No More Learning

The multitude who lack such guiding aims live the
"untested life" which Socrates pronounced intolerable. The so-called
statesmen who fail to achieve them are blind leaders of the blind.
The establishment in the mind of a clearly defined ethical and social
ideal, as
a touchstone of the tendencies of all particular acts and


## p. 11525 (#139) ##########################################

PLATO
11525
policies, is described in the language of poetical Platonism as the
acquisition of the highest knowledge, the knowledge of the Idea of
Good, on which the value of all partial and relative "goods" depends.
The Idea of Good, supreme in the hierarchy of ideas, and last reached
in the scale and process of pure dialectic, is the sun of the intelligible
world; and like its symbol, the visible sun, is not only the fountain
of light and knowledge, but the source of motion, life, and existence.
For-to translate the image into prose-institutions, laws, and sys-
tems of government and education have their origin and find their
best explanation in the final purposes, the ultimate ethical and social
ideals, of their founders and supporters. But the knowledge of the
Idea of Good, though described as a vision, is not granted to vision-
aries. The relation of all action to a rational and consistent theory
of practice presupposes a severe discipline in dialectic. And dialectic
itself, so confusing and unsettling as practiced in imitation of Socra-
tes and the Sophists by the irresponsible youth of Athens, may be
safely studied only after a long preparatory training in all the cult-
ure and exact science of the age. Only to the elect few, who, tri-
umphantly supporting these and many other tests of mind and body,
attain the beatific vision, will Plato intrust the government of his
perfect city and the guardianship of mankind. They represent for
him the antithesis of the typical pettifoggers and brawling demagogues
of the Athens that was "dying of the triumph of the liberal party. "
For these too he shapes, in many of the dialogues, a theory of un-
scrupulous cynical practice more coherent, doubtless, than anything
in their minds, but serving in a way as an ideal of evil to oppose to
his own idea or ideal of good. It has been affirmed that Plato was a
bad citizen because he despaired of the Republic. But if we remem-
ber that, as Matthew Arnold says, Plato was right and Athens was
doomed, if we recall the excesses of the post-Periclean demagogues,
if we reflect on his bitter disillusionment in the brief tyrannical rule
of the "good-and-fair" companions of his youth, we shall not censure
him for "standing aside under a wall in a storm of dust and hurri-
cane of driving wind," or seeking refuge in the "city of which a
pattern is laid up in heaven. " "He was born to other politics. "
Platonism is much more than this doctrine of Ideas, or than any
doctrine. The dialogues, apart from their dramatic interest and lit-
erary charm, make a manifold appeal to numerous abiding instincts
and aptitudes of the human mind through dialectics, metaphysics,
mysticism, and aesthetic and ethical enthusiasm. Some hard-headed
readers will use them as an intellectual gymnastic. The thrust and
parry of logical fence, the close pursuit of a trail of ratiocination
through all the windings and apparently capricious digressions of
the argument, the ingenious détours and surprises of the Socratic


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11526
PLATO
Elenchus, the apparatus of definitions, divisions, and fine-spun distinc-
tions. these things are in themselves a pleasurable exercise to many
minds. Others seek in the dialogues the gratification of that com-
monplace metaphysical instinct which Walter Pater warns us to sup-
press.
Being and non-Being, the One and the many, the finite and
the infinite, weave their endless dance through the 'Parmenides,' the
'Sophist,' and the 'Philebus. ' We may say that it is barren logoma-
chy, the ratiocinative faculty run to seed, if we will. The history
of literature proves it what Plato called it: a persistent affection
of discourse of reason in man. Certain Platonic dialogues exercise
and gratify this instinct even more completely than Neo-Platonism,
mediæval scholasticism, Hegelianism, or the new psychological scho-
lasticism of to-day. And so, to the amazement and disgust of the
positivists, the stream of résumés, new interpretations, and paraphrases
of the 'Sophist' and 'Parmenides,' flows and will continue to flow.
Mysticism too "finds in Plato all its texts. " The yearning towards
an Absolute One, ineffable symbol of the unity which the soul is
ever striving to recover amid the dispersions of life, the impulse to
seek a spiritual counterpart for every material fact, the tantalizing
glimpses of infinite vistas beyond the ken of the bodily eye, the
aspirations that elude definition, and refuse to be shut in a formula,—
to all these
"Fallings from us, vanishings,
Blank misgivings of a creature
Moving about in worlds not realized,»
Plato gives full recognition, while shunning with unerring tact their
concrete superstitious developments. His mystical imagery is always
embroidered on a definite framework of thought. The attributes of
the Absolute One are deduced as systematically as a table of logical
categories. The structure of a Greek temple is not more transpar-
ently symmetrical than the allegory of the sun and the Idea of Good,
the analogy of the divided line, and the symbolism of the Cave in the
'Republic'; or than the description, in the 'Phædrus,' of the soul as
a celestial car, of which reason is the charioteer, and noble passion
and sensuous appetite are the two steeds. The visions of judgment
that close the 'Republic' and 'Gorgias' are as definite in outline as
a picture of Polygnotus. All nobler forms of mystic symbolism, from
Plotinus to Emerson, derive from Plato; all its baser developments.
from Iamblichus to the newest thaumaturgic theosophy, seek shelter
under his name.
Allied to mysticism is the quality which the eighteenth century
deprecated as enthusiasm. The intellect is suffused with feeling.
All the nobler sentiments partake of the intensity of passionate love


## p. 11527 (#141) ##########################################

PLATO
11527
and the solemnity of initiations. Hence the sage and serious doctrine
of Platonic love, whose interpretation and history would demand a
volume:-
-
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting
And cometh from afar. »
All noble unrest and higher aspiration in this world is a striving
to recapture something of the rapture of the soul's pre-natal vision of
the Divine ideas. Now the good and the true are apprehended dimly
through the abstractions of dialectic. The idea of beauty alone finds
a not wholly inadequate visible embodiment on earth. And so the
love of beauty is the predestined guide to the knowledge of the good
and the true. In the presence of the beautiful the soul is stung by
recollection of the Idea, and yearns for an immortality which the mor-
tal can put on only through generation. To this throe, this yearn-
ing, awakened by the sight of a beautiful body, men give the special
name love.
But love in the larger sense is all passionate thirst for
happiness, all thrilling recollection of the absolute beauty, all desire to
reproduce it on earth, not merely after the flesh, but in such immor-
tal children of the spirit as the poems of Homer and Sappho, the
laws of Solon and Lycurgus, the victories of Epaminondas.
"The noble heart that harbors virtuous thought,
And is with child of glorious great intent,
Can never rest, until it forth have brought
Th' eternal brood of glory excellent. ”
For this higher love the lower is a preparation and an initiation.
Akin to this enthusiasm of the lover is the fine frenzy of the poet,
who, by visitation of the Muse, is inspired to utter many strange and
beautiful sayings, of which he can render no account under a Socratic
cross-examination. This power of the Muse resembles the magnet,
which both attracts and imparts its attractive virtue to other sub-
stances. And when a vast audience thrills with terror and pity as
the rhapsode, tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspect, recites the
sorrows of Priam or Hecuba, they are all dependent links in the
magnetic chain that descends from the poet and the Muse.
The Vita Nuova' of Dante, the sonnets of Michael Angelo, the
'Eroici Furori' of Bruno, the spiritual quality of the higher poetry
of the Italian and English Renaissance, and the more recent names
of Shelley, Wordsworth, and Emerson, faintly indicate the historic
influence of these beautiful conceptions.
In later years Plato's "enthusiasm" was transmuted into a pro-
phetic puritanic world-reforming temper,- the seeming antithesis of


