[14]
Scipio held this same view, for only a few days
before his death, in the presence of Philus, Manilius
and several others (you were there, too, Scaevola,
having gone with me), he, as if with a premonition
of his fate, discoursed for three days on the commonwealth, and devoted almost all of the conclusion of his
discussion to the immortality of the soul, making use
of arguments which he had heard, he said, from
Africanus the Elder through a vision in his sleep.
If the truth really is that the souls of all good men
after death make the easiest escape from what
may be termed the imprisonment and fetters of
the flesh, whom can we think of as having had an
easier journey to the gods than Scipio? Therefore,
I fear that grief at such a fate as his would be a
sign more of envy than of friendship. But if, on
the other hand, the truth rather is that soul and
body perish at the same time, and that no sensation
remains, then, it follows that, as there is nothing
good in death, so, of a certainty, there is nothing
evil. For if a man has lost sensation the result is
[p. 125]
the same as if he had never been born; and yet
the fact that Scipio was born is a joy to us and will
cause this State to exult so long as it shall exist.
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