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Chapter XXIX.—Immortality of the Soul.

“When he heard this he laughed; and when we asked him why he laughed at us for giving him good counsel, he answered:  ‘I laugh at your foolish supposition, because you believe that the soul of man is immortal.’  Then I said:  ‘We do not wonder, O Simon, at your attempting to deceive us, but we are confounded at the way in which you deceive even yourself.  Tell me, O Simon, even if no one else has been fully convinced that the soul is immortal, at all events you and we ought to be so:  you as having separated one from a human body, and conversed with it, and laid your commands upon it; and we as having been present, and heard your commands, and clearly witnessed the performance of what was ordered.’  Then said Simon:  ‘I know what you mean; but you know nothing of the matters concerning which you reason.’  Then said Nicetas:  ‘If you know, speak; but if you do not know, do not suppose that we can be deceived by your saying that you know, and that we do not.  For we are not so childish, that you can sow in us a shrewd suspicion that we should think that you know some unutterable things, and so that you should take and hold us in subjection, by holding us in restraint through means of desire.’