## p. 11528 (#142) ##########################################

11528
PLATO
this gracious philosophy of love and beauty. His work was from the
beginning as intensely moralized as were the discourses of Socrates.
On whatever theme you talked with Socrates, it was said, you would
in the end be forced to render an account of the state of your soul.
And so in Plato every text is improved for edification, "the moral
properties and scope of things" are kept constantly in sight, and
the unfailing ethical suggestiveness of the style intensifies the moral
sentiment to a pitch of spiritual exaltation that makes of Platonism
one of the great religions of the world. But the age as we see it
in Thucydides, Aristophanes, and Euripides, was one of "enlighten-
ment," skepticism, and the breaking up of traditional moral restraints.
And as he watched year by year the deterioration of the Athen-
ian civic temper, and the triumph of the mocking spirit of denial,
Plato's passionate concern for the moral side of life developed into
something akin to the temper of the Hebrew prophet, preaching
righteousness to a stubborn and perverse generation, or the modern
Utopian reformer, dashing his angry heart against the corruptions of
the world. The problems which increasingly absorb his attention are
the disengagement from outworn forms of the saving truths of the
old religion and morality, the polemic defense of. this fundamental
truth against the new Spirit of the Age, and the salvation of society
by a reconstitution of education and a reconstruction of government.
These are the chief problems, again, of our own age of transition;
and the 'Republic,' in which they find their ripest and most artistic
treatment, might seem a book of yesterday- or to-morrow. The
division of labor, specialization, the formation of a trained standing
army, the limitation of the right of private property, the industrial
and political equality of women, the improvement of the human
breed by artificial selection, the omnipotence of public opinion, the
reform of the letter of the creeds to save their spirit, the proscrip-
tion of unwholesome art and literature, the reorganization of edu-
cation, the kindergarten method, the distinction between higher and
secondary education, the endowment of research, the application of
the higher mathematics to astronomy and physics, such are some of
the divinations, the modernisms of that wonderful work. The frame-
work is a confutation of ethical skepticism by demonstration that
morality is of the nature of things, and the just life is intrinsically
happier than the unjust. The nature of justice can be studied only
in the larger life of the State. A typical Greek city is constructed,—
or rather, allowed to grow, and by the reform of education is in-
sensibly transformed into the ideal monarchy or aristocracy, governed
by philosopher-statesmen who have attained to the Idea of Good.
The existing degenerate forms of government are reviewed, and
estimated by their approximation to this perfect type; and by means
-


## p. 11529 (#143) ##########################################

PLATO
11529
of an elaborate psychological parallel between the individual and the
social constitution, it is inferred that the superior happiness of the
"just man" is proportional to the perfection of the best city.
The puritanic temper reveals itself in the famous banishment of
Homer. In the course of a criticism of Greek anthropomorphism,
which was repeated almost verbatim by the Christian fathers, the
tales told of the gods by Homer are deprecated as unsuitable for the
ears of the young. As his conception of education broadens, Socrates
unfolds the Wordsworthian idea of the molding influence upon char-
acter of noble rhythms, and a beautiful and seemly environment of
nature and art; and ordains that in the perfect city all art and liter-
ature must be of a quality to produce this ennobling effect. Lastly,
recurring to the topic with deeper analysis in the closing book, he
rejects all forms of dramatic, flamboyant, luscious art and literature,
as superficial mimicries twice removed from absolute truth, unwhole-
some stimulants of emotion, and nurses of harmful illusions. We may
not, with Ruskin, pronounce this a quenching of the imagination and
of the poetic sensibilities by the excess of the logical faculty. Plato
is only too conscious of the siren's charm:-"And thou too, dear
friend, dost thou not own her spell, and most especially when she
comes in the guise of Homer? But great is the prize for which we
strive; and what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world of
poetry and art, and lose his own soul? »
"But all those pleasant bowers and palace brave
Guyon broke down with rigor pitiless,
Ne aught their goodly workmanship might save
Them from the tempest of his wrathfulness. "
The 'Republic' undertakes to prove that virtue is its own reward,
and needs no other wage here or hereafter. But at the close the
imperious human cry makes itself heard: "Give her the wages of
going on, and not to die. " The beautiful tale of salvation related
by Er the son of Armenius is like the myth at the close of the
'Gorgias'; and the description of the blissful region of the "upper
earth" in the 'Phædo' rather an "intimation of immortality" than a
cogent logical demonstration. Plato sketches many such proofs: the
soul possesses concepts not derived from experience; the soul is an
uncomposite unity; the soul is a spontaneous source of motion.
But
like the myths, these arguments are rather tentative expressions of
a rational hope than dogmatic affirmations or organic members of a
system. Yet the traditional conception of Plato as the champion of
immortality and the truths of natural religion, is justified by the fact
that in the age when traditional religion first found itself confronted


## p. 11530 (#144) ##########################################

11530
PLATO
with the affirmations of dogmatic science, and with the picture of
a mechanical universe that left no place for God or the soul,-he,
at home in both worlds of thought, stood forward as a mediator,
and demonstrated this much at least: that a purely sensationist psy-
chology fails to yield an intelligible account of mind, and that the
dogmatism of negation is as baseless as the dogmatism of unlicensed
affirmation.
Space does not admit even a sketch of the history of the Pla-
tonic dialogues, and their domination of the thought of intensely
vital ages, like the Renaissance and our own time. Their influence
in literature, philosophy, and the higher education, has perhaps never
been greater than in the past thirty years. No original book of this
generation has done more to shape the thought of our time than
Jowett's admirable translation, accompanied by notes and analyses.
This translation, with Grote's elaborate study in four volumes, Zeller's
"History of Greek Philosophy,' Campbell's excellent article in the
'Encyclopædia Britannica,' and Walter Pater's exquisite 'Plato and
Platonism,' will meet all the needs of the general student. The latest
edition of Zeller will guide scholars to the enormous technical litera-
ture of the subject.
Paul Shrey
ва
FROM THE PROTAGORAS›
[Socrates and his young friend Hippocrates visit the Sophists' school. ]
PROCEEDED: IS not a Sophist, Hippocrates, one who deals
wholesale or retail in the food of the soul? To me that
appears to be the sort of man.
And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul?
Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul; and we
must take care, my friend, that the Sophist does not deceive
us when he praises what he sells, like the dealers wholesale or
retail who sell the food of the body: for they praise indiscrimi-
nately all their goods, without knowing what are really beneficial
or hurtful; neither do their customers know, with the exception
of any trainer or physician who may happen to buy of them.
In like manner those who carry about the wares of knowledge,
and make the round of the cities, and sell or retail them to any
customer who is in want of them, praise them all alike: and I


