BOOK XII
29. Salvation in life depends on our seeing everything in its entirety and and its reality, in its Matter and its Cause[1]: on our doing what is just and speaking what is true with all our soul. What remains but to get delight of life by dovetailing one good act[2] on to another so as not to leave the smallest gap between?
30. There is one Light of the Sun, even though its continuity be broken by walls, mountains,[3] and countless other things. There is one common Substance, even though it be broken up into countless bodies individually characterized. There is one Soul, though it be broken up among countless natures and by individual limitations. There is one Intelligent Soul, though it seem to be divided. Of the things mentioned, however, all the other parts, such as Breath, are the material Substratum of things,[4] devoid of sensation and the ties of mutual affinity—yet even they are knit together by the faculty of intelligence and the gravitation which draws them together. But the mind is peculiarly impelled towards what is akin to it, and coalesces with it, and there is no break in the feeling of social fellowship.
31. What dost thou ask for? Continued existence? But what of sensation? Of desire? Of growth? Of the use of speech? The exercise of thought? Which of these, thinkest thou, is a thing to long for? But if these things are each and all of no account, address thyself to a final endeavour to follow Reason and to follow God.[5] But it militates against this to prize such things, and to grieve if death comes to deprive us of them.
