Timaeus — Plato

The soul indestructible mid therefore immortal. 327 Yes, that can hardly be. Republic x. But the soul which cannot be destroyed by an evil, whether Sockates, 611 inherent or external, must exist for ever, and if existing for Glalcon. ever, must be immortal? Certainly.

That is the conclusion, 1 said; and, if a true conclusion, ifthesouiis then the souls must always be the same, for if none be '"^^^"■"^t'*^'*-'- -_ ' the number destroyed they will not diminish in number. Neither will o< souls can they increase, for the increase of the immortal natures must "^^f |"f^^^*'' •' ' or diminish. come from something mortal, and all things would thus end in immortality. Very true.

But this we cannot believe — reason will not allow us — any more than we can believe the soul, in her truest nature, to be full of variety and difference and dissimilarity. What do you mean? he said. The soul, I said, being, as is now proven, immortal, must be the fairest of compositions and cannot be compounded of many elements? Certainly not. Her immortality is demonstrated by the previous argument.

The soul, if and there are many other proofs ; but to see her as she really g^e^'trri is, not as we now behold her, marred by communion with should be the body and other miseries, you must contemplate her with the'L^cidems the eye of reason, in her original purity ; and then her of earth, beauty will be revealed, and justice and injustice and all the things which we have described will be manifested more clearly.

Thus far, we have spoken the truth concerning her as she appears at present, but we must remember also that we have seen her only in a condition which may be compared to that of the sea-god Glaucus, whose original image can hardly be discerned because his natural members are broken off and crushed and damaged by the waves in all sorts of ways, and incrustations have grown over them of seaweed and shells and stones, so that he is more like some monster than he is to his own natural form.

And the soul which we behold is in a similar condition, disfigured by ten thousand ills. But not there, Crlaucon, not there must we look. Where then? At her love of wisdom. Let us see whom she affects, and

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Justice, having been shown to be best,

Republic X. Socrates, Glaucon. Her true conversation is with the eternal.

Having put aside for argument's sake the rewards of virtue, we may now claim to have them restored.

what society and converse she seeks in virtue of her near kindred with the immortal and eternal and divine ; also how different she would become if wholly following this superior principle, and borne by a divine impulse out of the ocean in which she now is, and disengaged from the stones and shells and things of earth and rock which in wild variety spring up around her because she feeds upon earth, and is overgrown 6 1 2 by the good things of this hfe as they are termed : then you would see her as she is, and know whether she have one shape only or many, or what her nature is.

Of her affections and of the forms which she takes in this present life I think that we have now said enough. True, he replied. And thus, I said, we have fulfilled the conditions of the argument ^ ; we have not introduced the rewards and glories of justice, which, as you were saying, are to be found in Homer and Hesiod ; but justice in her own nature has been shown to be best for the soul in her own nature.

Let a man do what is just, whether he have the ring of Gyges or not, and even if in addition to the ring of Gyges he put on the helmet of Hades. Very true. And now, Glaucon, there will be no harm in further enumerating how many and how great are the rewards which justice and the other virtues procure to the soul from gods and men, both in life and after death. Certainly not, he said. Will you repay me, then, what you borrowed in the argument?

What did I borrow? The assumption that the just man should appear unjust and the unjust just : for you were of opinion that even if the true state of the case could not possibly escape the eyes of gods and men, still this admission ought to be made for the sake of the argument, in order that pure justice might be weighed against pure injustice. Do you remember? I should be much to blame if I had forgotten.

Then, as the cause is decided, I demand on behalf of justice that the estimation in which she is held by gods and ^ Reading aTrelvadfieda.