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PLATO
11531
should not wonder, O my friend, if many of them were really
ignorant of their effect upon the soul; and their customers
equally ignorant, unless he who buys of them happens to be a
physician of the soul. If therefore you have understanding of
what is good and evil, you may safely buy knowledge of Pro-
tagoras, or of any one; but if not, then, O my friend, pause, and
do not hazard your dearest interests at a game of chance. For
there is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying
meat and drink: the one you purchase of the wholesale or retail
dealer, and carry them away in other vessels, and before you
receive them into the body as food you may deposit them at
home, and call in any experienced friend who knows what is
good to be eaten or drunken, and what not, and how much and
when; and hence the danger of purchasing them is not so great.
But when you buy the wares of knowledge you cannot carry
them away in another vessel; they have been sold to you, and
you must take them into the soul and go your way, either
greatly harmed or greatly benefited by the lesson: and therefore
we should think about this and take counsel with our elders; for
we are still young- - too young to determine such a matter. And
now let us go, as we were intending, and hear Protagoras: and
when we have heard what he has to say, we may take counsel
of others; for not only is Protagoras at the house of Callias, but
there is Hippias of Elis, and if I am not mistaken, Prodicus of
Ceos, and several other wise men.
To this we agreed, and proceeded on our way until we reached
the vestibule of the house; and there we stopped in order to
finish a dispute which had arisen as we were going along; and
we stood talking in the vestibule until we had finished and come
to an understanding. And I think that the doorkeeper, who was
a eunuch, and who was probably annoyed at the great inroad of
the Sophists, must have heard us talking. At any rate, when we
knocked at the door, and he opened and saw us, he grumbled,
They are Sophists-he is not at home; and instantly gave the
door a hearty bang with both his hands. Again we knocked,
and he answered without opening, Did you not hear me say that
he is not at home, fellows? But, my friend, I said, we are not
Sophists, and we are not come to see Callias: fear not, for we
want to see Protagoras; and I must request you to announce us.
At last, after a good deal of difficulty, the man was persuaded to
open the door.


## p. 11532 (#146) ##########################################

11532
PLATO
When we entered, we found Protagoras taking a walk in
the portico; and next to him on one side were walking Callias
the son of Hipponicus, and Paralus the son of Pericles, who by
the mother's side is his half-brother, and Charmides the son of
Glaucon. On the other side of him were Xanthippus the other
son of Pericles, Philippides the son of Philomelus; also Antimo-
rus of Mende, who of all the disciples of Protagoras is the most
famous, and intends to make sophistry his profession. A train
of listeners followed him, of whom the greater part appeared
to be foreigners, who accompanied Protagoras out of the vari-
ous cities through which he journeyed. Now he, like Orpheus,
attracted them by his voice, and they followed the attraction. I
should mention also that there were some Athenians in the com-
pany. Nothing delighted me more than the precision of their
movements: they never got into his way at all; but when he
and those who were with him turned back, then the band of list-
eners divided into two parts on either side; he was always in
front, and they wheeled round and took their places behind him.
in perfect order.
>>>
After him, as Homer says, "I lifted up my eyes and saw
Hippias the Elean, sitting in the opposite portico on a chair of
state, and around him were seated on benches Eryximachus the
son of Acumenus, and Phædrus the Myrrhinusian, and Andron
the son of Androtion, and there were strangers whom he had.
brought with him from his native city of Elis, and some others:
they appeared to be asking Hippias certain physical and astro-
nomical questions, and he, ex cathedrâ, was determining their
several questions to them, and discoursing of them.
Also, "my eyes beheld Tantalus"; for Prodicus the Cean was
at Athens: he had been put into a room which in the days of
Hipponicus was a storehouse; but as the house was full, Callias.
had cleared this out and made the room into a guest-chamber.
Now Prodicus was still in bed, wrapped up in sheepskins and
bedclothes, of which there seemed to be a great heap; and there
were sitting by him on the couches near, Pausanias of the deme
of Cerameis, and with Pausanias was a youth quite young, who
is certainly remarkable for his good looks, and if I am not mis-
taken, is also of a fair and gentle nature. I think that I heard
him called Agathon, and my suspicion is that he is the beloved
of Pausanias. There was this youth, and also there were the
two Adeimantuses,—one the son of Cepis, and the other of


## p. 11533 (#147) ##########################################

PLATO
11533
Leucolophides,- and some others. I was very anxious to hear
what Prodicus was saying, for he seemed to me to be an extraor-
dinarily wise and divine man; but I was not able to get into
the inner circle, and his fine deep voice made an echo in the
room which rendered his words inaudible.
No sooner had we entered than there followed us Alcibiades
the beautiful- as you say, and I believe you; and also Critias
the son of Callæschrus.
On entering, we stopped a little in order to look about us,
and then walked up to Protagoras, and I said: Protagoras, my
friend Hippocrates and I have come to see you.
Do you wish, he said, to speak with me alone, or in the pres-
ence of others?
That is as you please, I said: you shall determine when you
have heard the object of our visit.
And what is that? he said.
-
I must explain, I said, that my friend Hippocrates is a native
Athenian; he is the son of Apollodorus, and of a great and pros-
perous house, and he is himself in natural ability quite a match.
for those of his own age. I believe that he aspires to political
eminence; and this he thinks that conversation with you is most
likely to procure for him: now it is for you to decide whether
you would wish to speak to him of these matters alone or in
company.
Thank you, Socrates, for your consideration of me.
For cer-
tainly a stranger finding his way into great cities, and persuad-
ing the flower of the youth in them to leave the company of
their other kinsmen or acquaintance, and live with him, under the
idea that they will be improved by his conversation, ought to
be very cautious: great jealousies are occasioned by his proceed-
ings, and he is the subject of many enmities and conspiracies. I
maintain the art of the Sophist to be of ancient date; but that in
ancient times the professors of the art, fearing this odium, veiled
and disguised themselves under various names; some under that
of poets, as Homer, Hesiod, and Simonides; some as hierophants
and prophets, as Orpheus and Musæus; and some, as I observe,
even under the name of gymnastic-masters, like Iccus of Taren-
tum, or the more recently celebrated Herodicus, now of Selym-
bria and formerly of Megara, who is a first-rate Sophist. Your
own Agathocles pretended to be a musician, but was really an
eminent Sophist; also Pythocleides the Cean; and there were
—————


