[63]
When, therefore, the
soul has been withdrawn by sleep from contact with
sensual ties, then does it recall the past, comprehend
the present, and foresee the future. For though
the sleeping body then lies as if it were dead, yet
the soul is alive and strong, and will be much more
so after death when it is wholly free of the body.
Hence its power to divine is much enhanced by the
approach of death. For example, those in the grasp
of a serious and fatal sickness realize the fact that
death impends; and so, visions of dead men generally appear to them and then their desire for fame
is strongest; while those who have lived otherwise
than as they should, feel, at such a time, the keenest
sorrow for their sins.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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