The dead.

And what from the dead?

I can only say in answer--the living.

Then the living, whether things or persons, Cebes, are generated from
the dead?

That is clear, he replied.

Then the inference is that our souls exist in the world below?

That is true.

And one of the two processes or generations is visible--for surely the
act of dying is visible?

Surely, he said.

What then is to be the result? Shall we exclude the opposite process?
And shall we suppose nature to walk on one leg only? Must we not rather
assign to death some corresponding process of generation?

Certainly, he replied.

And what is that process?

Return to life.

And return to life, if there be such a thing, is the birth of the dead
into the world of the living?

Quite true.

Then here is a new way by which we arrive at the conclusion that the
living come from the dead, just as the dead come from the living; and
this, if true, affords a most certain proof that the souls of the dead
exist in some place out of which they come again.

Yes, Socrates, he said; the conclusion seems to flow necessarily out of
our previous admissions.

And that these admissions were not unfair, Cebes, he said, may be shown,
I think, as follows: If generation were in a straight line only, and
there were no compensation or circle in nature, no turn or return of
elements into their opposites, then you know that all things would at
last have the same form and pass into the same state, and there would be
no more generation of them.

What do you mean? he said.

A simple thing enough, which I will illustrate by the case of sleep,
he replied. You know that if there were no alternation of sleeping
and waking, the tale of the sleeping Endymion would in the end have no
meaning, because all other things would be asleep, too, and he would not
be distinguishable from the rest. Or if there were composition only,
and no division of substances, then the chaos of Anaxagoras would come
again. And in like manner, my dear Cebes, if all things which partook
of life were to die, and after they were dead remained in the form
of death, and did not come to life again, all would at last die, and
nothing would be alive--what other result could there be? For if the
living spring from any other things, and they too die, must not all
things at last be swallowed up in death? (But compare Republic.)

There is no escape, Socrates, said Cebes; and to me your argument seems