There were indeed among the ancient Philofophers great Men of furprising Genius, who faid noble Things concerning the Immortality of the Soul, and a future State of Happiness for good Men. Such particularly were the Platonifts after the great Socrates. Not fatisfied merely with the vulgar Notions and Traditions, they looked for a more folid Foundation in Reafon, which might convince their Minds: But feveral of the Arguments they made Ufe of, if they proved any Thing, tended to prove that human Souls were Part of the Divinity, and exifted, before their Coming into the Body, as well as after. Others indeed of their Reafonings were more folid, and carried a greater Appearance of Probability: But, after all, their Reasonings were far from fully fatisfying themselves or others. One of Socrates's Difciples tells him, that the Doctrine he taught, concerning the Immortality of the Soul and a future State, met with little Belief among Men, who were ready to think, that the Soul was immediately dif folved at Death, and that it vanished like Wind or Smoke, and was no more*. And Socrates owns the fame Thing, that the most of Mankind were of Opinion that the *Plato in Phed. Soul Soul perished with the Body*. He himself sometimes fpeaks in a Manner that betrays fome Diffidence: When he fets himself to prove that Death is not an Evil, he argues, that Death is either like a deep Sleep, or like Taking a far Journey, or an utter Extinction and Abolition of Soul and Body; and then he endeavours to fhew that none of thefe Things are evil†. When he was near Death, he reasoned with his Friends concerning the Immortality of the Soul; but it must be owned that fome of his Reasonings are not very convincing; and, though he expreffes his Hope, he alfo fpeaks in a Manner that fhews he was not very confident of it. Addreffing himself to his Judges, he faith, "I am going to die, and you must live; "but which of us fhall be in the best "Condition is unknown to all but God." Cicero, in one of the fineft Difcourfes that Antiquity has left upon this Subject, produceth many Arguments to prove the Immortality of the Soul, but at the fame Time lets us know, that he did not take upon him to affirm it as a Thing certain. He owns, that there were great Numbers that contradicted it, and even many of those *Plato in Phad. + Cited by Plutarch in Confol. ad Apollon. that were most learned: And, after recounting a great Variety of Opinions about the Soul, he adds, "Which of these is "true fome God must discover; which is "most probable is a great Question." The famous Ariftotle, one of the most fagacious of all the Heathen Philofophers, expreffes himself in fuch a Manner upon this Subject, as leaves it in Doubt what his real Opinion was concerning it; though, from fome Paffages in his Works, many have been led to think that he did not believe it *. Of all the Sects of Philofophers among the Heathens, none feem to have carried Morality to fo great a Height, or to have entertained fuch refined and exalted Notions of Virtue, as the Stoics: One would have expected therefore that they should have argued ftrenuously for the Immortality of the Soul and a future State; and yet they feem to have had no fixed Notions about it at all. Some of them held, that the Souls of Men would continue, after their being feparated from their Bodies, till the Diffolution of the World by Fire; and that then an End should be put to their Exiftence: Others held, that only the Souls of great and good Men would con * Ariftot. Ethic. Lib. iii, and Origen contra Celf, Lib. ii, tinue 3 tinue fo long, but that thofe of others fhould be diffolved fooner *. The celebrated Seneca, who was one of the greatest Men of that Sect, is not very confiftent with himself, in what he writes upon this Subject: Sometimes he fpeaks in noble and magnificent Strains of the Happiness of departed Souls, and their being removed into a better immortal Life; at other Times he expreffes himself in a Manner that fhews he was very doubtful and undetermined about it. He compares the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul and a future Happiness to a pleasing Dream; and, at the fame Time that he represents it as the Opinion of great Men, and as a very defirable Thing, he faith, that it was what they rather promised than proved ‡. In one of his Epiftles he expreffeth himself thus: "Perhaps if the Report of wife "Men be true, and we are received into "another Place at Death, he, whom we "think to have perished at Death, is only "fent before us." He frequently makes Ufe of this Way of arguing against the Fears of Death, that it either puts an End to our Being, or is a Paffage to a 25. *Laert. in Zenon. è Senec. ad Marc. Cap. 26. + Ad Polyb. Confol. Cap. 28. Ad Marc. Confol. Cap. + Ep. better better State*. And, in a Letter to one of his intimate Friends, giving an Account of a Sickness that had brought him near Death, he tells his Friend what was the Thought with which he had comforted himself, when he was, as he judged, in a dying State; it amounts to this, that he fhould be, after Death, in the fame State he was in, before he was born, that is, in an infenfible State, fecure from Evil†, The laft Perfon I fhall mention, on this Occafion, was of peculiar Eminency, both for his Learning and the Dignity of his Station, and was in all Refpects one of the greatest and best Men in the Pagan World, viz. that great Philofopher and Emperor Marcus Antoninus. There is an admirable Book of his remaining, which contains as fine and juft Sentiments of Morality as are to be found in any of the Ancients: And yet from many Paffages of that Book it appears, that the Immortality of the Soul, and a State of future Happiness after Death, was what he much doubted of, and it fhould rather feem that he, inclined to believe the Contrary. He fpeaks of it as uncertain, whether Death be a Diffipation, or a Reduction into Atoms, or an Annihilation; and comforts himself with * Ep. 24. 65. 72. + Ep. 54. ad Lucil. |