## p. 11534 (#148) ##########################################

11534
PLATO
many others: and all of them, as I was saying, adopted these
arts as veils or disguises because they were afraid of the envy
of the multitude. But that is not my way: for I do not believe
that they effected their purpose, which was to deceive the gov-
ernment, who were not blinded by them; and as to the people,
they have no understanding, and only repeat what their rulers
are pleased to tell them. Now to run away, and to be caught
in running away, is the very height of folly; and also greatly
increases the exasperation of mankind, for they regard him who
runs away as a rogue, in addition to any other objection which
they have to him: and therefore I take an entirely opposite
course, and acknowledge myself to be a Sophist and instructor of
mankind; such an open acknowledgment appears to me to be a
better sort of caution than concealment Nor do I neglect other
precautions; and therefore I hope, as I may say, by the favor of
heaven, that no harm will come of the acknowledgment that I
am a Sophist. And I have been now many years in the profes-
sion; — for all my years when added up are many, and there is
no one here present of whom I might not be the father. Where-
fore I should much prefer conversing with you, if you do not
object, in the presence of the company.
-
As I suspected that he would like to have a little display and
glory in the presence of Prodicus and Hippias, and would gladly
show us to them in the light of his admirers, I said: But why
should we not summon Prodicus and Hippias and their friends to
hear us?
Very good, he said.
Suppose, said Callias, that we hold a council in which you
may sit and discuss. This was determined, and great delight
was felt at the prospect of hearing wise men talk; we ourselves
all took the chairs and benches, and arranged them by Hippias,
where the other benches had been already placed. Meanwhile
Callias and Alcibiades got up Prodicus, and brought in him and
his companions.
When we were all seated, Protagoras said: Now that the com-
pany are assembled, Socrates, tell me about the young man of
whom you were just now speaking.


## p. 11535 (#149) ##########################################

PLATO
11535
FROM THE (PHÆDO›
[Socrates, concluding his mythical account of the soul's future state, pre-
pares for death. ]
I
Do not mean to affirm that the description which I have given
of the soul and her mansions is exactly true: man of sense
ought hardly to say that. But I do say that inasmuch as
the soul is shown to be immortal, he may venture to think, not
improperly or unworthily, that something of the kind is true.
The venture is a glorious one, and he ought to comfort himself
with words like these, which is the reason why I lengthen out the
tale. Wherefore, I say, let a
man be of good cheer about his
soul who has cast away the pleasures and ornaments of the body
as alien to him, and rather hurtful in their effect, and has followed
after the pleasures of knowledge in this life; who has adorned
the soul in her own proper jewels, which are temperance, and
justice, and courage, and nobility, and truth: in these arrayed she
is ready to go on her journey to the world below, when her time
comes. You, Simmias and Cebes, and all other men, will depart
at some time or other. Me already, as the tragic poet would
say, the voice of Fate calls. Soon I must drink the poison; and
I think that I had better repair to the bath first, in order that
the women may not have the trouble of washing my body after
I am dead.
When he had done speaking, Crito said: And have you any
commands for us, Socrates-anything to say about your children,
or any other matter in which we can serve you?
Nothing particular, he said: only, as I have always told you,
I would have you to look to yourselves; that is a service which
you may always be doing to me and mine as well as to your-
selves. And you need not make professions; for if you take no
thought for yourselves, and walk not according to the precepts
which I have given you,- not now for the first time, the
warmth of your professions will be of no avail.
We will do our best, said Crito. But in what way would you
have us bury you?
In any way that you like; only you must get hold of me, and
take care that I do not walk away from you. Then he turned
to us, and added with a smile: I cannot make Crito believe that
I am the same Socrates who have been talking and conducting
the argument; he fancies that I am the other Socrates whom he
I


## p. 11536 (#150) ##########################################

11536
PLATO
I will soon see,
a dead body,—and he asks, How shall he bury
me? And though I have spoken many words in the endeavor to
show that when I have drunk the poison I shall leave you and
go to the joys of the blessed, these words of mine with which
I comforted you and myself have had, as I perceive, no effect
upon Crito. And therefore I want you to be surety for me now,
as he was surety for me at the trial; but let the promise be of
another sort: for he was my surety to the judges that I would
remain, but you must be my surety to him that I shall not
remain, but go away and depart; and then he will suffer less at
my death, and not be grieved when he sees my body being
burned or buried. I would not have him sorrow at my hard lot,
or say at the burial, Thus we lay out Socrates, or, Thus we fol-
low him to the grave or bury him; for false words are not only
evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. Be of
good cheer then, my dear Crito; and say that you are burying
my body only, and do with that as is usual, and as you think
best.
When he had spoken these words, he arose and went into
the bath-chamber with Crito, who bid us wait; and we waited,
talking and thinking of the subject of discourse, and also of the
greatness of our sorrow,- he was like a father of whom we
were being bereaved, and we were about to pass the rest of
our lives as orphans. When he had taken the bath, his children
were brought to him (he had two young sons and an elder one);
and the women of his family also came, and he talked to them
and gave them a few directions in the presence of Crito: and he
then dismissed them and returned to us.
Now the hour of sunset was near, for a good deal of time
had passed while he was within. When he came out, he sat
down with us again after his bath, but not much was said. Soon
the jailer, who was the servant of the eleven, entered and stood
by him, saying: To you, Socrates, whom I know to be the no-
blest and gentlest and best of all who ever came to this place, I
will not impute the angry feelings of other men, who rage and
swear at me when, in obedience to the authorities, I bid them
drink the poison: indeed I am sure that you will not be angry
with me; for others, as you are aware, and not I, are the guilty
cause. And so fare you well, and try to bear lightly what must
needs be; you know my errand. Then bursting into tears he
turned away and went out.


