What about (the memory) of friends, of parents, of a wife, of the
fatherland, and of all that a virtuous man may properly remember?
In the image of the soul (the irrational soul) these memories will
be accompanied by a passive affection; but in the man (the rational
soul) they will not be so accompanied. The affections exist since the
beginning in the inferior soul; in the superior soul, as a result of
her dealings with the other, there are also some affections, but only
proper affections. The inferior soul may well seek to remember the
actions of the superior soul, especially when she herself has been
properly cultivated; for she can become better from her very principle
up, and through the education she receives from the other. The higher
soul must willingly forget what comes to her from the inferior
soul. When she is good, she can, besides, by her power contain the
subordinate soul. The more she desires to approach the intelligible
world, the more she must forget the things from here below, unless the
whole life she has led here below be such that she has entrusted to her
memory none but praiseworthy things. Even in our own world, indeed,
it is a fine thing to release oneself from human preoccupations. It
would therefore be still finer to forget them all. In this sense we
might well say that the virtuous soul should be forgetful. She thus
escapes manifoldness, reduces manifoldness to unity, and abandons the
indeterminate. She therefore ceases to live with manifoldness, lightens
her burdens, and lives for herself. Indeed, while remaining here below,
she desires to live in the intelligible world, and neglects all that is
foreign to her nature. She therefore retains but few earthly things
when she has arrived to the intelligible world; she has more of them
when she inhabits the heavens. Hercules (in heaven) may well vaunt his
valor; but even this valor seems to him trifling when he has arrived at
a region still holier than heaven, when he dwells in the intelligible
world, when he has risen over Hercules himself by the force manifested
in those struggles which are characteristic of veritable sages.