rom all corporeal admixture, it has begun to
be pure and undefiled, it is then that it becomes wise. And again,
when man's natural frame is resolved into its elements by death, it is
clearly seen whither each of the other elements departs: for they all go
to the place from which they came: but the soul alone is invisible alike
when present and when departing. Once more, you see that nothing is so
like death as sleep. And yet it is in sleepers that souls most clearly
reveal their divine nature; for they foresee many events when they are
allowed to escape and are left free. This shows what they are likely to
be when they have completely freed themselves from the fetters of the
body. Wherefore, if these things are so, obey me as a god. But if my
soul is to perish with my body, nevertheless do you from awe of the
gods, who guard and govern this fair universe, preserve my memory by the
loyalty and piety of your lives."

23. Such are the words of the dying Cyrus. I will now, with your good
leave, look at home. No one, my dear Scipio, shall ever persuade me that
your father Paulus and your two grandfathers Paulus and Africanus, or
the father of Africanus, or his uncle, or many other illustrious men
not necessary to mention, would have attempted such lofty deeds as to be
remaindered by posterity, had they not seen in their minds that future
ages concerned them. Do you suppose--to take an old man's privilege of
a little self-praise--that I should have been likely to undertake
such heavy labours by day and night, at home and abroad, if I had been
destined to have the same limit to my glory as to my life? Had it not
been much better to pass an age of ease and repose without any labour
or exertion? But my soul, I know not how, refusing to be kept down, ever
fixed its eyes upon future ages, as though from a conviction that it
would begin to live only when it had left the body. But had it not been
the case that souls were immortal, it would not have been the souls of
all the best men that made the greatest efforts after an immortality of
fame.

Again, is there not the fact that the wisest man ever dies with the
greatest cheerfulness, the most unwise with the least? Don't you think
that the soul which has the clearer and longer sight sees that it is
starting for better things, while the soul whose vision is dimmer does
not see it? For my part, I am transported with the desire to see your
fathers, who were the object of my reverence a