Tertullian — On the Soul 9
ON THE FIGURE. When we assert a body of the soul of its own quality and kind, this condition of property will prejudge the other accidents of bulk — either these are present which we have shown of body, yet themselves of their own kind for the body's property, or if they are not present, this is the property: that what belongs to other bodies does not belong to the soul's body. Yet we will not inconsistently profess that the more solemn things wholly owed to bulk are present to the soul also — habit, limit, and that threefold extension by which philosophers measure bodies.
What now, that we also give the soul a figure, Plato unwilling, as if immortality were endangered? For he affirms everything figured is compounded and built, and everything compounded and built dissoluble; but the soul immortal, therefore indissoluble as immortal, and unfigured as indissoluble. But we also inscribe bodily lines to it, not only from confidence of corporeality by estimate, but also from the constancy of grace by revelation. For because we acknowledge spiritual gifts, after John too we have deserved to obtain prophecy. There is today among us a sister allotted gifts of revelations, which she suffers in the church among the Lord's solemnities through ecstasy in the Spirit; she converses with angels, sometimes even with the Lord, and sees and hears mysteries. Once, after we had discussed the soul, she reported she was shown a soul corporeally — tender and bright and of airy color, and in form human through all. God is witness, and the apostle a fit sponsor of gifts to be in the church. If then the soul is a body, color also will belong. What color will you estimate but airy and bright — not that air or light is its substance, but that everything thin and translucent rivals air? So also conceive a human figure for the human soul, and indeed of that body which each has borne about. When God had breathed into man's face the breath of life and man had been made into a living soul, that breath, densified by divine aspiration, was expressed by every inner line and as it were set in a mold. From there both the soul's bulk was solidified from densifying and its figure formed from impress. This will be the inner man, another the outer, doubly one — having eyes and ears with which the people ought to have heard and seen the Lord. So also the rich man among the lower places has a tongue, and the poor man a finger, and Abraham a bosom. By these lines the souls of the martyrs under the altar are also understood. For from the beginning in Adam the soul, concreted and configured to the body, made the seed of this whole substance and of this condition.
Latin
DE EFFIGIE. [1] Cum animae corpus adserimus propriae qualitatis et sui generis, iam haec condicio proprietatis de ceteris accidentibus corpulentiae praeiudicabit aut haec adesse, quam corpus ostendimus, sed et ipsa sui generis pro corporis proprietate, aut etsi non adsint, hoc esse proprietatis, non adesse corpori animae quae corporibus ceteris adsint. Et tamen non inconstanter profitebimur sollemniora quaeque et omnimodo debita corpulentiae adesse animae quoque, ut habitum, ut terminum, ut illud trifariam distantiuum, longitudinem dico et latitudinem et sublimitatem, quibus metantur corpora philosophi. [2] Quid nunc, quod et effigiem animae damus, Platone nolente, quasi periclitetur de animae immortalitate? Omne enim effigiatum compositum et structile affirmat; dissolubile autem omne compositicium et structile; sed animam immortalem, igitur indissolubilem, qua immortalem, et ineffigiatam, qua indissolubilem, ceterum compositiciam et structilem, si effigiatam, tamquam alio eam modo effigians intellectualibus formis, pulchram iustitia et disciplinis philosophiae, deformem uero contrariis artibus. [3] Sed nos corporales quoque illi inscribimus lineas, non tantum ex fiducia corporalitatis per aestimationem, uerum et ex constantia gratiae per reuelationem. Nam quia spiritalia charismata agnoscimus, post Iohannem quoque prophetiam meruimus consequi. [4] Est hodie soror apud nos reuelationum charismata sortita, quas in ecclesia inter dominica sollemnia per ecstasin in spiritu patitur; conuersatur cum angelis, aliquando etiam cum domino, et uidet et audit sacramenta et quorundam corda dinoscit et medicinas desiderantibus sumit. Iamuero prout scripturae leguntur aut psalmi canuntur aut allocutiones proferuntur aut petitiones delegantur, ita inde materiae uisionibus subministrantur. Forte nescio quid de anima disserueramus, cum ea soror in spiritu esset. Post transacta sollemnia dimissa plebe, quo usu solet nobis renuntiare quae uiderit (nam et diligentissime digeruntur, ut etiam probentur), 'inter cetera', inquit, 'ostensa est mihi anima corporaliter, et spiritus uidebatur, sed non inanis et uacuae qualitatis, immo quae etiam teneri repromitteret, tenera et lucida et aerii coloris, et forma per omnia humana. Hoc uisio'. Et deus testis et apostolus charismatum in ecclesia futurorum idoneus sponsor; tunc et si res ipsa de singulis persuaserit, credas.
[5] Si enim corpus anima, sine dubio inter illa quae supra sumus professi, proinde et coloris proprietas omni corpori aderit. Quem igitur alium animae aestimabis colorem quam aerium ac lucidum? Non, ut aer sit ipsa substantia eius, etsi hoc Aenesidemo uisum est et Anaximeni, puto secundum quosdam et Heraclito, nec ut lumen, etsi hoc placuit Pontico Heraclidi [6] ---- nam et cerauniis gemmis non ideo substantia ignita est, quod coruscent rutilato rubore, nec berullis ideo aquosa materia est, quod fluctuent colato nitore (quanta enim et alia color sociat, natura dissociat) ----, sed quoniam omne tenue atque perlucidum aeris aemulum est, hoc erit anima, qua flatus et spiritus tradux, siquidem prae ipsa tenuitatis subtilitate de fide corporalitatis periclitatur. [7] Sic et effigiem de sensu iam tuo concipe non aliam animae humanae deputandam praeter humanam, et quidem eius corporis quod unaquaeque circumtulit. Hoc nos sapere interim primordii contemplatio inducat. Recogita enim, cum deus flasset in faciem homini flatum uitae, et factus esset homo in animam uiuam, totus utique, per faciem statim flatum illum in interiora transmissum et per uniuersa corporis spatia diffusum simulque diuina aspiratione densatum omni intus linea expressum esse, quam densatus impleuerat, et uelut in forma gelasse. [8] Inde igitur et corpulentia animae ex densatione solidata est et effigies ex impressione formata. Hic erit homo interior, alius exterior, dupliciter unus, habens et ille oculos et aures suas, quibus populus dominum audire et uidere debuerat, habens et ceteros artus, per quos et in cogitationibus utitur et in somniis fungitur. Sic et diuiti apud inferos lingua est, et pauperi digitus, et sinus Abrahae. Per has lineas et animae martyrum sub altari intelleguntur. A primordio enim in Adam concreta et configurata corpori anima, ut totius substantiae, ita et condicionis istius semen effecit.