cor tamen caecum, quo vivere se, et habere mentem qua id ipsum cogitaverat, non videbat. Sed plerisque hoc philosophis accidit, ut putarent omnino non esse, quidquid oculis non apparet, cum mentis acies multo clarior debeat 0779B esse quam corporis, ad ea perspicienda, quorum vis ac ratio sentitur potius quam videtur.