|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: is, that owing to our feebleness and sluggishness we are prevented from
reaching the surface of the air: for if any man could arrive at the
exterior limit, or take the wings of a bird and come to the top, then like
a fish who puts his head out of the water and sees this world, he would see
a world beyond; and, if the nature of man could sustain the sight, he would
acknowledge that this other world was the place of the true heaven and the
true light and the true earth. For our earth, and the stones, and the
entire region which surrounds us, are spoilt and corroded, as in the sea
all things are corroded by the brine, neither is there any noble or perfect
growth, but caverns only, and sand, and an endless slough of mud: and even
the shore is not to be compared to the fairer sights of this world. And
|