peding the docile one and defying the
driver. When the car arrives where it has to follow the gods up the
celestial steep, the intractable horse throws the team into confusion.
If it is less strong than the good horse, it is overcome, and the car
is able to go on into the supersensible realm. It thus happens that
the soul can never ascend without difficulties into the kingdom of the
divine. Some souls rise more to the vision of eternity, some less. The
soul which has seen the world beyond remains safe until the next
journey. One who, on account of the intractable horse, has not seen
beyond, must try again on the next journey. These journeys signify the
various incarnations of the soul. One journey signifies the life of
the soul in one personality. The wild horse represents the lower
nature, the docile one the higher nature; the driver, the soul longing
for union with the divine.

Plato resorts to the myth in order to describe the course of the
eternal spirit through its various transformations. In the same way he
has recourse, in other writings, to symbolical narrative, in order to
portray the inner nature of man, which is not perceptible to the
senses.

Plato is here in complete harmony with the mythical and allegorical
manner of expression used by others. For instance there is in ancient
Hindu literature a parable attributed to Buddha.

A man very much attached to life, who seeks sensuous pleasures and
will die at no price is pursued by four serpents. He hears a voice
commanding him to feed and bathe the serpents from time to time. The
man runs away, fearing the serpents. Again he hears a voice, warning
him that he is pursued by five murderers. Once more he escapes. A
voice calls his attention to a sixth murderer, who is about to behead
him with a sword. Again he flees. He comes to a deserted village.
There he hears a voice telling him that robbers are shortly going to
plunder the village. Having again escaped, he comes to a great flood.
He feels unsafe where he is, and out of straw, wood, and leaves he
makes a basket in which he arrives at the other shore. Now he is safe,
he is a Brahmin.

The meaning of this allegory is that man has to pass through the most
various states before attaining to the divine. The four serpents
represent the four elements, fire, water, earth, and air. The five
murderers are the five senses. The deserted village is the soul which
has escaped from sense-impressions, but is not yet safe