rs are open, and in good condition; so
that we may easily apprehend that it is the soul itself which sees and
hears, and not those parts which are, as it were, but windows to the soul;
by means of which, however, she can perceive nothing, unless she is on the
spot, and exerts herself. How shall we account for the fact, that by the
same power of thinking we comprehend the most different things; as colour,
taste, heat, smell, and sound? which the soul could never know by her five
messengers, unless everything was referred to her, and she were the sole
judge of all. And we shall certainly discover these things in a more clear
and perfect degree when the soul is disengaged from the body, and has
arrived at that goal to which nature leads her; for at present,
notwithstanding nature has contrived, with the greatest skill, those
channels which lead from the body to the soul, yet are they, in some way
or other, stopped up with earthy and concrete bodies; but when we shall be
nothing but soul, then nothing will interfere to prevent our seeing
everything in its real substance, and in its true character.

XXI. It is true, I might expatiate, did the subject require it, on the
many and various objects with which the soul will be entertained in those
heavenly regions; when I reflect on which, I am apt to wonder at the
boldness of some philosophers, who are so struck with admiration at the
knowledge of nature, as to thank, in an exulting manner, the first
inventor and teacher of natural philosophy, and to reverence him as a God:
for they declare that they have been delivered by his means from the
greatest tyrants, a perpetual terror, and a fear that molested them by
night and day. What is this dread--this fear? what old woman is there so
weak as to fear these things, which you, forsooth, had you not been
acquainted with natural philosophy, would stand in awe of?

The hallow'd roofs of Acheron, the dread
Of Orcus, the pale regions of the dead.

And does it become a philosopher to boast that he is not afraid of these
things, and that he has discovered them to be false? And from this we may
perceive how acute these men were by nature, who, if they had been left
without any instruction would have believed in these things. But now they
have certainly made a very fine acquisition in learning that when the day
of their death arrives they will perish entirely; and, if that really is
the case, for I say nothing either way, what is