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todemus, who doubted of a Providence, and even of a Deity. " O 

 Aristodemus, apply yourself sincerely to worship God ; he will 

 enlighten you, and then all your doubts will be removed." This 

 divine philosopher, after having drank the deadly poison decreed 

 by unjust judges, in the memorable discourse with his disciples, 

 asserts, " that the soul which cannot die, merits all the moral and 

 intellectual improvements which we can possibly give it. A spirit 

 formed to live for ever, should be making continual advances in 

 virtue and wisdom. To a well cultivated mind, the body is no 

 more than a temporary prison. At death, such a soul is conducted 

 by its invisible guardian to the heights of empyrean felicity, 

 where it becomes a fellow-commoner with the wise and good of all 

 ages." How noble is the sentiment of Plato, a disciple worthy of 

 Socrates, who placed the sovereign good in a resemblance to the 

 Divine Nature, which can flow from God alone ! " As nothing is 

 like the sun, but by the solar influences ; so nothing can resemble 

 God, but by an emanation of divine light into the soul !" These 

 sublime sentiments of the Grecian philosophers were confirmed by 

 Seneca, one of the brightest ornaments of ancient Rome: " No 

 man is good without God ; he dwelleth in every good man. If 

 thou seest a man fearless in the midst of dangers, untainted by 

 riches, happy in adversity, calm in the tempest, looking down as 

 from an eminence on all things sublunary, — dost thou not admire 

 him? Sayest thou not, Virtue is of all things the most great and 

 noble; it is a divine power descended from above? There is a 

 Holy Spirit residing in us, who watches and observes good and 

 evil men, and will treat us after the same manner that we treat him." 

 Sen. Ep. 41. 



