change. Thus things seen are temporal, but things unseen are eternal. The body is seen, but the
soul is unseen; therefore the soul is to be classified in the group of things that are eternal.
The soul, being eternal, is at home in the contemplation of eternal things, that is, essences, but is
lost and confused when, as in senseperception, it contemplates the world of changing things.
The soul when using the body as an instrument of perception, that is to say, when using the sense
of sight or hearing or some other sense (for the meaning of perceiving through the body is
perceiving through the senses)... is then dragged by the body into the region of the changeable,
and wanders and is confused; the world spins round her, and she is like a drunkard, when she
touches change.... But when returning into herself she reflects, then she passes into the other
world, the region of purity, and eternity, and immortality, and unchangeableness, which are her
kindred, and with them she ever lives, when she is by herself, and is not let or hindered; then she
ceases from her erring ways, and being in communion with the unchanging is unchanging. And
this state of the soul is called wisdom.
The soul of the true philosopher, which has, in life, been liberated from thraldom to the flesh, will,
after death, depart to the invisible world, to live in bliss in the company of the gods. But the
impure soul, which has loved the body, will become a ghost haunting the sepulchre, or will enter
into the body of an animal, such as an ass or wolf or hawk, according to its character. A man who
has been virtuous without being a philosopher will become a bee or wasp or ant, or some other
animal of a gregarious and social sort.
Only the true philosopher goes to heaven when he dies. "No one who has not studied philosophy
and who is not entirely pure at the time of his departure is allowed to enter the company of the
Gods, but the lover of knowledge only." That is why the true votaries of philosophy abstain from
fleshly lusts: not that they fear poverty or disgrace, but because they "are conscious that the soul
was simply fastened or glued to the body--until philosophy received her, she could only view real
existence through the bars of a prison, not in and through herself,... and by reason of lust had
become the principal accomplice in her own captivity." The philosopher will be