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Now which of these two functions is akin to the divine? and which to the mortal? Does not the divine appear to you to be that which naturally orders and rules, and the mortal that which is subject and servant? And which does the soul resemble?

The soul resembles the divine and the body the mortal— there can be no doubt of that, Socrates. Then reflect, Cebes: is not the conclusion of the whole mat- ter this—that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable; and the body is in the very likeness of the human, and mortal, and unintelligible, and multiform, and dissoluble, and changeable.

Can this, my dear Cebes, be denied ? No, indeed. But if this is true, then is not the body liable to speedy dissolution? and is not the soul almost or altogether indis- soluble ? Certainly. And do you further observe, that after a man is dead, the body, which is the visible part of man, and has a visible framework, which is called a corpse, and which would nat- urally be dissolved and decomposed and dissipated, is not dissolved or decomposed at once, but may remain for a good while, if the constitution be sound at the time of death, and PHZDO 73 the season of the year favorable?

For the body when shrunk and embalmed, as is the custom in Egypt, may remain almost entire through infinite ages; and even in decay, still there are some portions, stich as the bones and ligaments, which are practically indestructible.

You allow that? And are we to suppose that the soul, which is invisible, in passing to the true Hades, which like her is invisible, and pure, and noble, and on her way to the good and wise God, whither, if God will, my soul is also soon to go—that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature and origin, is blown away and perishes immediately on quitting the body as the many say?

That can never be, dear Simmias and Cebes. The truth rather is that the soul which is pure at departing draws after her no bodily taint, having never voluntarily had con- nection with the body, which she is ever avoiding, herself gathered into herself (for such abstraction has been the study of her life).

And what does this mean but that she has been a true disciple of philosophy and has practised how to die easily? And is not philosophy the practice of death? Certainly. That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world—to the divine and immortal and rational : thither arriv- ing, she lives in bliss and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild passions and all other human ills, and forever dwells, as they say of the initiated, in company with the gods.

Is not this true, Cebes? Yes, said Cebes, beyond a doubt. But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and see and taste and use for the pur- poses of his lusts—the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible, and can be attained only by philos- ophy—do you suppose that such a soul as this will depart pure and unalloyed?

That is impossible, he replied. 74 DIALOGUES OF PLATO She is engrossed by the corporeal, which the continual as- sociation and constant care of the body have made natural to her, Very true. And this, my friend, may be conceived to be that heavy, weighty, earthy element of sight by which such a soul is depressed and dragged down again into the visible world, be- cause she is afraid of the invisible and of the world below— prowling about tombs and sepulchres, in the neighborhood of which, as they tell us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible.

That is very likely, Socrates. Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former evil way of life; and they continue to wander until the desire which haunts them is satisfied and they are imprisoned in another body.