## p. 11537 (#151) ##########################################

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11537
Socrates looked at him and said: I return your good wishes,
and will do as you bid. Then turning to us, he said, How
charming the man is! - since I have been in prison he has always
been coming to see me, and at times he would talk to me, and
was as good as could be to me, and now see how generously he
sorrows for me. But we must do as he says, Crito; let the cup
be brought, if the poison is prepared: if not, let the attendant
prepare some.
Yet, said Crito, the sun is still upon the hill-tops; and many
a one has taken the draught late, and after the announcement
has been made to him, he has eaten and drunk, and indulged in
sensual delights; do not hasten then-there is still time.
Socrates said: Yes, Crito, and they of whom you speak are
right in doing thus, for they think they will gain by the delay,
but I am right in not doing thus, for I do not think that I should
gain anything by drinking the poison a little later; I should be
sparing and saving a life which is already gone: I could only
laugh at myself for this. Please then to do as I say, and not to
refuse me.
Crito, when he heard this, made a sign to the servant; and
the servant went in, and remained for some time, and then
returned with the jailer carrying the cup of poison. Socrates
said: You, my good friend, who are experienced in these matters,
shall give me directions how I am to proceed. The man an-
swered: You have only to walk about until your legs are heavy,
and then lie down and the poison will act. At the same time
he handed the cup to Socrates, who in the easiest and gentlest
manner, without the least fear or change of color or feature,
looking at the man with all his eyes, Echecrates, as his manner
was, took the cup and said: What do you say about making a
libation out of this cup to any god? May I, or not? The man
answered: We only prepare, Socrates, just so much as we deem
enough. I understand, he said; yet I may and must pray to the
gods to prosper my journey from this to that other world; may
this then, which is my prayer, be granted to me. Then holding
the cup to his lips, quite readily and cheerfully he drank off the
poison. And hitherto most of us had been able to control our
sorrow; but now when we saw him drinking, and saw too that
he had finished the draught, we could no longer forbear, and in
spite of myself my own tears were flowing fast; so that I cov-
ered my face and wept over myself,- for certainly I was not
XX-722


## p. 11538 (#152) ##########################################

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PLATO
weeping over him, but at the thought of my own calamity in
having lost such a companion. Nor was I the first: Crito, when
he found himself unable to restrain his tears, had got up and
moved away, and I followed; and at that moment, Apollodorus,
who had been weeping all the time, broke out into a loud cry,
which made cowards of us all. Socrates alone retained his calm-
ness: What is this strange outcry? he said. I sent away the
women mainly in order that they might not offend in this
way; for I have heard that a man should die in peace. Be
quiet then, and have patience. When we heard that, we were
ashamed, and refrained our tears; and he walked about until, as
he said, his legs began to fail, and then he lay on his back,
according to the directions: and the man who gave him the poi-
son now and then looked at his feet and legs; and after a while
he pressed his foot hard and asked him if he could feel; and he
said No; and then his leg, and so upwards and upwards, and
showed us that he was cold and stiff. And he felt them himself,
and said: When the poison reaches the heart, that will be the
end.
He was beginning to grow cold about the groin, when he
uncovered his face, for he had covered himself up, and said (they
were his last words) -he said: Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius:
will you remember to pay the debt? The debt shall be paid,
said Crito: is there anything else? There was no answer to this
question: but in a minute or two a movement was heard, and
the attendants uncovered him; his eyes were set, and Crito
closed his eyes and mouth.
Such was the end, Echecrates, of our friend, whom I may
truly call the wisest and justest and best of all the men whom
I have ever known.
FROM THE APOLOGY'
[Remarks added by Socrates after his condemnation. ]
Α
ND now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain
prophesy to you; for I am about to die, and that is the
hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power.
And
I prophesy to you who are my murderers, that immediately after
my death, punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me
will surely await you. Me you have killed because you wanted
to escape the accuser, and not to give an account of your lives.


## p. 11539 (#153) ##########################################

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11539
For I say
But that will not be as you suppose: far otherwise.
that there will be more accusers of you than there are now; ac-
cusers whom hitherto I have restrained: and as they are younger
they will be more severe with you, and you will be more offended
at them. For if you think that by killing men you can avoid
the accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken; that is not a
way of escape which is either possible or honorable: the easiest
and the noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be im-
proving yourselves. This is the prophecy which I utter before
my departure, to the judges who have condemned me.
Friends who would have acquitted me, I would like also to
talk with you about this thing which has happened, while the
magistrates are busy, and before I go to the place at which I
must die. Stay then for a while; for we may as well talk with
one another while there is time. You are my friends, and I
should like to show you the meaning of this event which has
happened to me. O my judges,- for you I may truly call
judges, I should like to tell you of a wonderful circumstance.
Hitherto the familiar oracle within me has constantly been in
the habit of opposing me even about trifles, if I was going to
make a slip or error about anything; and now, as you see, there
has come upon me that which may be thought, and is generally
believed to be, the last and worst evil. But the oracle made no
sign of opposition, either as I was leaving my house and going
out in the morning, or when I was going up into this court,
or while I was speaking, at anything which I was going to say;
and yet I have often been stopped in the middle of a speech, but
now in nothing I either said or did touching this matter has
the oracle opposed me. What do I take to be the explanation of
this? I will tell you. I regard this as a proof that what has
happened to me is a good, and that those of us who think that
death is an evil are in error. This is a great proof to me of
what I am saying; for the customary sign would surely have
opposed me had I been going to evil and not to good.
Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is
great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things:
either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness,
or as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from
this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no con-
sciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed
even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain.
―――


## p. 11540 (#154) ##########################################

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PLATO
For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was
undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the
other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell us how
many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life.
better and more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man
-I will not say a private man, but even the great king-will
not find many such days or nights, when compared with the
others. Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for
eternity is then only a single night. But if death is the journey
to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what
good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this? If
indeed, when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is de-
livered from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the
true judges who are said to give judgment there,- Minos and
Rhadamanthus and acus and Triptolemus, and other sons of
God who were righteous in their own life,- that pilgrimage will
be worth making. What would not a man give if he might con-
verse with Orpheus and Musæus and Hesiod and Homer? Nay,
if this be true, let me die again and again. I too shall have
a wonderful interest in a place where I can converse with Pala-
medes, and Ajax the son of Telamon, and other heroes of old,
who have suffered death through an unjust judgment; and there
will be no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing my own suf-
fering with theirs. Above all, I shall be able to continue my
search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in
that, I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise
and is not. What would not a man give, O judges, to be able
to examine the leader of the great Trojan expedition; or Odys-
seus or Sisyphus, or numberless others, men and women too!
What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them.
and asking them questions! For in that world they do not put
a man to death for this; certainly not. For besides being hap-
pier in that world than in this, they will be immortal, if what
is said is true.
Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and
know this of a truth,- that no evil can happen to a good man,
either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by
the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere
chance. But I see clearly that to die and be released was better
for me; and therefore the oracle gave no sign. For which rea-
son, also, I am not angry with my accusers or my condemners;


