Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/128

Rh celebrates the condition of the Good in the next life. It is a state where the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished until sin is consumed from their nature, when they come to the divine abode.

To pass from the Poets to the Philosophers; the Immortality of the Soul was taught continually, from Pherecydes to Plotinus. There were those who doubted, and some that denied; yet it was defended by all the greatest philosophers, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch, Epictetus, Cicero, Tusc. Lib. I. Chap. xvi., says Pherecydes was the first who taught this doctrine. See the note in Lemaire's edition. See also Diogenes Laert. Thales, Lib. I. § 43, p. 27, et seq., and Plutarch, De Placitis Phil., Lib. IV. Ch. ii.-vii., Opp. Vol. II. p. 898, et seq. It has been thought doubtful that Aristotle believed in immortality, and perhaps it is not easy to prove this point. See De Anima, III. 5; but compare Ethic. Nicom. Lib. III. Chap. vi., which denies it. See again De Anima, II. 2; De Gen. Anim. III. 4. Plato teaches immortality with the greatest clearness. See the Phædo, passim; Georgias, p. 524, et seq. et al.; Apolog. Laws, (if they are genuine,) Lib. X. XII.; Epinomis, Timæus, Rep. X. p. 612, et seq. Plato makes the essence of man spiritual; Tim. p. 69, C. et seq., 72, D. et seq., Rep. IV. p. 431, A. He was opposed to the Materialists, Soph p. 246, A. However, he did not condemn the body. His argument in favour of immortality, like many later arguments on the same theme, creates more questions than it answers. The form of the doctrine, its connection with preëxistence and transmigration, like many doctrines still popularly connected with it, serve only to disfigure the doctrine itself, and bring it into reproach. The opinion of Cicero is so well known, that it is almost superfluous to cite passages; but see Frag. de Consolat. 12, et seq., 27, et al.; De Senectute, Chap. XXI., et seq., Tusc. I. C. 16; De Amicit., Ch. 3, 4; Somnium Scipionis, et al. See Seneca, De Ira, I. 3; Consolatio ad Helv., Chap. VI.; De Vita Beata, Chap. XXII. Ep. 50, 102, 117. Sometimes he speaks decidedly, at other times with doubt. See Lipsius Physiol. Stoic. Lib. III. Diss. viii.-xix. See Locke, Essay, Book ÎV. Chap. iii., and Letters to Bishop of Worcester.

See Plutarch, De Sera Numinis Vindicta, Morals, Lond. 1691, Vol. IV. p. 197, et seq. See too the Story of Soleus the Thespesian, ibid. p. 206, et seq.; Plut. Vit. Quint. Sertorius, Opp. I. 571, 572, F. & B., for an account of the and by the most in-