/lit/ - Literature

>>16390264
"Of course these men are alive," he said, "who have flown from the
bonds of their bodies as from a prison; indeed, that life of yours, as it
is called, is really death. Just look up and see your father Paulus
approaching you."
[3] When I saw him, I wept profusely, but he embraced and kissed
me and forbade me to weep. As soon as I could check my tears and
speak out, I said: "I pray you, most revered and best of fathers, since
this is truly life, as I hear Africanus tell, why do I linger on earth ?
Why do I not hasten hither to you ?"
[4] "You are mistaken," he replied, "for until that God who rules
all the region of the sky at which you are now looking has freed you
from the fetters of your body, you cannot gain admission here. Men
were created with the understanding that they were to look after
that sphere called Earth, which you see in the middle of the temple.
Minds have been given to them out of the eternal fires you call fixed
stars and planets, those spherical solids which, quickened with divine
minds, journey through their circuits and orbits with amazing speed.
[5] Wherefore, Scipio, you and all other dutiful men must keep your
souls in the custody of your bodies and must not leave this life of
men except at the command of that One who gave it to you, that
you may not appear to have deserted the office assigned you. But,
Scipio, cherish justice and your obligations to duty, as your grandfather here,
and I, your father, have done; this is important where
parents and relatives are concerned, but is of utmost importance in
matters concerning the commonwealth. [6] This sort of life is your
passport into the sky, to a union with those who have finished their
lives on earth and who, upon being released from their bodies, inhabit
that place at which you arc now looking" (it was a circle of surpassing
brilliance gleaming out amidst the blazing stars), "which takes its
name, the Milky Way, from the Greek word."

>If it is god, in the first place, who ‘loves humanity’, who is ‘philanthropic’, then, by assimilation to god, by becoming united to the Good and by sharing in it, the philosopher also shares in this divine philanthropy, an assimilation which manifests itself in political action.