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A Treatise on the Soul

Tertullian

Chapter 54

About this work

Author: Tertullian

Chapter LIV.—Whither Does the Soul Retire When It Quits the Body? Opinions of Philosophers All More or Less Absurd. The Hades of Plato.

To the question, therefore, whither the soul is withdrawn

‹ Chapter 53 Chapter 55 ›

,

we

now

give

an

answer

.

Almost

all

the

philosophers

,

who

hold

the

soul’s

immortality

,

notwithstanding

their

special

views

on

the

subject

,

still

claim

for

it

this

(

eternal

condition

)

,

as

Pythagoras

,

and

Empedocles

,

and

Plato

,

and

as

they

who

indulge

it

with

some

delay

from

the

time

of

its

quitting

the

flesh

to

the

conflagration

of

all

things

,

and

as

the

Stoics

,

who

place

only

their

own

souls

,

that

is

,

the

souls

of

the

wise

,

in

the

mansions

above

.

Plato

,

it

is

true

,

does

not

allow

this

destination

to

all

the

souls

,

indiscriminately

,

of

even

all

the

philosophers

,

but

only

of

those

who

have

cultivated

their

philosophy

out

of

love

to

boys

.

So

great

is

the

privilege

which

impurity

obtains

at

the

hands

of

philosophers

!

In

his

system

,

then

,

the

souls

of

the

wise

are

carried

up

on

high

into

the

ether

:

according

to

Arius

,

into

the

air

;

according

to

the

Stoics

,

into

the

moon

.

I

wonder

,

indeed

,

that

they

abandon

to

the

earth

the

souls

of

the

unwise

,

when

they

affirm

that

even

these

are

instructed

by

the

wise

,

so

much

their

superiors

.

For

where

is

the

school

where

they

can

have

been

instructed

in

the

vast

space

which

divides

them

?

By

what

means

can

the

pupil

-

souls

have

resorted

to

their

teachers

,

when

they

are

parted

from

each

other

by

so

distant

an

interval

?

What

profit

,

too

,

can

any

instruction

afford

them

at

all

in

their

posthumous

state

,

when

they

are

on

the

brink

of

perdition

by

the

universal

fire

?

All

other

souls

they

thrust

down

to

Hades

,

which

Plato

,

in

his

Phædo

,

describes

as

the

bosom

of

the

earth

,

where

all

the

filth

of

the

world

accumulates

,

settles

,

and

exhales

,

and

where

every

separate

draught

of

air

only

renders

denser

still

the

impurities

of

the

seething

mass

.

Notes

1
An Alexandrian philosopher in great repute with the Emperor Augustus.
2
Phædo, pp. 112–114.