When he had ceased to speak in this manner, I said, O Africanus, if indeed the door of heaven is open to those who have deserved well of their country, although, indeed, from my childhood I have always followed yours and my father's steps, and have not neglected to imitate your glory, still, I will from henceforth strive to follow them more closely.
Follow them, then, said he, and consider your body only, not yourself, as mortal.

For it is not your outward form which constitutes your being, but your mind; not that substance which is palpable to the senses, but your spiritual nature.

_Know, then, that you are a God_--for a God it must be, which flourishes, and feels, and recollects, and foresees, and governs, regulates and moves the body over which it is set, as the Supreme Ruler does the world which is subject to him.

For as that Eternal Being moves whatever is mortal in this world, so the immortal mind of man moves the frail body with which it is connected.
XXV.

For whatever is always moving must be eternal; but that which derives its motion from a power which is foreign to itself, when that motion ceases must itself lose its animation.
That alone, then, which moves itself can never cease to be moved, because it can never desert itself.