inquire what death, which seems to be so
well understood, really is; for some imagine death to be the departure of
the soul from the body; others think that there is no such departure, but
that soul and body perish together, and that, the soul is extinguished
with the body. Of those who think that the soul does depart from the body,
some believe in its immediate dissolution; others fancy that it continues
to exist for a time; and others believe that it lasts for ever. There is
great dispute even what the soul is, where it is, and whence it is
derived: with some, the heart itself (cor) seems to be the soul, hence the
expressions, _excordes_, _vecordes_, _concordes_; and that prudent Nasica,
who was twice consul, was called Corculus, _i.e._ wise-heart; and AElius
Sextus is described as _Egregie cordatus homo, catus AEliu' Sextus_--that
great _wise-hearted_ man, sage AElius. Empedocles imagines the blood, which
is suffused over the heart, to be the soul; to others, a certain part of
the brain seems to be the throne of the soul; others neither allow the
heart itself, nor any portion of the brain, to be the soul; but think
either that the heart is the seat and abode of the soul; or else that the
brain is so. Some would have the soul, or spirit, to be the _anima_, as
our schools generally agree; and indeed the name signifies as much, for we
use the expressions _animam agere_, to live; _animam efflare_, to expire;
_animosi_, men of spirit; _bene animati_, men of right feeling; _exanimi
sententia_, according to our real opinion--and the very word _animus_ is
derived from _anima_. Again, the soul seems to Zeno the Stoic to be fire.

X. But what I have said as to the heart, the blood, the brain, air, or
fire being the soul, are common opinions: the others are only entertained
by individuals; and indeed there were many amongst the ancients who held
singular opinions on this subject, of whom the latest was Aristoxenus, a
man who was both a musician and a philosopher; he maintained a certain
straining of the body, like what is called harmony in music, to be the
soul; and believed that, from the figure and nature of the whole body,
various motions are excited, as sounds are from an instrument. He adhered
steadily to his system, and yet he said something, the nature of which,
whatever it was, had been detailed and explained a great while before by
Plato. Xenocrates denied that the soul had any figure, or anything like a
body; but said