calling “blessed” those whom Love has made from the many into the oneness of the intelligible[136] cosmos. Therefore, says [Empedocles] they wandered
Putting on in time all mortal forms[137]
p. 376.Interchanging the hard ways of life.[138]
He says that the transmigrations and transmutations of the souls into bodies are “hard ways.” This is what he says:—
Interchanging the hard ways of life.
For [the souls pass from body to body] being changed about and punished by Strife and are not allowed to remain in the One, but are punished in all punishments by Strife. This is what he says:—
For aetherial might drives souls seawards.
And sea spits them upon Earth’s surface; and Earth into the beams
Of the radiant Sun, and he casts them into the whirls of aether
Each takes them from the other, but all hate them.[139]