## p. 11541 (#155) ##########################################

PLATO
11541
they have done me no harm, although neither of them meant to
do me any good; and for this I may gently blame them.
Still I have a favor to ask of them. When my sons are
grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and
I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they
seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue;
or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing,
- then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring
about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they
are something when they are really nothing. And if you do
this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.
The hour of departure has arrived; and we go our ways—I
to die, and you to live. Which is better, God only knows.
E
FROM THE PHEDRUS›
[Mythic description of the soul. ]
NOUGH of the Soul's immortality.
Her form is a theme of divine and large discourse;
human language may however speak of this briefly, and in
a figure. Let our figure be of a composite nature,—a pair of
winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the
charioteer of the gods are all of them noble, and of noble breed,
while ours are mixed; and we have a charioteer who drives them
in a pair, and one of them is noble and of noble origin, and the
other is ignoble and of ignoble origin; and as might be expected,
there is a great deal of trouble in managing them.
I will en-
deavor to explain to you in what way the mortal differs from the
immortal creature. The soul or animate being has the care of
the inanimate, and traverses the whole heaven in divers forms
appearing; when perfect and fully winged she soars upward, and
is the ruler of the universe: while the imperfect soul loses her
feathers, and drooping in her flight, at last settles on the solid
ground; there, finding a home, she receives an earthly frame
which appears to be self-moved, but is really moved by her
power: and this composition of soul and body is called a living
and mortal creature. For no such union can be reasonably be-
lieved, or at all proved, to be other than mortal; although fancy
may imagine a god, whom, not having seen nor surely known, we


## p. 11542 (#156) ##########################################

PLATO
11542
invent,― such a one, an immortal creature having a body and
having also a soul, which have been united in all time. Let that,
however, be as God wills, and be spoken of acceptably to him.
But the reason why the soul loses her feathers should be ex-
plained, and is as follows:-
The wing is intended to soar aloft and carry that which gravi-
tates downward, into the upper region which is the dwelling of
the gods; and this is that element of the body which is most
akin to the divine. Now the divine is beauty, wisdom, goodness,
and the like: and by these the wing of the soul is nourished, and
grows apace; but when fed upon evil and foulness, and the like,
wastes and falls away. Zeus, the mighty lord holding the reins
of a winged chariot, leads the way in heaven, ordering all and
caring for all; and there follows him the heavenly array of gods
and demigods, divided into eleven bands: for only Hestia is left
at home in the house of heaven; but the rest of the twelve
greater deities march in their appointed order. And they see in
the interior of heaven many blessed sights: and there are ways
to and fro, along which the happy gods are passing, each one
fulfilling his own work; and any one may follow who pleases, for
jealousy has no place in the heavenly choir. This is within the
heaven. But when they go to feast and festival, then they move
right up the steep ascent, and mount the top of the dome of
heaven. Now the chariots of the gods, self-balanced, upward
glide in obedience to the rein; but the others have a difficulty,
for the steed who has evil in him, if he has not been properly
trained by the charioteer, gravitates and inclines and sinks to-
wards the earth; and this is the hour of agony and extremest con-
flict of the soul. For the immortal souls, when they are at the
end of their course, go out and stand upon the back of heaven,
and the revolution of the spheres carries them round, and they
behold the world beyond. Now of the heaven which is above the
heavens, no earthly poet has sung or ever will sing in a worthy
manner. But I must tell, for I am bound to speak truly when
speaking of the truth. The colorless and formless and intangible
essence is visible to the mind, which is the only lord of the soul.
Circling around this in the region above the heavens is the
place of true knowledge. And as the divine intelligence, and
that of every other soul which is rightly nourished, is fed upon
mind and pure knowledge, such an intelligent soul is glad at
once more beholding Being; and feeding on the sight of truth, is
-


## p. 11543 (#157) ##########################################

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11543
replenished, until the revolution of the worlds brings her round.
again to the same place. During the revolution she beholds just-
ice, temperance, and knowledge absolute, not in the form of gen-
eration or of relation, which men call existence, but knowledge
absolute in existence absolute; and beholding other existences in
like manner, and feeding upon them, she passes down into the
interior of the heavens and returns home; and there the chari-
oteer, putting up his horses at the stall, gives them ambrosia to
eat and nectar to drink.
This is the life of the gods: but of the other souls, that which
follows God best and is likest to him lifts the head of the chari-
oteer into the outer world, and is carried round in the revolu-
tion, troubled indeed by the steeds, and beholding true being, but
hardly; another rises and falls, and sees, and again fails to see
by reason of the unruliness of the steeds. The rest of the souls
are also longing after the upper world, and they all follow, but
not being strong enough, they sink into the gulf as they are
carried round, plunging, treading on one another, striving to be
first; and there is confusion and the extremity of effort, and
many of them are lamed or have their wings broken through
the ill driving of the charioteers; and all of them after a fruit-
less toil go away without being initiated into the mysteries of
being, and are nursed with the food of opinion. The reason of
their great desire to behold the plain of truth is, that the food
which is suited to the highest part of the soul comes out of that
meadow; and the wing on which the soul soars is nourished
with this. And there is a law of the goddess Retribution, that
the soul which attains any vision of truth in company with the
god is preserved from harm until the next period, and he who
always attains is always unharmed. But when she is unable to
follow, and fails to behold the vision of truth, and through some
ill-hap sinks beneath the double load of forgetfulness and vice,
and her feathers fall from her, and she drops to earth,-then
the law ordains that this soul shall in the first generation pass,
not into that of any other animal, but only of man; and the
soul which has seen most of truth shall come to the birth as a
philosopher or artist, or musician or lover; that which has seen
truth in the second degree shall be a righteous king or warrior
or lord; the soul which is of the third class shall be a politician
or economist or trader; the fourth shall be a lover of gymnas-
tic toils or a physician; the fifth a prophet or hierophant; to the


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11544
PLATO
sixth a poet or imitator will be appropriate; to the seventh the
life of an artisan or husbandman; to the eighth that of a sophist
or demagogue; to the ninth that of a tyrant: all these are states
of probation, in which he who lives righteously improves, and he
who lives unrighteously deteriorates his lot.
Ten thousand years must elapse before the soul can return to
the place from whence she came, for she cannot grow her wings
in less: only the soul of a philosopher, guileless and true, or the
soul of a lover, who is not without philosophy, may acquire wings
in the third recurring period of a thousand years; and if they
choose this life three times in succession, then they have their
wings given them, and go away at the end of three thousand
years. But the others receive judgment when they have com-
pleted their first life: and after the judgment they go, some of
them to the houses of correction which are under the earth, and
are punished; others to some place in heaven whither they are
lightly borne by justice, and there they live in a manner worthy
of the life which they led here when in the form of men. And
at the end of the first thousand years, the good souls and also
the evil souls both come to cast lots and choose their second life,
and they may take any that they like. And then the soul of the
man may pass into the life of a beast, or from the beast again
into the man.
But the soul of him who has never seen the
truth will not pass into the human form, for man ought to have
intelligence, as they say, "secundum speciem," proceeding from
many particulars of sense to one conception or reason; and this
is the recollection of those things which our soul once saw when
in company with God-when looking down from above on that
which we now call Being, and upwards towards the true Being.
And therefore the mind of the philosopher alone has wings: and
this is just; for he is always, according to the measure of his
abilities, clinging in recollection to those things in which God
abides, and in beholding which he is what he is. And he who
employs aright these memories is ever being initiated into per-
fect mysteries, and alone becomes truly perfect. But as he for-
gets earthly interests, and is rapt in the divine, the vulgar deem
him mad, and rebuke him: they do not see that he is inspired.


