NEWBOLD— THE SYRIAC DIALOGUE " SOCRATES." 105 



to either of the other two, it is probably to be referred to Bardaisan. 

 And the language and imagery strongly suggest the " Socrates." 

 The author of the " Socrates " draws from his theory the legitimate 

 conclusion that the rational soul only is immortal ; the animal soul 

 and the body both perish at death. That Bardaisan denied the 

 orthodox doctrine of the resurrection of the body is agreed by all 

 our authorities. 



The agreement between the cosmology of the " Socrates " and 

 that of Bardaisan is not so exact as that subsisting between these 

 two groups of psychological theories, but they present nevertheless 

 some notable points of analogy. 



Theodore bar-Koni describes Bardaisan's system as follows (a 

 few additions have been made from Ephraim and Moses bar- 

 Cepha) : From eternity God and the five elements coexisted in per- 

 fect peace. God was above all, Darkness below all ; in between 

 were the other four elements disposed in the same plane — Light 

 in the east. Wind in the west, Water in the north, Fire in the south. 

 Then the Wind blew by chance and beat upon and agitated the ele- 

 ments ; a smoke not born of Fire gathered (Ephraim has: Darkness 

 crossed its border upwards). Then God sent an utterance of 

 Thought which arrested the Wind and a Wind from on High 

 quieted them in part. The confused portion was then separated 

 from the others and from.it the world was made. 



According to the " Socrates " there existed from eternity with 

 " That Power," i. e., God, a something which you may call at pleas- 

 ure soul or fire or nature (<^wis). Since the author has just shown 

 at length that soul consists of the four elements, fire being only the 

 chief among them, and since he immediately proceeds to refer to 

 " the four elements of the powers," i. e., the four elementary prop- 

 erties, as existing, one may infer that the eternal existence of soul 

 implies that of the four elements. The scheme is therefore analo- 

 gous to that of Bardaisan, save that the latter has the Persian term 

 Wind instead of the Greek Air. 



The " Socrates " proceeds : " When that Power wished to exist 

 (or be) in purity all by himself he therefore commanded that Body 

 should become (or, come into being as) the organization of the 



