and reduced to rules; and have gazed upon the stars, those fixed in certain places, and others wandering, in name, not in fact. He, who first saw into these 'revolutions and all their motions, proved that his own soul was like his, who had framed them in the heavens. For, when Archimedes connected the motions of the moon, the sun, and the five planets, in a sphere, so that one revolution might govern motions the most unlike in slowness and velocity, he did the same thing as the God of Plato, who, according to the Timæus, built the world. Because, if such a result could not take place in the universe, without the power of a God, neither could Archimedes imitate with his sphere those motions, without a divine genius.

XXVI. Nor do those better known and more tasteful arts seem destitute of this divine power; so that, I think, the poet pours forth his deep and full song, not without the aid of a celestial impulse to his mind; and eloquence, abounding in sonorous words and rich thoughts, flows not except by this higher faculty. But, philosophy herself, the mother of all the arts, what is it Plato asks but a gift? But, I say, what is it but an invention of the Gods? It is this which has trained us to the worship of the Gods, then to human justice which has its place in the intercourse of mankind, then to modesty and magnanimity. This, too, has dispelled darkness from the soul, as from the eyes, so that we might see all things, above and beneath, first, last, and midst. Certainly, that seems to me a divine power, which effects so many and so great things. For, what is the memory of things and words? what, too, is invention? Certainly that, than which nothing greater can be comprehended in a God. For, I do not suppose the Gods rejoice in ambrosia, in nectar, and in wine poured out by Hebe; nor do I listen to Homer, who says that Ganymede was stolen by the Gods on account of his beauty, that he might become the cup-bearer of Jupiter. There was no just cause why so great a wrong should be done to Laomedon. Homer invented these fables and transferred human attributes to the Gods; I would rather he had transferred divine attributes to us. And what are divine attributes? To be strong, to be wise, to invent, to remember. Therefore, as I say, the soul is divine; as Euripides dared to say, is a God. And, indeed, if God is breath or fire, the same is the soul of man. For, as that celestial nature is free from earth and moisture, so is the human soul free from both these things. But, if there be a certain fifth nature, as first inferred by Aristotle, this then is common both to Gods and souls.

XXVII. Following out this opinion, I have in my work, entitled "Consolation," expressed these thoughts in the following words: "No origin of souls can be found on earth. For, there is nothing in them of a mixed and compound nature, or which might seem to be born and to be formed from the earth; for, they have nothing of a moist, airy, or fiery nature; for, there is nothing in these natures which can possess the power of memory, of judgment, or reflection, which can hold in mind past events, foresee the future, or embrace the present which attributes are divine ; nor will there ever be found a source whence they can come to man, except from God. Therefore, the nature and power of the soul is peculiar; quite separate from these common and well-known natures. Hence, whatever that is, which perceives, which knows, lives, and flourishes, it is celestial and divine, and for that reason is necessarily immortal. Nor, indeed, can God himself, understood by us as a being perceiving and moving all things, be comprehended in any other way, than by a mind unfettered and free, separated from all mortal composition, and itself endowed with eternal motion." Of this kind, and of the same nature, is the human mind.

XXVIII. But where is this mind, and what is it? Where is yours, or what is its nature? Can you tell? If I have not all the means I might wish to have of understanding this question, with your leave may I not use those which I have? The soul has not the power of seeing itself. But like the eye, the soul, not seeing itself, sees other things.

A. But it cannot see, which is of least consequence, its own form.

M. Perhaps so; and yet it may ;- but let us leave that question-force certainly, power, sagacity, memory, motion, and swiftness, it sees; these are great, these divine, these eternal. What its appearance may be, or where it dwells, we are not even to inquire. When we behold the form and brightness of the heaven and the velocity of its revolution, so great that we cannot conceive it; the vicissitudes of day and night; the changes of the seasons, divided into four parts, fitted to the ripening of fruits and the proper tempering of bodies, and the sun, the leader and moderator of all; and the moon, by the gradual increase and diminution of its light, marking the days, as if by signs of the calendar; and, then, the whole circle of the heavens, divided into twelve parts, in which the five stars are borne around, preserving constantly the same courses, though with

motions widely different; the nightly form of the sky, adorned on every side with stars; the ball of the earth rising out of the sea, fixed in the midst of the universe, habitable and cultivated in its two remote extremities, one of which we inhabit placed under the pole toward the seven stars, "whence the storm-bearing winds of the north heap up the freezing snows," the other southern extremity, unknown to us, which the Greeks call ávidova (opposite land); the other parts of the earth being uncultivated, either frozen up with the cold or parched with heat; while here, where we dwell," the heaven does not fail at the proper time to shine, the trees to put forth their leaves, the joyful vines to put out their tender shoots, the boughs to bend with the weight of the fruit, the seed to repay largely in harvest, all things to flourish the fountains to gush out and the meadows to be covered with flowers;" then the multitude of animals, some suitable for food, others for cultivating the earth, some for bearing burdens, and some for furnishing clothing for the body; man, himself, the contemplator of the heavens and the Gods, and their worshipper all lands and seas obedient to his use;

XXIX. when we observe these and innumerable other things, can we doubt that some author, if these are created, as Plato thinks, or if they have existed from eternity, as Aristotle maintains, some governor of so great a work and design presides over them? Thus, you cannot see the mind of man, as you cannot see God; but, as you know God from his works, so from the memory of things, and from invention, by the velocity of motion and all the beauty of virtue, recognise the divine power of the mind.

time you.

