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Chapter V.—The soul is not in its own nature immortal.“ ‘These philosophers know nothing, then, about these things; for they cannot tell what a soul is.’ “ ‘Nor ought it to be called immortal; for if it is immortal, it is plainly unbegotten.’ “ ‘It is both unbegotten and immortal, according to some who are styled Platonists.’ “ ‘Do you say that the world is also unbegotten?’ “ ‘Some say so. I do not, however, agree with them.’ “ ‘You are right; for what reason has one for supposing that a body so solid, possessing resistance, composite, changeable, decaying, and renewed every day, has not arisen from some cause? But if the world is begotten, souls also are necessarily begotten; and perhaps at one time they were not in existence, for they were made on account of men and other living creatures, if you will say that they have been begotten wholly apart, and not along with their respective bodies.’ “ ‘They are not, then, immortal?’ “ ‘No; since the world has appeared to us to be begotten.’ “ ‘But I do not say, indeed, that all souls die; for that were truly a piece of good fortune to the evil. What then? The souls of the pious remain in a better place, while those of the unjust and wicked are in a worse, waiting for the time of judgment. Thus some which have appeared worthy of God never die; but others are punished so long as God wills them to exist and to be punished.’ “ ‘Is what you say, then, of a like nature
with that which Plato in Timæus hints about the world, when he
says that it is indeed subject to decay, inasmuch as it has been created,
but that it will neither be dissolved nor meet with the fate of death on
account of the will of God? Does it seem to you the very same can be said
of the soul, and generally of all things?
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