The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen. (Cont.)
Book II. (Cont.)
23. If you give a grape to him when hungry, a must-cake, an onion, a thistle,149 a cucumber, a fig, will he know that his hunger can be appeased by all these, or of what kind each should be tobe fit for eating?150 If you made a very great fire, or surrounded him with venomous creatures, will he not go through the midst of flames, vipers, 443 tarantulae,151 without knowing that they are dangerous, and ignorant even of fear? But again, if you set before him garments and furniture, both for city and country life, will he indeed be able to distinguish152 for what each is fitted? to discharge what service they are adapted? Will he declare for what purposes of dress the stragula153 was made, the coif,154 zone,155 fillet, cushion, handkerchief, cloak, veil, napkin, furs,156 shoe, sandal, boot? What, if you go on to ask what a wheel is, or a sledge,157 a winnowing-fan, jar, tub, an oil-mill, ploughshare, or sieve, a mill-stone, plough-tail, or light hoe; a carved seat, a needle, a strigil, a layer, an open seat, a ladle, a platter, a candlestick, a goblet, a broom, a cup, a bag; a lyre, pipe, silver, brass, gold,158 a book, a rod, a roll,159 and the rest of the equipment by which the life of man is surrounded and maintained? Will he not in such circumstances, as we said, like an ox160 or an ass, a pig, or any beast more senseless, look161 at these indeed, observing their various shapes, but162 not knowing what they all are, and ignorant of the purpose for which they are kept? If he were in any way compelled to utter a sound, would he not with gaping mouth shout something indistinctly, as the dumb usually do?
24. Why, O Plato, do you in the Meno163 put to a young slave certain questions relating to the doctrines of number, and strive to prove by his answers that what we learn we do not learn, but that we merely call back to memory those things which we knew in former times? Now, if he answers you correctly, - for it would not be becoming that we should refuse credit to what you say, - he is led to do so not by his real knowledge,164 but by his intelligence; and it results from his having some acquaintance with numbers, through using them every day, that when questioned he follows your meaning, and that the very process of multiplication always prompts him. But if you are really assured that the souls of men are immortal and endowed with knowledge when they fly hither, cease to question that youth whom you see to be ignorant165 and accustomed to the ways of men;166 call to you that man of forty years, and ask of him, not anything out of the way or obscure about triangles, about squares, not what a cube is, or a second power,167 the ratio of nine to eight, or finally, of four to three; but ask him that with which all are acquainted - what twice two are, or twice three. We wish to see, we wish to know, what answer he gives when questioned - whether he solves the desired problem. In such a case will he perceive, although his ears are open, whether you are saying anything, or asking anything, or requiring some answer from him? and will he not stand like a stock, or the Marpesian rock,168 as the saying is, dumb and speechless, not understanding or knowing even this - whether you are talking with him or with another, conversing with another or with him;169 whether that is intelligible speech which you utter, or merely a cry having no meaning, but drawn out and protracted to no purpose?
25. What say you, O men, who assign to yourselves too much of an excellence not your own? Is this the learned soul which you describe, immortal, perfect, divine, holding the fourth place under God the Lord of the universe, and under the kindred spirits,170 and proceeding from the fountains of life?171 This is that precious being man, endowed172 with the loftiest powers of reason, who is said to be a microcosm, and to be made and formed after the fashion of the whole universe, superior, as has been seen, to no brute, more senseless than stock or stone; for he is unacquainted with men, and always lives, loiters idly in the still deserts although he were rich,173 lived years without number, and never escaped from the bonds of the body. But when he goes to school, you say, and is instructed by the teaching of masters, he is made wise, learned, and lays aside the ignorance which till now clung to him. And an ass, and an ox as well, if compelled 444 by constant practice, learn to plough and grind; a horse, to submit to the yoke, and obey the reins in running;174 a camel, to kneel down when being either loaded or unloaded; a dove, when set free, to fly back to its master’s house; a dog, on finding game, to check and repress its barking; a parrot, too, to articulate words; and a crow to utter names.
