Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XXXIII.—Absurdity of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XXXIII.—Absurdity of the
doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
1. We
may subvert their doctrine as to transmigration from body to body by this
fact, that souls remember nothing whatever of the events which took place
in their previous states of existence. For if they were sent forth with
this object, that they should have experience of every kind of action,
they must of necessity retain a remembrance of those things which have
been previously accomplished, that they might fill up those in which they
were still deficient, and not by always hovering, without intermission,
round the same pursuits, spend their labour wretchedly in vain (for the
mere union of a body [with a soul] could not altogether extinguish the
memory and contemplation of those things which had formerly been
experienced3281
| 3281 Harvey
thinks that this parenthesis has fallen out of its proper place, and
would insert it immediately after the opening period of the chapter.
| ), and especially as they came [into the world] for this very
purpose. For as, when the body is asleep and at rest, whatever things the
soul sees by herself, and does in a vision, recollecting
many of these, she also communicates them to the body; and as it
happens that, when one awakes, perhaps after a long time, he relates what
he saw in a dream, so also would he undoubtedly remember those things
which he did before he came into this particular body. For if that which
is seen only for a very brief space of time, or has been conceived of
simply in a phantasm, and by the soul alone, through means of a dream, is
remembered after she has mingled again with the body, and been dispersed
through all the members, much more would she remember those things in
connection with which she stayed during so long a time, even throughout
the whole period of a bypast life.
2. With reference to these objections, Plato, that
ancient Athenian, who also was the first3282
| 3282 It is a mistake of Irenæus to say that the doctrine of
metempsychosis originated with Plato: it was first publicly taught by
Pythagoras, who learned it from the Egyptians. Comp. Clem. Alex.,
Strom., i. 15: Herodot., ii. 123. | to introduce this
opinion, when he could not set them aside, invented the [notion of] a cup
of oblivion, imagining that in this way he would escape this sort of
difficulty. He attempted no kind of proof [of his supposition], but
simply replied dogmatically [to the objection in question], that when
souls enter into this life, they are caused to drink of oblivion by that
demon who watches their entrance [into the world], before they effect an
entrance into the bodies [assigned them]. It escaped him, that [by
speaking thus] he fell into another greater perplexity. For if the cup of
oblivion, after it has been drunk, can obliterate the memory of all the
deeds that have been done, how, O Plato, dost thou obtain the knowledge
of this fact (since thy soul is now in the body), that, before it entered
into the body, it was made to drink by the demon a drug which caused
oblivion? For if thou hast a remembrance of the demon, and the cup, and
the entrance [into life], thou oughtest also to be acquainted with other
things; but if, on the other hand, thou art ignorant of them, then there
is no truth in the story of the demon, nor in the cup of oblivion
prepared with art.
3. In opposition, again, to those who affirm that the
body itself is the drug of oblivion, this observation may be made: How,
then, does it come to pass, that whatsoever the soul sees by her own
instrumentality, both in dreams and by reflection or earnest mental
exertion, while the body is passive, she remembers, and reports to her
neighbours? But, again, if the body itself were [the cause of] oblivion,
then the soul, as existing in the body, could not remember even those
things which were perceived long ago either by means of the eyes or the
ears; but, as soon as the eye was turned from the things looked at, the
memory of them also would undoubtedly be destroyed. For the soul, as
existing in the very [cause of] oblivion, could have no knowledge of
anything else than that only which it saw at the present moment. How,
too, could it become acquainted with divine things, and retain a
remembrance of them while existing in the body, since, as they maintain,
the body itself is [the cause of] oblivion? But the prophets also, when
they were upon the earth, remembered likewise, on their returning to
their ordinary state of mind,3283
| 3283 “In hominem conversi,” literally,
“returning into man.” | whatever things they
spiritually saw or heard in visions of heavenly objects, and related them
to others. The body, therefore, does not cause the soul to forget those
things which have been spiritually witnessed; but the soul teaches the
body, and shares with it the spiritual vision which it has enjoyed.
4. For the body is not possessed of greater power than
the soul, since indeed the former is inspired, and vivified, and
increased, and held together by the latter; but the soul possesses3284
| 3284 “Possidet.”
Massuet supposes this word to represent κυριεύει,
“rules over” and Stieren κρατύνει,
governs; while Harvey thinks the whole clause corresponds to
κρατεῖ καὶ κυριεύει τοῦ σώματος, which we have
rendered above. | and rules over the body. It is doubtless
retarded in its velocity, just in the exact proportion in which the body
shares in its motion; but it never loses the knowledge which properly
belongs to it. For the body may be compared to an instrument; but the
soul is possessed of the reason of an artist. As, therefore, the artist
finds the idea of a work to spring up rapidly in his mind, but can only
carry it out slowly by means of an instrument, owing to the want of
perfect pliability in the matter acted upon, and thus the rapidity of his
mental operation, being blended with the slow action of the instrument,
gives rise to a moderate kind of movement [towards the end contemplated];
so also the soul, by being mixed up with the body belonging to it, is in
a certain measure impeded, its rapidity being blended with the
body’s slowness. Yet it does not lose altogether its own peculiar
powers; but while, as it were, sharing life with the body, it does not
itself cease to live. Thus, too, while communicating other things to the
body, it neither loses the knowledge of them, nor the memory of those
things which have been witnessed.
5. If, therefore, the soul remembers nothing3285
| 3285 Literally, none of things
past. | of what took place in a former state of existence,
but has a perception of those things which are here, it follows that she
never existed in other bodies, nor did things of which she has no
knowledge, nor [once] knew things which she cannot [now mentally]
contemplate. But, as each one of us receives his body through the skilful
working of God, so does he also possess his soul. For God is
not so poor or destitute in resources, that He cannot confer its own
proper soul on each individual body, even as He gives it also its special
character. And therefore, when the number [fixed upon] is completed,
[that number] which He had predetermined in His own counsel, all those
who have been enrolled for life [eternal] shall rise again, having their
own bodies, and having also their own souls, and their own spirits, in
which they had pleased God. Those, on the other hand, who are worthy of
punishment, shall go away into it, they too having their own souls and
their own bodies, in which they stood apart from the grace of God. Both
classes shall then cease from any longer begetting and being begotten,
from marrying and being given in marriage; so that the number of mankind,
corresponding to the fore-ordination of God, being completed, may fully
realize the scheme formed by the Father.3286
| 3286 The Latin text is here very confused, but the Greek
original of the greater part of this section has happily been preserved.
[This Father here anticipates in outline many ideas which St. Augustine
afterwards corrected and elaborated.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
