The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE EPICUREAN CONTRAST 115
things in being composed of exceedingly minute, smooth,
round atoms (the very swiftness of thought proves the
extreme fineness and subtlety of the mental particles) ;
and, though far lighter in itself than the body, so
light, indeed, that when at death it
departs from the
body, the body is practically as heavy as it was
before, it is, yet, so intimately connected with the
body, so closely conjoined with it and perfectly adapted
to it (tarn conjuncta atque uniter apta es], that it can
move, support, and even lift the body. Notwith
standing, it perishes along with the body. No part
of it survives death. As being wholly dependent on
the body, it is mortal. Still, the distinction between
the rational and the irrational part of the soul, although
both parts are mortal, is a very valid and a highly
important one. The rational or higher soul Lucretius
calls animus or mens ;
the irrational or lower soul is
to him anima. The former is seated in the breast ;
the latter is
diffused throughout the body.
Sensation belongs
neither to the soul alone nor to
the body alone, but to their mutual motions and inter
actions. It is
generated, in true Epicurean fashion,
following Empedocles, by material effluxes and pores ;
and the phenomena of the different senses sight,
hearing, etc. are simply owing
to difference in the
number, shape, motion, and mode of arrangement of
the atoms, just as different arrangement of the letters
of the alphabet produces
different words. From all
objects of sense, effluvia or tiny films are incessantly
passing off in countless numbers and in all directions.
These "images"
or et SwXa, when they strike the eye,