26. But when I hear the soul spoken of as something extraordinary, as akin and very nigh to God, and as coming hither knowing all about past times, I would have it teach, not learn; and not go back to the rudiments, as the saying is, after being advanced in knowledge, but hold fast the truths it has learned when it enters its earthly body.175 For unless it were so, how could it be discerned whether the soul recalls to memory or learns for the first time that which it hears; seeing that it is much easier to believe that it learns what it is unacquainted with, than that it has forgot what it knew but a little before, and that its power of recalling former things is lost through the interposition of the body? And what becomes of the doctrine that souls, being bodiless, do not have substance? For that which is not connected with176 any bodily form is not hampered by the opposition of another, nor can anything be led177 to destroy that which cannot be touched by what is set against it. For as a proportion established in bodies remains unaffected and secure, though it be lost to sight in a thousand cases; so must souls, if they are not material, as is asserted, retain their knowledge178 of the past, however thoroughly they may have been enclosed in bodies.179 Moreover, the same reasoning not only shows that they are not incorporeal, but deprives them of all180 immortality even, and refers them to the limits within which life is usually closed. For whatever is led by some inducement to change and alter itself, so that it cannot retain its natural state, must of necessity be considered essentially passive. But that which is liable and exposed to suffering, is declared to be corruptible by that very capacity of suffering.
27. So then, if souls lose all their knowledge on being lettered with the body, they must experience something of such a nature that it makes them become blindly forgetful.181 For they cannot, without becoming subject to anything whatever, either lay aside their knowledge while they maintain their natural state, or without change in themselves pass into a different state. Nay, we rather think that what is one, immortal, simple, in whatever it may be, must always retain its own nature, and that it neither should nor could be subject to anything, if indeed it purposes to endure and abide within the limits of true immortality. For all suffering is a passage for death and destruction, a way leading to the grave, and bringing an end of life which may not be escaped from; and if souls are liable to it, and yield to its influence and assaults, they indeed have life given to them only for present use, not as a secured possession,182 although some come to other conclusions, and put faith in their own arguments with regard to so important a matter.
28. And yet, that we may not be as ignorant when we leave you as before, let us hear from you183 how you say that the soul, on being enwrapt in an earthly body, has no recollection of the past; while, after being actually placed in the body itself, and rendered almost senseless by union with it, it holds tenaciously and faithfully the things which many years before, eighty if you choose to say so, or even more, it either did, or suffered, or said, or heard. For if, through being hampered by the body, it does not remember those things which it knew long ago, and before it came into this world,184 there is more reason that it should forget those things which it has done from time to time since being shut up in the body, than those which it did before entering it,185 while not yet connected with men. For the same body which186 deprives of memory the soul which enters it,187 should cause what is done within itself also to be wholly forgotten; for one cause cannot bring about two results, and these opposed to each other, so as to make some things to be forgotten, and allow others to be remembered by him who did them. But if souls, as you call them, are prevented and hindered by their fleshly members from recalling their former knowledge,188 how do they remember what has been arranged189 in these very bodies, 445 and know that they are spirits, and have no bodily substance, being exalted by their condition as immortal beings?190 how do they know what rank they hold in the universe, in what order they have been set apart from other beings? how they have come to these, the lowest parts of the universe? what properties they acquired, and from what circles,191 in gliding along towards these regions? How, I say, do they know that they were very learned, and have lost their knowledge by the hindrance which their bodies afford them? For of this very thing also they should have been ignorant, whether their union with the body had brought any stain upon them; for to know what you were, and what to-day you are not, is no sign that you have lost your memory,192 but a proof and evidence that it is quite sound.193
29. Now, since it is so, cease, I pray you, cease to rate trifling and unimportant things at immense values. Cease to place man in the upper ranks, since he is of the lowest; and in the highest orders, seeing that his person only is taken account of,194 that he is needy, poverty-stricken in his house and dwelling,195 and was never entitled to be declared of illustrious descent. For while, as just men and upholders of righteousness, you should have subdued pride and arrogance, by the evils196 of which we are all uplifted and puffed up with empty vanity; you not only hold that these evils arise naturally, but - and this is much worse - you have also added causes by which vice should increase, and wickedness remain incorrigible. For what man is there, although of a disposition which ever shuns what is of bad repute and shameful, who, when he hears it said by very wise men that the soul is immortal, and not subject to the decrees of the fates,197 would not throw himself headlong into all kinds of vice, and fearlessly198 engage in and set about unlawful things? who would not, in short, gratify his desires in all things demanded by his unbridled lust, strengthened even further by its security and freedom from punishment?199 For what will hinder him from doing so? The fear of a power above and divine judgment? And how shall he be overcome by any fear or dread who has been persuaded that he is immortal, just as the supreme God Himself, and that no sentence can be pronounced upon him by God, seeing that there is the same immortality in both, and that the one immortal being cannot be troubled by the other, which is only its equal?200
30. But will he not be terrified by201 the punishments in Hades, of which we have heard, assuming also, as they do, many forms of torture? And who202 will be so senseless and ignorant of consequences,203 as to believe that to imperishable spirits either the darkness of Tartarus, or rivers of fire, or marshes with miry abysses, or wheels sent whirling through the air,204 can in any wise do harm? For that which is beyond reach, and not subject to the laws of destruction, though it be surrounded by all the flames of the raging streams, be rolled in the mire, overwhelmed by the fall of overhanging rocks and by the overthrow of huge mountains, must remain safe and untouched without suffering any deadly harm.
