Sayfa 428 / 1391

But no one will ever prove that the souls of men become more

unjust when they die. If a person has the audacity to say the

contrary, the answer is-Then why do criminals require the hand of

the executioner, and not die of themselves? 'Truly,' he said,

'injustice would not be very terrible if it brought a cessation

of evil; but I rather believe that the injustice which murders

others may tend to quicken and stimulate the life of the unjust.'

You are quite right. If sin which is her own natural and inherent

evil cannot destroy the soul, hardly will anything else destroy

her. But the soul which cannot be destroyed either by internal or

external evil must be immortal and everlasting. And if this be

true, souls will always exist in the same number. They cannot

diminish, because they cannot be destroyed; nor yet increase, for

the increase of the immortal must come from something mortal, and

so all would end in immortality.