If
souls continue to exist, how does the air contain them from
eternity?- But how does the earth contain the bodies of those who
have been buried from time so remote? For as here the mutation of
these bodies after a certain continuance, whatever it may be, and
their dissolution make room for other dead bodies; so the souls which
are removed into the air after subsisting for some time are
transmuted and diffused, and assume a fiery nature by being received
into the seminal intelligence of the universe, and in this way make
room for the fresh souls which come to dwell there. And this is the
answer which a man might give on the hypothesis of souls continuing
to exist. But we must not only think of the number of bodies which
are thus buried, but also of the number of animals which are daily
eaten by us and the other animals. For what a number is consumed, and
thus in a manner buried in the bodies of those who feed on them! And
nevertheless this earth receives them by reason of the changes of
these bodies into blood, and the transformations into the aerial or
the fiery element.
What
is the investigation into the truth in this matter? The division into
that which is material and that which is the cause of form, the
formal.
(podcast episode) (original Greek part 1, part 2)
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