Moreover, that conviction not only leads on to wickedness, from the very freedom to sin which it suggests, but even takes away the ground of philosophy itself, and asserts that it is vain to undertake its study, because of the difficulty of the work, which leads to no result. For if it is true that souls know no end, and are ever205 advancing with all generations, what danger is there in giving themselves up to the pleasures of sense - despising and neglecting the virtues by regard to which life is more stinted in its pleasures, and becomes less attractive - and in letting loose their boundless lust to range eagerly and unchecked through206 all kinds of debauchery? Is it the danger of being worn out by such pleasures, and corrupted by vicious effeminacy? And how can that be corrupted which is immortal, which always exists, and is subject to no suffering? Is it the danger of being polluted by foul and base deeds? And how can that be defiled which has no corporeal substance; or where can corruption seat itself, where there is no place on which the mark of this very corruption should fasten?
But again, if souls draw near to the gates of death,207 as is laid down in the doctrine of Epicurus, 446 in this case, too, there is no sufficient reason why philosophy should be sought out, even if it is true that by it208 souls are cleansed and made pure from all uncleanness.209 For if they all210 die, and even in the body211 the feeling characteristic of life perishes, and is lost;212 it is not only a very great mistake, but shows stupid blindness, to curb innate desires, to restrict your mode of life within narrow limits, not yield to your inclinations, and do what our passions have demanded and urged, since no rewards await you for so great toil when the day of death comes, and you shall be freed from the bonds of the body.
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 fellow213 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 to214 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.215 But this is brought about by the law of the soul’s neutral character:216 because, on the one hand, arguments present themselves to the one party by which it is found that the soul217 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.
32. Since these things are so, and we have been taught by the greatest teacher that souls are set not far from the gaping218 jaws of death; that they can, nevertheless, have their lives prolonged by the favour and kindness of the Supreme Ruler if only they try and study to know Him, - for the knowledge of Him is a kind of vital leaven219 and cement to bind together that which would otherwise fly apart, - let them,220 then, laying aside their savage and barbarous nature, return to gentler ways, that they may be able to be ready for that which shall be given.221 What reason is there that we should be considered by you brutish, as it were, and stupid, if we have yielded and given ourselves up to God our deliverer, because of these fears? We often seek out remedies for wounds and the poisoned bites of serpents, and defend ourselves by means of thin plates222 sold by Psylli223 or Marsi, and other hucksters224 and impostors; and that we may not be inconvenienced by cold or intense heat,225 we provide with anxious and careful diligence coverings in226 houses and clothing.
33. Seeing that the fear of death, that is, the ruin of our souls, menaces227 us, in what are we not acting, as we all are wont, from a sense of what will be to our advantage,228 in that we hold Him fast who assures us that He will be our deliverer from such danger, embrace Him, and entrust our souls to His care,229 if only that230 interchange is right? You rest the salvation of your souls on yourselves, and are assured that by your own exertions alone231 you become gods; but we, on the contrary hold out no hope to ourselves from our own weakness, for we see that our nature has no strength, and is overcome by its own passions in every strife for anything.232 You think that, as soon as you pass away, freed from the bonds of your fleshly members, you will find wings