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form , we shall speak as follows . What it is , would be the matter of a long inquiry , and would require divine aid ; but to show what it resembles , is in human power , and requires not so long an exposition . We may compare it to a chariot , with a paif of winged horses and a driver . In the souls of the gods , the horses and the driver are entirely good : in other souls , only partially so , one of the horses excellent , the other vicious . The business , therefore , of the driver , is extremely difficult and
troublesome . ' Let us now attempt to show-how some living beings' came to be spoken of as mortal , and others as immortal . All souls are employed in taking care of the things which ft * e inanimate ; and travel about the whole of heavefi , in various forms . Now , when th 6 soiil is perfect , and has wings , it is carried aloft , and helps to administer the entire universe ; but the soul which loses its wings , dfObs down until it catches hold of
something solid * in which it takes up its residence ; and haying a dwelling of clay , which seems to be self-moving bri account of the soul which is in it , the two together are called an animal , tthd mortal . The phrase , immortal animal , arises not from any correct understanding , but from a fiction : never having seen , nor being able to comprehend a deity , men conceived an immortal being , having a body as well as a soul , united together for all eternity . Let these things , then , be as it pleases God ; but let us next state from what cause a soul becomes tinfledged .
* It is the nature of wings to lift up heavy bodies towatds the habitation of the gods ; and of all things which belong to the bocty ^ wings W 6 that which rrtost partakes of the diving . The divine includes the beautiful , the wise , tlie good , and evefy thing of that nature . By these , the wings of the soul are nourished and increased ; by the contraries of these , they are destroyed .
' Jupiter * and the other gods , divided into certain bands , travel about in their winged chariots , ordering and attending to all things , each according to his appointed function ; and all who will , and who can , follow them . When they go to take their repasts , they journey up hill , towards the summit of the vault of hefcven . The chariots of the gods , being in exact equilibrium , and therefore easily guided , perform this journey easily , but all others with difficulty ; for one of the two horses ,
being of inferior nature , when he has not been exceedingly well trained by the driver , weighs down the vehicle , and impels it towards the earth . ? The sotila which are called immortal , ( vifc . the gods , ) when they reach the summit , go thfough , and standing upon the convex outside of heaven , are carried round and round by its revolution , and see the things which lie beyond the heavene . No poet has ever celebrated these super-celestial tMngs , nor ever will celebrate them as they deserve . This region is the seat of Existence itself : Real Existence , colourless ,
figureless , and intangible Existence , which is visible only to Mind , the charioteer of the soul , and which forms the subject of Real Knowledge . The minds of the gods , which are fed by pure knowledge , and all other thoroughly well-ordered minds , contemplate for a time this universe of " Being" per se t and are delighted and nourished by the contemplation , until the revolution of the heavens bring them back to the same point . In this circumvolution , they contemplate Justice Itself , Temperance itself , and Knowledge , not that knowledge which has a generation or a beginning , not that which exists in a subject which is any of what
Untitled Article
414 Pteto * Dialogue * } tte Ph&toa .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 414, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/32/
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