## p. 11545 (#159) ##########################################

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11545
FROM THE GORGIAS'
[Myth of the judgment of the dead. ]
LST
ISTEN then, as story-tellers say, to a very pretty tale, which
I daresay that you may be disposed to regard as a fable
only, but which, as I believe, is a true tale; for I mean, in
what I am going to tell you, to speak the truth. Homer tells us
how Zeus and Poseidon and Pluto divided the empire which they
inherited from their father. Now in the days of Cronos there
was this law respecting the destiny of man, which has always
existed, and still continues in heaven: that he who has lived all
his life in justice and holiness shall go, when he dies, to the
islands of the blest, and dwell there in perfect happiness out
of the reach of evil; but that he who has lived unjustly and
impiously shall go to the house of vengeance and punishment,
which is called Tartarus. And in the time of Cronos, and even
later in the reign of Zeus, the judgment was given on the very
day on which the men were to die; the judges were alive, and
the men were alive: and the consequence was that the judgments
were not well given. Then Pluto and the authorities from the
islands of the blest came to Zeus, and said that the souls found
their way to the wrong places. Zeus said:-"I shall put a stop
to this: the judgments are not well given, and the reason is
that the judged have their clothes on, for they are alive; and there
are many having evil souls who are appareled in fair bodies, or
wrapt round in wealth and rank, and when the day of judgment
arrives, many witnesses come forward and witness on their behalf
that they have lived righteously. The judges are awed by them,
and they themselves too have their clothes on when judging:
their eyes and ears and their whole bodies are interposed as
a veil before their own souls. This all stands in the way: there
are the clothes of the judges and the clothes of the judged.
What is to be done? I will tell you: In the first place, I will
deprive men of the foreknowledge of death, which they at pres-
ent possess; that is a commission the execution of which I have
already intrusted to Prometheus. In the second place, they shall
be entirely stripped before they are judged, for they shall be
judged when they are dead: and the judge too shall be naked,
that is to say, dead; he with his naked soul shall pierce into the
other naked soul as soon as each man dies, he knows not when,
and is deprived of his kindred, and hath left his brave attire in


## p. 11546 (#160) ##########################################

11546
PLATO
the world above: and then judgment will be just. I knew all
about this before you did, and therefore I have made my sons
judges: two from Asia,- Minos and Rhadamanthus; and one from
Europe, Æacus. And these, when they are dead, shall judge
in the meadow where three ways meet, and out of which two
roads lead: one to the islands of the blessed, and the other to
Tartarus. Rhadamanthus shall judge those who come from
Asia, and Æacus those who come from Europe. And to Minos
I shall give the primacy, and he shall hold a court of appeal in
case either of the two others are in doubt: in this way the judg-
ment respecting the last journey of men will be as just as possi-
ble. "
-
This is a tale, Callicles, which I have heard and believed,
and from which I draw the following inferences: Death, if I am
right, is in the first place the separation from one another of
two things, soul and body; this, and nothing else. And after
they are separated they retain their several characteristics, which
are much the same as in life; the body has the same nature
and ways and affections, all clearly discernible. For example, he
who by nature or training or both was a tall man while he was
alive, will remain as he was after he is dead, and the fat man
will remain fat, and so on; and the dead man who in life has
a fancy to have flowing hair, will have flowing hair. And if he
was marked with the whip and had the prints of the scourge
or of wounds in him when he was alive, you might see the same
in the dead body; and if his limbs were broken or misshapen
when he was alive, the same appearance would be visible in the
dead. And in a word, whatever was the habit of the body dur-
ing life would be distinguishable after death, either perfectly, or
in a great measure and for a time. And I should infer that this
is equally true of the soul, Callicles: when a man is stripped of
the body, all the natural or acquired affections of the soul are
laid open to view. And when they come to the judge, as those
from Asia came to Rhadamanthus, he places them near him and
inspects them quite impartially, not knowing whose the soul is:
perhaps he may lay hands on the soul of the great king, or of
some other king or potentate, who has no soundness in him;
but his soul is marked with the whip, and is full of the prints
and scars of perjuries, and of wrongs which have been plastered
into him by each action, and he is all crooked with falsehood and
imposture, and has no straightness, because he has lived without


## p. 11547 (#161) ##########################################

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11547
truth. Him Rhadamanthus beholds, full of deformity and dis-
proportion, which is caused by license and luxury and insolence
and incontinence, and dispatches him ignominiously to his prison,
and there he undergoes the punishment which he deserves.
Now the proper office of punishment is twofold: he who is
rightly punished ought either to become better and profit by it,
or he ought to be made an example to his fellows, that they
may see what he suffers, and fear and become better. Those
who are punished by gods and men, and improved, are those
whose sins are curable: still the way of improving them, as in
this world so also in another, is by pain and suffering; for there
is no other way in which they can be delivered from their evil.
But they who have been guilty of the worst crimes, and are in-
curable by reason of their crimes, are made examples; for, as
they are incurable, the time has passed at which they can receive
any benefit themselves. But others get good when they behold
them forever enduring the most terrible and painful and fearful
sufferings as the penalty of their sins; there they are, hanging
up as examples, in the prison-house of the world below,—a spec-
tacle and a warning to all unrighteous men who come thither.
And most of those fearful examples, as I believe, are taken from
the class of tyrants and kings and potentates and public men;
for they are the authors of the greatest and most impious crimes,
because they have the power. And Homer witnesses to the truth
of this; for those whom he has described as suffering everlast-
ing punishment in the world below are always kings and poten-
tates; there are Tantalus, and Sisyphus, and Tityus. But no
one ever described Thersites, or any private person who was a
villain, as suffering everlasting punishment because he was incur-
able. For to do as they did was, as I am inclined to think, not
in his power; and he was happier than those who had the power.
Yes, Callicles, the very bad men come from the class of those
who have power. And yet, in that very class there may arise
good men, and worthy of all admiration they are; for where
there is great power to do wrong, to live and die justly is a
hard thing, and greatly to be praised, and few there are who
attain this. Such good and true men, however, there have been,
and will be again, in this and other States, who have fulfilled
their trust righteously; and there is one who is quite famous all
over Hellas,— Aristides the son of Lysimachus. But in general,
great men are also bad, my friend.
-


