132 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



give token that if a somewhat more potent cause gained an entrance, 

 they would perish and be robbed of all further existence. More- 

 over it often happens that some one constrained by the violence of 

 disease suddenly drops down before our eyes, as by a stroke of light- 

 ning, and foams at the mouth, moans and shivers through his frame, 

 loses his reason, stiffens his muscles, is racked, gasps for breath fit- 

 fully, and wearies his limbs with tossing. Sure enough, because the 

 violence of the disease spreads itself through his frame and disorders 

 him, he foams as he tries to eject his soul, just as in the salt sea the 

 waters boil with the mastering might of the winds. A moan too is 

 forced out, because the limbs are seized with pain, and mainly because 

 seeds of voice are driven forth and carried in a close mass out by the 

 mouth, the road which they are accustomed to take and where they 

 have a well-paved way. Loss of reason follows, because the powers 

 of the mind and soul are disordered and, as I have shown, are riven 

 and forced asunder, torn to pieces by the same baneful malady. Then 

 after the cause of the disease has spent its course back and the acrid 

 humors of the distempered body return to their hiding places, then, 

 he first gets up like one reeling, and by little and little comes back 

 into full possession of his senses and regains his soul. Since, there- 

 fore, even within the body mind and soul are harassed by such violent 

 distempers and so miserably racked by sufferings, why believe that 

 they without the body in the open air can continue existence batthng 

 with fierce winds? And since we perceive that the mind is healed 

 like the sick body, and we see that it can be altered by medicine, this 

 too gives warning that the mind has a mortal existence. For it is 

 natural that whoever essays and attempts to change the mind or seeks 

 to alter any other nature you like, should add new parts or change 

 the arrangement of the present, or withdraw in short some tittle from 

 the sum. But that which is immortal wills not to have its parts trans- 

 posed nor any addition to be made nor one tittle to ebb away; for 

 whenever a thing changes and quits its proper limits, this change is 

 at once the death of that which was before. Therefore, the mind 

 whether it is sick or whether it is altered by medicine, alike, as I have 

 shown, gives forth mortal symptoms."' 



• De R. N., n, 460-522. 



