DIGRESSIO. Digression.

That those who have spoken for it have spoken more reasonably than those who have argued against it.

properly indicates and manifests the nature from which it flows, and from the fact that it contemplates things that are in no way subject to corruption. For what perfects is adapted and conforms, by just reason, to that which is perfected, for it knows universals separated from matter, from which they say it follows that it is not tied to matter, if that itself can admit them into itself. Since it receives knowledge in an indivisible way, exalted above matter and above every corporeal substance, how is it determined to be immaterial and incorporeal, completely beyond all controversy? It relies upon itself and its own nature, not trusting in the bulk or support of a body. Furthermore, if the soul were not immortal, man would be the most miserable of all living beings. Now, the appetite of nature, extended not toward the passing age but equally toward all ages and toward eternity itself, sought and desired, would have been implanted in man entirely in vain and to no purpose if he lacked the immortality he craves. Nor would the Good itself, the source of every good, be sought by it with such zeal and restless will if it had not exceeded the limits of a mortal and fleeting nature, which cannot suffer any contrary action from which corruption could arise. It is also most well-known that the soul has this within itself: it receives and knows all things that are otherwise contrary, and it is of such a simple and indivisible nature that it cannot be destroyed either by itself or by accident. Nor can death threaten it either from its essence or from the nature of its subject, from which it does not depend. Since it does not depend on the body, which it informs, to which it gives motion, life, and sense.