Part 12 (1/2)
”Not visible.”
”Is it, then, invisible?”
”Yes.”
”The soul, then, is more like the invisible than the body; and the body, the visible?”
”It must needs be so, Socrates.”
65. ”And did we not, some time since, say this too, that the soul, when it employs the body to examine any thing, either by means of the sight or hearing, or any other sense (for to examine any thing by means of the body is to do so by the senses), is then drawn by the body to things that never continue the same, and wanders and is confused, and reels as if intoxicated, through coming into contact with things of this kind?”
”Certainly.”
”But when it examines anything by itself, does it approach that which is pure, eternal, immortal, and unchangeable, and, as being allied to it, continue constantly with it, so long as it subsists by itself, and has the power, and does it cease from its wandering, and constantly continue the same with respect to those things, through coming into contact with things of this kind? And is this affection of the soul called wisdom?”
”You speak,” he said, ”in every respect, well and truly, Socrates.”
”To which species of the two, then, both from what was before and now said, does the soul appear to you to be more like and more nearly allied?”
66. ”Every one, I think, would allow, Socrates,” he replied, ”even the dullest person, from this method of reasoning, that the soul is in every respect more like that which continues constantly the same than that which does not so.”
”But what as to the body?”
”It is more like the other.”
”Consider it also thus, that, when soul and body are together, nature enjoins the latter to be subservient and obey, the former to rule and exercise dominion. And, in this way, which of the two appears to you to be like the divine, and which the mortal? Does it not appear to you to be natural that the divine should rule and command, but the mortal obey and be subservient?”
”To me it does so.”
”Which, then, does the soul resemble?”
”It is clear, Socrates, that the soul resembles the divine; but the body, the mortal.”
”Consider, then, Cebes,” said he, ”whether, from all that has been said, these conclusions follow, that the soul is most like that which is divine, immortal, intelligent, uniform, indissoluble, and which always continues in the same state; but that the body, on the other hand, is most like that which is human, mortal, unintelligent, multiform, dissoluble, and which never continues in the same state. Can we say any thing against this, my dear Cebes, to show that it is not so?”
”We can not.”
67. ”What, then? Since these things are so, does it not appertain to the body to be quickly dissolved, but to the soul, on the contrary, to be altogether indissoluble or nearly so?”
”How not?”
”You perceive, however,” he said, ”that when a man dies, the visible part of him, the body, which is exposed to sight, and which we call a corpse, to which it appertains to be dissolved, to fall asunder and be dispersed, does not immediately undergo any of these affections, but remains for a considerable time, and especially so if any one should die with his body in full vigor, and at a corresponding age;[31] for when the body has collapsed and been embalmed, as those that are embalmed in Egypt, it remains almost entire for an incredible length of time; and some parts of the body, even though it does decay, such as the bones and nerves, and every thing of that kind, are, nevertheless, as one may say, immortal. Is it not so?”
”Yes.”
68. ”Can the soul, then, which is invisible, and which goes to another place like itself, excellent, pure and invisible, and therefore truly called the invisible world,[32] to the presence of a good and wise G.o.d (whither, if G.o.d will, my soul also must shortly go)--can this soul of ours, I ask, being such and of such a nature, when separated from the body, be immediately dispersed and destroyed, as most men a.s.sert? Far from it, my dear Cebes and Simmias. But the case is much rather thus: if it is separated in a pure state, taking nothing of the body with it, as not having willingly communicated with it in the present life, but having shunned it, and gathered itself within itself, as constantly studying this (but this is nothing else than to pursue philosophy aright, and in reality to study how to die easily), would not this be to study how to die?”
”Most a.s.suredly.”
”Does not the soul, then, when in this state, depart to that which resembles itself, the invisible, the divine, immortal and wise? And on its arrival there, is it not its lot to be happy, free from error, ignorance, fears, wild pa.s.sions, and all the other evils to which human nature is subject; and, as is said of the initiated, does it not in truth pa.s.s the rest of its time with the G.o.ds? Must we affirm that it is so, Cebes, or otherwise?”