body? Now to separate the
soul from the body, is to learn to die, and nothing else whatever.
Wherefore take my advice; and let us meditate on this, and separate
ourselves as far as possible from the body, that is to say, let us
accustom ourselves to die. This will be enjoying a life like that of
heaven even while we remain on earth; and when we are carried thither and
released from these bonds, our souls will make their progress with more
rapidity: for the spirit which has always been fettered by the bonds of
the body, even when it is disengaged, advances more slowly, just as those
do who have worn actual fetters for many years: but when we have arrived
at this emancipation from the bonds of the body, then indeed we shall
begin to live, for this present life is really death, which I could say a
good deal in lamentation for if I chose.

_A._ You have lamented it sufficiently in your book on Consolation; and
when I read that, there is nothing which I desire more than to leave these
things: but that desire is increased a great deal by what I have just
heard.

_M._ The time will come, and that soon, and with equal certainty whether
you hang back or press forward; for time flies. But death is so far from
being an evil, as it lately appeared to you, that I am inclined to
suspect, not that there is no other thing which is an evil to man, but
rather that there is nothing else which is a real good to him; if, at
least, it is true, that we become thereby either Gods ourselves, or
companions of the Gods. However, this is not of so much consequence, as
there are some of us here who will not allow this. But I will not leave
off discussing this point till I have convinced you that death can, upon
no consideration whatever, be an evil.

_A._ How can it, after what I now know?

_M._ Do you ask how it can? There are crowds of arguers who contradict
this; and those not only Epicureans, whom I regard very little, but, some
how or other, almost every man of letters; and, above all, my favourite
Dicaearchus is very strenuous in opposing the immortality of the soul: for
he has written three books, which are entitled Lesbiacs, because the
discourse was held at Mitylene, in which he seeks to prove that souls are
mortal. The Stoics, on the other hand, allow us as long a time for
enjoyment as the life of a raven; they allow the soul to exist a great
while, but are against its eternity.

XXXII. Are you willing to hear then why, even allowing