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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