Part 30

“It does not, therefore, appertain to harmony to take the lead of the things of which it is composed, but to follow them.”

He assented.

“It is then far from being the case that harmony is moved or sends forth sounds contrariwise, or is in any other respect opposed to its parts?”

“Far indeed,” he said.

“What then? is not every harmony naturally harmony, so far as it has been made to accord?”

“I do not understand you,” he replied.

“Whether,” he said, “if it should be in a greater degree and more fully made to accord, supposing that were possible, would the harmony be greater and more full, but if in a less degree and less fully, then would it be inferior and less full?”

“Certainly.”

“Is this then the case with the soul, that, even in the smallest extent, one soul is more fully and in a greater degree, or less fully and in a less degree this very thing, a soul, than another?”

“In no respect whatever,” he replied.

96. “Well then,” he said, “by Jupiter, is one soul said to possess intelligence and virtue, and to be good, and another folly and vice, and to be bad? and is this said with truth?”

“With truth, certainly.”

“Of those, then, who maintain that the soul is harmony, what will any one say that these things are in the soul, virtue and vice? Will he call them another kind of harmony and discord? and say that the one, the good soul, is harmonized, and, being harmony, contains within itself another harmony, but that the other is discordant, and does not contain within itself another harmony?”

“I am unable to say,” replied Simmias, “but it is clear that he who maintains that opinion would say something of the kind.”

“But it has been already granted,” said he, “that one soul is not more or less a soul than another; and this is an admission that one harmony is not to a greater degree or more fully, or to a less degree or less fully, a harmony, than another: is it not so?”

“Certainly.”

“And that that which is neither more nor less harmony, is neither more nor less harmonized: is it so?”

“It is.”

“But does that which is neither more nor less harmonized partake of more or less harmony, or an equal amount?”

“An equal amount.”

97. “A soul, therefore, since it is not more or less this very thing, a soul, than another, is not more or less harmonized?”

“Even so.”

“Such then being its condition, it cannot partake of a greater degree of discord or harmony?”

“Certainly not.”

“And again, such being its condition, can one soul partake of a greater degree of vice or virtue than another, if vice be discord, and virtue harmony?”

“It cannot.”

“Or rather, surely, Simmias, according to right reason, no soul will partake of vice, if it is harmony: for doubtless harmony, which is perfectly such, can never partake of discord?”

“Certainly not.”