In what place then is it? Indeed, I think in the head; and I can give a reason why I think so, but of this at another for the present, wherever the soul is, it is certainly in What is its nature? Peculiar, I think, and its own. But grant that it is fiery or aerial, that affects not our argument. Consider this only, as you know God, though you know not his place and his appearance, so your soul should be known to you, even if you know neither its place, nor its form. In investigating the nature of soul, we cannot doubt, unless we are evidently ignorant of physics, that there is nothing in it of a mixed kind, nothing concrete, united, and joined, nothing double. If this be so, certainly it cannot be separated, nor divided, plucked apart nor drawn asunder; nor, therefore, can it perish. For

death is, as it were, the disuniting, the separating, and tearing apart of those portions which, before death, were held together in a certain union.

Socrates, persuaded by these and similar reasons, sought no defender in the trial for his life; neither was he a suppliant to his judges. He maintained throughout an independent firmness, drawn from loftiness of feeling, not pride; and, during the last day of his life, he discoursed much upon this very subject; and a few days before, when he might have been freed from prison, he refused, and almost at the moment when he was about to take the death-bearing cup in his hand, he spoke; not like one about to be put to death, but like one preparing to ascend to heaven.

XXX. Thus he thought and spoke: there are two ways, and the path is two-fold for souls when they leave the body. To those who have polluted themselves with human vice, who have given themselves up to their lusts, as if blinded, or who have stained themselves with secret indulgences and crimes, or have designed acts, not to be atoned for, such as treachery to their country to such there is a retired path separated from the assembly of the Gods; but for those who have kept themselves pure and chaste, who have least indulged their bodily appetites, and have preserved themselves from their subjugation, who have imitated the life of the Gods in their mortal bodies to such an easy return lies open, back to those from whom they sprung. And so he declares that it will happen to all good and learned men, as to the swans which, not without cause, are sacred to Apollo; for, having from him the power of divination, by which they foresee what blessedness is in death, they die with singing and delight. Nor can any doubt this, unless that should happen to us, reflecting carefully concerning the soul, which happens to those who, looking intently at the setting sun, lose the sight altogether. So the eye of the mind, engaged in examining itself, grows dim sometimes, and our carefulness in investigation is, for that reason, wholly lost to us. Thus doubting, looking about us, hesitating, dreading many things in the way -our course is borne along, as if in a bark or ship, on a boundless sea.

But these are old opinions, and borrowed from the Greeks. But Cato so parted from life, rejoicing that he had obtained the right to die. For the God ruling in us forbids us to depart hence unbidden. But, when that God has given a proper cause, as then

to Socrates, now to Cato, often to many, by my faith! he who is wise will joyfully depart from this darkness to that light; but he must not himself break the chains of his prison-house; for, the laws forbid. But, when summoned and set free by God, as by a magistrate or some lawful authority, he may depart. The whole life of philosophers, as the same person says, is a meditation upon death.

XXXI. What else do we when we recal the soul from pleasure, that is, from bodily enjoyments; from our private affairs; from all business what else I say do we, than call the soul back to itself, compel it to be with itself, and separate it as much as possible from the body? But to separate the soul from the body is nothing more than to learn how to die. Wherefore let us meditate upon this subject; for, believe me, we may separate ourselves from our bodies, that is, we may accustom ourselves to die. This will make our life on earth like a heavenly life; and when we shall be borne thither, loosened from these chains, the course of our souls will be less retarded in their flight. For they who have always been fettered by these bodies, even when freed from them, will move slowly on that account, like those who have been chained for years with iron. When we shall have arrived there, then, at length, shall we live. For this life is death; which I would lament over, if by lamentation I could be freed from it.

A. You have lamented enough in your "Consolation ;" which work, when I read, I desire nothing more than to leave these scenes; but now, having heard you upon this subject, I am much more anxious to depart.

M. The time will come, and that quickly, whether it shall linger or hasten; for life is fleeting. But so far is death from being an evil, which you seemed to consider it a little while ago, that I fear it can be said there is nothing, I will not say so unfortunate, - but rather so good to man; whether we are to be gods ourselves, or to be with the gods.

A. What is the difference? There are some present who may not approve of these things.

M. But I will never dismiss you from this discussion, while any argument that death is an evil, remains unanswered.

A. How can it, when I have learned these things?

M. How can it, do you ask? Troops of those who speak contrary to these opinions rise up, not only those of the sect of VOL. XXXIII. 3D S. VOL. XV. NO. II.

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