ble in beasts, whose souls are void of reason. But the
likeness in men consists more in the configuration of the bodies; and it
is of no little consequence in what bodies the soul is lodged; for there
are many things which depend on the body that give an edge to the soul,
many which blunt it. Aristotle indeed, says, that all men of great genius
are melancholy; so that I should not have been displeased to have been
somewhat duller than I am. He instances many, and, as if it were matter of
fact, brings his reasons for it: but if the power of those things that
proceed from the body be so great as to influence the mind, (for they are
the things, whatever they are, that occasion this likeness,) still that
does not necessarily prove why a similitude of souls should be generated.
I say nothing about cases of unlikeness. I wish Panaetius could be here; he
lived with Africanus; I would inquire of him which of his family the
nephew of Africanus's brother was like? Possibly he may in person have
resembled his father; but in his manners, he was so like every profligate
abandoned man, that it was impossible to be more so. Who did the grandson
of P. Crassus, that wise, and eloquent, and most distinguished man
resemble? Or the relations and sons of many other excellent men, whose
names there is no occasion to mention? But what are we doing? Have we
forgotten that our purpose was, when we had sufficiently spoken on the
subject of the immortality of the soul, to prove that, even if the soul
did perish, there would be, even then, no evil in death?

_A._ I remembered it very well; but I had no dislike to your digressing a
little from your original design, whilst you were talking of the soul's
immortality.

_M._ I perceive you have sublime thoughts, and are eager to mount up to
heaven.

XXXIV. I am not without hopes myself that such may be our fate. But admit
what they assert; that the soul does not continue to exist after death.

_A._ Should it be so, I see that we are then deprived of the hopes of a
happier life.

_M._ But what is there of evil in that opinion? For let the soul perish as
the body: is there any pain, or indeed any feeling at all in the body
after death? No one, indeed, asserts that; though Epicurus charges
Democritus with saying so; but the disciples of Democritus deny it. No
sense, therefore, remains in the soul; for the soul is nowhere; where,
then, is the evil? for there is nothing but these two things. Is it
beca