Pagina 440 de 1391

Like many another, he made a bad choice, because he had no

experience of life; whereas those who came from earth and had

seen trouble were not in such a hurry to choose. But if a man had

followed philosophy while upon earth, and had been moderately

fortunate in his lot, he might not only be happy here, but his

pilgrimage both from and to this world would be smooth and

heavenly. Nothing was more curious than the spectacle of the

choice, at once sad and laughable and wonderful; most of the

souls only seeking to avoid their own condition in a previous

life. He saw the soul of Orpheus changing into a swan because he

would not be born of a woman; there was Thamyras becoming a

nightingale; musical birds, like the swan, choosing to be men;

the twentieth soul, which was that of Ajax, preferring the life

of a lion to that of a man, in remembrance of the injustice which

was done to him in the judgment of the arms; and Agamemnon, from

a like enmity to human nature, passing into an eagle.