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| In Opposition to Plato, the Soul Was Created and Originated at Birth.
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Chapter IV.—In
Opposition to Plato, the Soul Was Created and Originated at
Birth.
After settling the origin of the soul, its
condition or state comes up next. For when we acknowledge that
the soul originates in the breath of God, it follows that we attribute
a beginning to it. This Plato, indeed, refuses to assign to it,
for he will have the soul to be unborn and unmade.1522
| 1522 See his
Phædrus, c. xxiv. | We, however, from the very fact of its
having had a beginning, as well as from the nature thereof, teach that
it had both birth and creation. And when we ascribe both birth and
creation to it, we have made no mistake: for being born, indeed,
is one thing, and being made is another,—the former being
the term which is best suited to living beings. When distinctions,
however, have places and times of their own, they occasionally possess
also reciprocity of application among themselves. Thus, the being made
admits of being taken in the sense of being brought forth;1523
| 1523 Capit itaque et
facturam provenisse poni. | inasmuch as everything which receives
being or existence, in any way whatever, is in fact
generated. For the maker may really be called the parent of the thing
that is made: in this sense Plato also uses the phraseology. So far,
therefore, as concerns our belief in the souls being made or born, the
opinion of the philosopher is overthrown by the authority of
prophecy1524
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