Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

The Delay of the
Deity
name; for having asked the god through a mes
senger, as we are told, whether he would lead a better
life in the future, the answer came back that it would
be better with him after he w T as dead. And in a
measure this turned out to be true, not long after.
For happening to fall on his head from a height he
lay like one dead from the shock alone, for he had
received no wound, and on the third day was already
carried forth for burial. Then all at once recovering
strength and coming to himself, he showed a most
astonishing change in his mariner of life; for the
Cilicians know of no man of his time more just in
dealings between man and man, none more reverent
toward the gods, none more dreaded by his enemies,
or more faithful to his friends. Consequently all
who knew him were eager to hear the cause of this
transformation, as they thought such an alteration of
character could not be a mere matter of chance
which was in fact the case, as he himself related to
Protagenes and other equally intimate friends.
For
when he lost consciousness, (literally, when his
rational soul left his body) he at first experienced
about the same sensation as the result of
the change
that a pilot would feel who should be hurled from a
ship into the deep; afterwards, having recovered a
he thought he had entirely regained his breath
little,
and was able to see on every side with his soul
opened as if it were all one eye. Yet he beheld none
of the former things, but the objects he recognized
were stars of immense magnitude at immeasurable