Excerpt from The Debate of the Body and the Soul The conception underlying the Debate of the Body and the Soul is very old. Two interesting passages in Plutarch show the idea m a rather definite form, and justify us in supposing that the comparative advantages or disadvantages accruing to Soul and Body' from their association in this life was a well-known theme in the discussions of the ancient schools. Along with other bits of antique lore, this general conception passed into the confused stock of moral, psychological, and religious beliefs that mingled with Biblical doctrines in the minds of the early Christians, and thus, reinforced or modified by divers traits from the Orient, it became a part of the medi aval consciousness. Among the documents which influenced the growth of the legend, an obscure, but significant, role was played by the apocryphal Vision of St. Paul, assigned to about 380 A. D and by an uncanny tale sometimes assomated with _st. Macarius of Alexandria, a holy man of the fourth century. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.