Note 65 — Chapter XVII · THE EPICUREAN VIEWS ON NATURE.

(2) The soul. The apotheosis of nature, which has been apparent in Epicurus’s whole view of history, becomes specially prominent in his treatment of psychology. This treatment could, after all that has been said, be only purely materialistic. The soul, like every other real being, is a body. In support of this view the Epicureans appealed to the mutual relations of the body and the soul, agreeing on this point with the Stoics.65 The body of the soul, however, consists of the finest, lightest, and most easily moved atoms, as is manifest from the speed of thought, from the instantaneous dissolution of the soul after death, and, moreover, from the fact that the soulless body is as heavy as the body in which there is a soul.66 Hence Epicurus, again agreeing with the Stoics, describes the soul as a material resembling fire and air,67 or, more accurately, as composed of four elements, fire, air, vapour, and a fourth nameless element. It consists of the finest atoms, and is the cause of feeling,68 and according as one or other of these elements preponderates, the character of man is of one or the other kind.69 Like the Stoics, Epicurus believed that the soul-element is received by generation from the parents’ souls,70 and that it is spread over the whole body,71 growing as the body grows.72 At the same time he makes a distinction somewhat similar to that made by the Stoics in their doctrine of the sovereign part of the soul (ἡγεμονικόν).73 Only the irrational part of the soul is diffused as a principle of life over the whole body; the rational part has its seat in the breast.74 To the rational part belong mental activity, sensation, and perception, the motion of the will and the mind, and in this latter sense life itself; both parts together make up one being, yet they may exist in different conditions. The mind may be cheerful whilst the body and the irrational soul feel pain, or the reverse may be the case. It is even possible that portions of the irrational soul may be lost by the mutilation of the body, without detriment to the rational soul, or consequently to life.75 When, however, the connection between soul and body is fully severed, then the soul can no longer exist. Deprived of the surrounding shelter of the body, its atoms are dispersed in a moment, owing to their lightness; and the body in consequence, being unable to exist without the soul, goes over into corruption.76 If this view appears to hold out the most gloomy prospect for the future, Epicurus considers that it cannot really be so. With life every feeling of evil ceases,77 and the time when we shall no longer exist affects us just as little as the time before we existed.78 Nay, more, he entertains the opinion that his teaching alone can reconcile us to death by removing all fear of the nether world and its terrors.79