Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
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The Delay <strong>of</strong> the Deity<br />
cation <strong>and</strong> punishment, <strong>and</strong> when the passions are<br />
purged out, the soul recovers entirely its native luster<br />
<strong>and</strong> uniform color. Until this takes place, paroxysms<br />
<strong>of</strong> passion break forth, causing relapses <strong>and</strong> heart=<br />
throbs, in some cases faint <strong>and</strong> easily recovered from,<br />
in others exceedingly violent. Some <strong>of</strong> the souls,<br />
after undergoing repeated castigations resume their<br />
natural character <strong>and</strong> disposition; others again are<br />
carried away into the bodies <strong>of</strong> animals by the force<br />
<strong>and</strong> power <strong>of</strong> ignorance <strong>and</strong> the innate love <strong>of</strong> sensual<br />
gratification; for, owing to the weakness <strong>of</strong> the<br />
reasoning faculty <strong>and</strong> a disinclination to discursive<br />
thought, one is impelled by its active principle to<br />
procreation, while another, though lacking an instru<br />
ment <strong>of</strong> sensual gratification, yet longs to satisfy its<br />
desires with worldly pleasures <strong>and</strong> to attain its ends<br />
by means <strong>of</strong> the body, for in this place there is only<br />
a kind <strong>of</strong> imperfect shadow <strong>and</strong> vision <strong>of</strong> joys that<br />
can have no reality. When the spirit had thus<br />
spoken, it conducted him (Thespesius) swiftly through<br />
boundless space, as he thought, easily <strong>and</strong> without<br />
as if on<br />
deviation, borne up by the beams <strong>of</strong> light<br />
wings, until he came to a wide <strong>and</strong> deep chasm where<br />
the power that supported him gave way; he saw, too,<br />
that the other souls had a like experience at that<br />
place, for these, crowding together like birds, <strong>and</strong><br />
darting downward, flew about the chasm, for they<br />
dared not venture to pass directly across it which<br />
he saw was decorated within like the grottoes <strong>of</strong><br />
Bacchus, with shrubbery <strong>and</strong> plants <strong>and</strong> with all<br />
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