Part 12

Footnote 18:

§ 61-75.

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Still Simmias and Cebes are unconvinced. The former objects, that the soul, according to Socrates’ own shewing, is nothing but a harmony resulting from a combination of the parts of the body, and so may perish with the body as the harmony of a lyre does when the lyre itself is broken. And Cebes, though he admits that the soul is more durable than the body, yet objects that it is not therefore of necessity immortal but may in time wear out, and it is by no means clear that this is not its last period.

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Footnote 19:

§ 76-84.

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These objections produce a powerful effect on the rest of the company, but Socrates, undismayed, exhorts them not to suffer themselves to be deterred from seeking the truth by any difficulties they may meet with; and then proceeds to shew, in a moment, the fallacy of Simmias’ objection. It was before admitted, he says, that the soul existed before the body, but harmony is produced after the lyre is formed, so that the two cases are totally different. And further, there are various degrees of harmony, but every soul is as much a soul as any other. But then what will a person who holds this doctrine, that the soul is harmony, say of virtue and vice in the soul? Will he call them another kind of harmony and discord? If so, he will contradict himself, for it is admitted that one soul is not more or less a soul than another, and therefore one cannot be more or less harmonized than another, and one could not admit of a greater degree of virtue or vice than another; and indeed a soul, being harmony, could not partake of vice at all, which is discord.

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Footnote 20:

§ 93-99.

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Socrates, having thus satisfactorily answered the argument adduced by Simmias, goes on to rebut that of Cebes, who objected that the soul might in time wear out. In order to do this, he relates that when a young man he attempted to investigate the causes of every thing, why they exist and why they perish; and in the course of his researches finding the futility of attributing the existence of things to what are called natural causes, he resolved on endeavouring to find out the reasons of things. He therefore assumed that there is a certain abstract beauty, and goodness, and magnitude, and so of all other things: the truth of which being granted he thinks he shall be able to prove that the soul is immortal.

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Footnote 21:

§ 100-112.

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This then being conceded by Cebes, Socrates argues that every thing that is beautiful is so from partaking of abstract beauty, and great from partaking of magnitude, and little from partaking of littleness. Now it is impossible he argues that contraries can exist in the same thing at the same time, for instance the same thing cannot possess both magnitude and littleness, but one will withdraw at the approach of the other: and not only so, but things which, though not contrary to each other, yet always contain contraries within themselves cannot co-exist; for instance the number three has no contrary, yet it contains within itself the idea of odd, which is the contrary to even, and so three never can become even; in like manner heat while it is heat can never admit the idea of its contrary, cold. Now if this method of reasoning is applied to the soul it will be found to be immortal; for life and death are contraries, and never can co-exist, but wherever the soul is there is life, so that it contains within itself that which is contrary to death, and consequently can never admit of death; therefore it is immortal.

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Footnote 22:

§ 112-128.

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With this he closes his arguments in support of the soul’s immortality. Cebes owns himself convinced, but Simmias, though he is unable to make any objection to the soundness of Socrates’ reasoning, cannot help still entertaining doubts on the subject. If, however, the soul is immortal, Socrates proceeds, great need is there in this life to endeavour to become as wise and good as possible. For if death were a deliverance from every thing it would be a great gain for the wicked, but since the soul appears to be immortal, it must go to the place suited to its nature. For it is said that each person’s demon conducts him to a place where he receives sentence according to his deserts.

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Footnote 23:

§ 129-131.

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