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A Treatise on the Soul

Tertullian

Chapter 30

About this work

Author: Tertullian

Chapter XXX.—Further Refutation of the Pythagorean Theory. The State of Contemporary Civilisation.

But what must we say in reply to what follows?

‹ Chapter 29 Chapter 31 ›

For

,

in

the

first

place

,

if

the

living

come

from

the

dead

,

just

as

the

dead

proceed

from

the

living

,

then

there

must

always

remain

unchanged

one

and

the

selfsame

number

of

mankind

,

even

the

number

which

originally

introduced

(

human

)

life

.

The

living

preceded

the

dead

,

afterwards

the

dead

issued

from

the

living

,

and

then

again

the

living

from

the

dead

.

Now

,

since

this

process

was

evermore

going

on

with

the

same

persons

,

therefore

they

,

issuing

from

the

same

,

must

always

have

remained

in

number

the

same

.

For

they

who

emerged

(

into

life

)

could

never

have

become

more

nor

fewer

than

they

who

disappeared

(

in

death

)

.

We

find

,

however

,

in

the

records

of

the

Antiquities

of

Man

,

that

the

human

race

has

progressed

with

a

gradual

growth

of

population

,

either

occupying

different

portions

of

the

earth

as

aborigines

,

or

as

nomad

tribes

,

or

as

exiles

,

or

as

conquerors

—

as

the

Scythians

in

Parthia

,

the

Temenidæ

in

Peloponnesus

,

the

Athenians

in

Asia

,

the

Phrygians

in

Italy

,

and

the

Phœnicians

in

Africa

;

or

by

the

more

ordinary

methods

of

migration

,

which

they

call

ἀποικίαι

or

colonies

,

for

the

purpose

of

throwing

off

redundant

population

,

disgorging

into

other

abodes

their

overcrowded

masses

.

The

aborigines

remain

still

in

their

old

settlements

,

and

have

also

enriched

other

districts

with

loans

of

even

larger

populations

.

Surely

it

is

obvious

enough

,

if

one

looks

at

the

whole

world

,

that

it

is

becoming

daily

better

cultivated

and

more

fully

peopled

than

anciently

.

All

places

are

now

accessible

,

all

are

well

known

,

all

open

to

commerce

;

most

pleasant

farms

have

obliterated

all

traces

of

what

were

once

dreary

and

dangerous

wastes

;

cultivated

fields

have

subdued

forests

;

flocks

and

herds

have

expelled

wild

beasts

;

sandy

deserts

are

sown

;

rocks

are

planted

;

marshes

are

drained

;

and

where

once

were

hardly

solitary

cottages

,

there

are

now

large

cities

.

No

longer

are

(

savage

)

islands

dreaded

,

nor

their

rocky

shores

feared

;

everywhere

are

houses

,

and

inhabitants

,

and

settled

government

,

and

civilized

life

.

What

most

frequently

meets

our

view

(

and

occasions

complaint

)

,

is

our

teeming

population

:

our

numbers

are

burdensome

to

the

world

,

which

can

hardly

supply

us

from

its

natural

elements

;

our

wants

grow

more

and

more

keen

,

and

our

complaints

more

bitter

in

all

mouths

,

whilst

Nature

fails

in

affording

us

her

usual

sustenance

.

In

very

deed

,

pestilence

,

and

famine

,

and

wars

,

and

earthquakes

have

to

be

regarded

as

a

remedy

for

nations

,

as

the

means

of

pruning

the

luxuriance

of

the

human

race

;

and

yet

,

when

the

hatchet

has

once

felled

large

masses

of

men

,

the

world

has

hitherto

never

once

been

alarmed

at

the

sight

of

a

restitution

of

its

dead

coming

back

to

life

after

their

millennial

exile

.

But

such

a

spectacle

would

have

become

quite

obvious

by

the

balance

of

mortal

loss

and

vital

recovery

,

if

it

were

true

that

the

dead

came

back

again

to

life

.

Why

,

however

,

is

it

after

a

thousand

years

,

and

not

at

the

moment

,

that

this

return

from

death

is

to

take

place

,

when

,

supposing

that

the

loss

is

not

at

once

supplied

,

there

must

be

a

risk

of

an

utter

extinction

,

as

the

failure

precedes

the

compensation

?

Indeed

,

this

furlough

of

our

present

life

would

be

quite

disproportioned

to

the

period

of

a

thousand

years

;

so

much

briefer

is

it

,

and

on

that

account

so

much

more

easily

is

its

torch

extinguished

than

rekindled

.

Inasmuch

,

then

,

as

the

period

which

,

on

the

hypothesis

we

have

discussed

,

ought

to

intervene

,

if

the

living

are

to

be

formed

from

the

dead

,

has

not

actually

occurred

,

it

will

follow

that

we

must

not

believe

that

men

come

back

to

life

from

the

dead

(

in

the

way

surmised

in

this

philosophy

)

.

Notes

1
A probable allusion to Varro’s work, De Antiqq. Rerum Humanarum.
2
An allusion to Plato’s notion that, at the end of a thousand years, such a restoration of the dead, took place. See his Phædrus, p. 248, and De Republ. x. p. 614.