The want of any certain reason on which to argue has given rise to the idea of the shades below, and to those fears which you seem, not without reason, to despise; for as our bodies fall to the ground, and are covered with earth (humus), from whence we derive the expression to be interred (humari), that has occasioned men to imagine that the dead continue, during the remainder of their existence, underground; which opinion has drawn after it many errors, which the poets have increased; for the theater, being frequented by a large crowd, among which are women and children, is wont to be greatly affected on hearing such pompous verses as these,
“Lo! here I am, who scarce could gain this place,
Through stony mountains and a dreary waste;
Through cliffs, whose sharpen’d stones tremendous hung,
Where dreadful darkness spread itself around.”
And the error prevailed so much, though indeed at present it seems to me to be removed, that although men knew that the bodies of the dead had been burned, yet they conceived such things to be done in the infernal regions as could not be executed or imagined without a body; for they could not conceive how disembodied souls could exist; and, therefore, they looked out for some shape or figure. This was the origin of all that account of the dead in Homer. This was the idea that caused my friend Appius to frame his necromancy; and this is how there got about that idea of the lake of Avernus, in my neighborhood,
“From whence the souls of undistinguish’d shape,
Clad in thick shade, rush from the open gate
Of Acheron, vain phantoms of the dead.”
And they must needs have these appearances speak, which is not possible without a tongue, and a palate, and jaws, and without the help of lungs and sides, and without some shape or figure; for they could see nothing by their mind alone—they referred all to their eyes.
To withdraw the mind from sensual objects, and abstract our thoughts from what we are accustomed to, is an attribute of great genius. I am persuaded, indeed, that there were many such men in former ages; but Pherecydes the Syrian is the first on record who said that the souls of men were immortal, and he was a philosopher of great antiquity, in the reign of my namesake Tullius.
His disciple Pythagoras greatly confirmed this opinion, who came into Italy in the reign of Tarquin the Proud; and all that country which is called Great Greece was occupied by his school, and he himself was held in high honor, and had the greatest authority; and the Pythagorean sect was for many ages after in such great credit, that all learning was believed to be confined to that name.
An instinct may point the way, and then reason tries to follow along the path, though oftentimes we find that the intellect struggles with the limit of its powers. We work with what the imagination at first provides, and so we still find ourselves bound to an incomplete awareness or a weak analogy. This is true when we wonder about a life after death, just as it is with so many inquiries in this life.
The fact that our bodies are buried in the ground, or that they decay into the soil, may lead us to think that the soul, as the identity of the individual, somehow continues its existence underneath the earth. Earlier, the Auditor was dismissive of such an idea, finding it primitive and superstitious, but we must remember that the mind will make use of the most immediate and vivid images to discern some sort of meaning.
I have myself stood by a grave, believing that a person I miss is beneath that slab, or held an object once possessed by someone I loved, feeling thereby closer to him, or looked into the eyes on a photograph, and taken them to be as if they were actual eyes.
If I reflect in a less attached and more abstract manner, I might suspect that these things are not literally true, even as the figurative presence seems quite real to me. In such a case, the association can be something helpful to me for my own inner workings, and a danger will only arise if I start confusing how it feels to me right now with how it must be in and of itself. Then, what had been an aid to understanding becomes a hindrance to understanding.
Consciousness is grounded in the experience of the senses, and so it should come as no surprise that we regularly return to our first impressions as points of reference. If it exists for us, it seems most substantial if it has a physical form, and presents itself in a certain place, or appears with a particular shape.
My thinking will only remain small, and therefore narrowly superstitious, if I do not examine beneath and beyond the images. This can sometimes be of great difficulty, where a step must be taken from the sensible to the intelligible. After all, if there is a being, I assume it must be visible, and if there is life, I assume it must have flesh and blood, and if a thought is expressed, I assume there must be spoken words by which it is uttered.
Cicero here gives praise to Pherecydes and Pythagoras for being among the thinkers who encouraged us to have our minds rise above the material appearances alone, to make a transition, as we might say nowadays, from mythical symbols to scientific definitions. It makes it possible to ask whether the souls of the dead are like the stories about shades in the underworld, or whether it would be more accurate to speak of their existence in terms that are very different from the properties of our current experience.
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