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Plotinus, whose memory is quite recent, enjoys the reputation of
having understood Plato better than any other of his disciples. In
speaking of human souls, he says, "The Father in compassion made
their bonds mortal;" that is to say, he considered it due to the
Father's mercy that men, having a mortal body, should not be forever
confined in the misery of this life. But of this mercy the demons have
been judged unworthy, and they have received, in conjunction with a
soul subject to passions, a body not mortal like man's, but eternal.
For they should have been happier than men if they had, like men, had
a mortal body, and, like the gods, a blessed soul. And they should
have been equal to men, if in conjunction with a miserable soul they
had at least received, like men, a mortal body, so that death might
have freed them from trouble, if, at least, they should have attained
some degree of piety. But, as it is, they are not only no happier
than men, having, like them, a miserable soul, they are also more
wretched, being eternally bound to the body; for he does not leave us
to infer that by some progress in wisdom and piety they can become
gods, but expressly says that they are demons forever.
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