ed" by, or emanating from, the Deity. He seems to have
conceived it as co-eternal with its ideal objects, in some mysterious
ultimate _unity_. "The true foundation of the Platonic theory of the
constitution of the soul is this fundamental principle of his
philosophy--the _oneness of truth and knowledge_.[611] This led him
naturally to derive the _rational_ element of the soul (that element
that _knows_), that possesses the power of noesis from the _real_
element in things (the element that _is_)--the nooumenon; and in the
original, the final, and, though imperfectly, the present state of that
rational element, he, doubtless, conceived it united with its object in
an eternal conjunction, or even identity. But though intelligence and
its correlative intelligibles were and are thus combined, the soul is
_more_ than pure intelligence; it possesses an element of personality
and consciousness distinct to each individual, of which we have no
reason to suppose, from any thing his writings contain, Plato ever meant
to deprive it."[612] On the contrary, he not only regarded it as having
now, under temporal conditions, a distinct personal existence, but he
also claimed for it a conscious, personal existence after death. He is
most earnest, and unequivocal, and consistent in his assertion of the
doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The arguments which human
reason can supply are exhibited with peculiar force and beauty in the
"Phaedo," the "Phaedrus," and the tenth book of the "Republic." The most
important of these arguments may be presented in a few words.

[Footnote 611: See Grant's "Aristotle," vol. i. pp. 150, 151.]

[Footnote 612: Butler's "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy," vol. ii. p.
209, note.]

1. _The soul is immortal, because it is incorporeal_. There are two
kinds of existences, one compounded, the other simple; the former
subject to change, the latter unchangeable; one perceptible to sense,
the other comprehended by mind alone. The one is visible, the other is
invisible. When the soul employs the bodily senses, it wanders and is
confused; but when it abstracts itself from the body, it attains to
knowledge which is stable, unchangeable, and immortal. The soul,
therefore, being uncompounded, incorporeal, invisible, must be
indissoluble--that is to say, immortal.[613]

[Footnote 613: "Phaedo," Secs. 61-75.]

2. _The soul is immortal, because it has an independent power of
self-motion_--that is, it has self-activi