CEASES, OCCURS IN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE DYING OR IN THAT OF THE DEAD.
The point of time in which the souls of the good and evil are separated from the body, are we to say it is after death, or in death rather? If it is after death, then it is not death which is good or evil, since death is done with and past, but it is the life which the soul has now entered on.Death was an evil when it was present, that is to say, when it was being suffered by the dying; for to them it brought with it a severe and grievous experience, which the good make a good use of.But when death is past, how can that which no longer is be either good or evil? Still further, if we examine the matter more closely, we shall see that even that sore and grievous pain which the dying experience is not death itself.
For so long as they have any sensation, they are certainly still alive; and, if still alive, must rather be said to be in a state previous to death than in death.For when death actually comes, it robs us of all bodily sensation which, while death is only approaching is painful.And thus it is difficult to explain how we speak of those who are not yet dead, but are agonized in their last and mortal extremity, as being in the article of death.Yet what else can we call them than dying persons? for when death which was imminent shall have actually come, we can no longer call them dying but dead.No one, therefore, is dying unless living; since even he who is in the last extremity of life, and, as we say, giving up the ghost, yet lives.The same person is therefore at once dying and living, but drawing near to death, departing from life; yet in life, because his spirit yet abides in the body; not yet in death, because not yet has his spirit forsaken the body.But if, when it has forsaken it, the man is not even then in death, but after death, who shall say when he is in death? On the one hand, no one can be called dying, if a man cannot be dying and living at, the same time; and as long as the soul is in the body, we cannot deny that he is living.On the other hand, if the man who is approaching death be rather called dying, I know not who is living.
CHAP.10.--OF THE LIFE OF MORTALS, WHICH IS RATHER TO BE CALLED DEATHTHAN LIFE.
For no sooner do we begin to live in this dying body, than we begin to move ceaselessly towards death.(1) For in the whole course of this life (if life we must call it) its mutability tends towards death.Certainly there is no one who is not nearer it this year than last year, and to-morrow than to-day, and to-day than yesterday, and a short while hence than now, and now than a short while ago.For whatever time we live is deducted from our whole term of life, and that which remains is daily becoming less and less; so that our whole life is nothing but a race towards death, in which no one is allowed to stand still for a little space, or to go somewhat more slowly, but all are driven forwards with an impartial movement, and with equal rapidity.For he whose life is short spends a day no more swiftly than he whose life is longer.But while the equal moments are impartially snatched from both, the one has a nearer and the other a more remote goal to reach with this their equal speed.It is one thing to make a longer journey, and another to walk more slowly.He, therefore, who spends longer time on his way to death does not proceed at a more leisurely pace, but floes over more ground.Further, if every man begins to die, that is, is in death, as soon as death has begun to show itself in him (by taking away life, to wit; for when life is all taken away, the man will be then not in death, but after death), then he begins to die so soon as he begins to live.For what else is going on in all his days, hours, and moments, until this slow-working death is fully consummated? And then comes the time after death, instead of that in which life was being withdrawn, and which we called being in death.Man, then, is never in life from the moment he dwells in this dying rather than living body,--if, at least, he cannot be in life and death at once.Or rather, shall we say, he is in both?--in life, namely, which he lives till all is consumed; but in death also, which he dies as his life is consumed? For if he is not in life, what is it which is consumed till all be gone? And if he is not in death, what is this consumption itself? For when the whole of life has been consumed, the expression "after death" would be meaningless, had that consumption not been death.And if, when it has all been consumed, a man is not in death but after death, when is he in death unless when life is being consumed away?
CHAP.11.--WHETHER ONE CAN BOTH BE LIVING AND DEAD AT THE SAME TIME.