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PLATO
And as I was saying, Rhadamanthus, when he gets a soul of
this kind, knows nothing about him, neither who he is nor who
his parents are: he knows only that he has got hold of a villain;
and seeing this, he stamps him as curable or incurable, and sends
him away to Tartarus, whither he goes and receives his recom-
pense. Or again, he looks with admiration on the soul of some
just one who has lived in holiness and truth: he may have been
a private man or not; and I should say, Callicles, that he is most
likely to have been a philosopher who has done his own work,
and not troubled himself with the doings of other men in his
lifetime: him Rhadamanthus sends to the islands of the blest.
Eacus does the same; and they both have sceptres, and judge;
and Minos is seated, looking on, as Odysseus in Homer declares
that he saw him,-
"Holding a sceptre of gold, and giving laws to the dead. "
Now I, Callicles, am persuaded of the truth of these things; and
I consider how I shall present my soul whole and undefiled be-
fore the judge in that day. Renouncing the honors at which the
world aims, I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well
as I can; and when the time comes, to die. And to the utmost
of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same. And in
return for your exhortation of me, I exhort you also to take part
in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater
than every other earthly conflict. And I retort your reproach of
me, and say that you will not be able to help yourself when the
day of trial and judgment, of which I was speaking, comes upon
you: you will go before the judge, the son of Ægina, and when
you are in the hands of justice you will gape and your head will
swim round, just as mine would in the courts of this world; and
very likely some one will shamefully box you on the ears, and
put upon you every sort of insult.
Perhaps this may appear to you to be only an old wife's tale,
which you contemn. And there might be reason in your con-
temning such tales, if by searching we could find out anything
better or truer: but now you see that you and Polus and Gorgias,
who are the three wisest of the Greeks of our day, are not able
to show that we ought to live any life which does not profit in
another world as well as in this. And of all that has been said,
nothing remains unshaken but the saying, that to do injustice is
more to be avoided than to suffer injustice, and that the reality


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11549
and not the appearance of virtue is to be followed above all
things, as well in public as in private life; and that when any
one has been wrong in anything, he is to be chastised; and that
the next best thing to a man being just is, that he should become
just, and be chastised and punished; also that he should avoid
all flattery of himself as well as of others, of the few as of the
many; and rhetoric and any other art should be used by him,
and all his actions should be done, always with a view to justice.
FROM THE REPUBLIC'
[The figure of the cave. ]
A
FTER this, I said, imagine the enlightenment or ignorance of
our nature in a figure: Behold! human beings living in a
sort of underground den, which has a mouth open towards
the light, and reaching all across the den; they have been here
from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so
that they cannot move, and can only see before them; for the
chains are arranged in such a manner as to prevent them from
turning their heads around. At a distance above and behind
them the light of a fire is blazing, and between the fire and the
prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a
low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette
players have before them, over which they show the puppets.
I see, he said.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carry-
ing vessels, which appear over the wall; also figures of men
and animals, made of wood and stone and various materials; and
some of the passengers, as you would expect, are talking, and
some of them are silent?
That is a strange image, he said, and they are strange pris-
oners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shad-
ows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the
opposite wall of the cave?
True, he said: how could they see anything but the shadows
if they were never allowed to move their heads?
And of the objects which are being carried in like manner
they would only see the shadows?
Yes, he said.


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11550
And if they were able to talk with one another, would they
not suppose that they were naming what was actually before
them?
Very true.
And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came
from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy that the
voice which they heard was that of a passing shadow?
No question, he replied.
There can be no question, I said, that the truth would be to
them just nothing but the shadows of the images.
That is certain.
And now look again, and see how they are released and cured
of their folly. At first, when any one of them is liberated and
compelled suddenly to go up and turn his neck round and walk
and look at the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will
distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which
in his former state he had seen the shadows: and then imagine
some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion,
but that now he is approaching real Being, and has a truer sight
and vision of more real things,- what will be his reply? And
you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the
objects as they pass and requiring him to name them,- will he
not be in difficulty? Will he not fancy that the shadows which
he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown
to him?
Far truer.
And if he is compelled to look at the light, will he not have
a pain in his eyes, which will make him turn away to take
refuge in the object of vision which he can see, and which he
will conceive to be clearer than the things which are now being
shown to him?
True, he said.
And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a
steep and rugged ascent, and held fast and forced into the pres-
ence of the sun himself, do you not think that he will be pained
and irritated, and when he approaches the light he will have his
eyes dazzled, and will not be able to see any of the realities
which are now affirmed to be the truth?
Not all in a moment, he said.
He will require to get accustomed to the sight of the upper
world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflec-
tions of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects


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themselves; next he will gaze upon the light of the moon and
the stars; and he will see the sky and the stars by night, better
than the sun, or the light of the sun, by day?
Certainly.
And at last he will be able to see the sun, and not mere
reflections of him in the water, but he will see him as he is in
his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contem-
plate his nature?
Certainly.
And after this he will reason that the sun is he who gives
the seasons and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in
the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things
which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?
Clearly, he said, he would come to the other first and to this
afterwards.
And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom
of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he
would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?
Certainly he would.
And if they were in the habit of conferring honors on those
who were quickest to observe and remember and foretell which
of the shadows went before, and which followed after, and which
were together, do you think that he would care for such honors
and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say
with Homer,-
"Better be a poor man, and have a poor master,"
and endure anything, rather than to think and live after their
manner?
Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything
than live after their manner.
Imagine once more, I said, that such a one, coming suddenly
out of the sun, were to be replaced in his old situation: is he
not certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
Very true, he said.
And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in
measuring the shadows with the prisoners who have never moved
out of the den, during the time that his sight is weak, and be-
fore his eyes are steady (and the time which would be needed
to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable),
would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he


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PLATO
went and down he comes without his eyes; and that there was
no use in even thinking of ascending: and if any one tried to
loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch
the offender in the act, and they would put him to death.
No question, he said.
This allegory, I said, you may now append to the previous
argument: the prison is the world of sight, the light of the fire
is the sun, the ascent and vision of the things above you may
truly regard as the upward progress of the soul into the intel-
lectual world; that is my poor belief, to which, at your desire, I
have given expression. Whether I am right or not, God only
knows: but whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world
of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen
only with an effort; and when seen, is also inferred to be the
universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light
and the lord of light in this world, and the source of truth and
reason in the other: this is the first great cause, which he who
would act rationally either in public or private life must behold.
I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.
I should like to have your agreement in another matter, I
said. For I would not have you marvel that those who attain to
this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; but
their souls are ever hastening into the upper world in which they
desire to dwell: and this is very natural, if our allegory may be
trusted.
Certainly, that is quite natural.
And is there anything surprising in one who passes from
divine contemplations to human things, misbelieving himself in a
ridiculous manner; if while his eyes are blinking and before he
has become accustomed to the darkness visible, he is compelled
to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or
shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the
conceptions of those who have never yet seen the absolute
justice?
There is nothing surprising in that, he replied.
Any one who has common-sense will remember that the be-
wilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two
causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into
the light; which is true of the mind's eye quite as much as of
the bodily eye: and he who remembers this when he sees the
soul of any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be
―


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11553
too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul has come
out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed
to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled.
by excess of light. And then he will count the one happy in his
condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or if he
have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into
the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh
which greets the other from the den.
That, he said, is a very just remark.