rs and is confused; the world spins round her, and she is like
a drunkard, when she touches change?

Very true.

But when returning into herself she reflects, then she passes into the
other world, the region of purity, and eternity, and immortality, and
unchangeableness, which are her kindred, and with them she ever lives,
when she is by herself and is not let or hindered; then she ceases
from her erring ways, and being in communion with the unchanging is
unchanging. And this state of the soul is called wisdom?

That is well and truly said, Socrates, he replied.

And to which class is the soul more nearly alike and akin, as far as may
be inferred from this argument, as well as from the preceding one?

I think, Socrates, that, in the opinion of every one who follows the
argument, the soul will be infinitely more like the unchangeable--even
the most stupid person will not deny that.

And the body is more like the changing?

Yes.

Yet once more consider the matter in another light: When the soul and
the body are united, then nature orders the soul to rule and govern, and
the body to obey and serve. Now which of these two functions is akin to
the divine? and which to the mortal? Does not the divine appear to you
to be that which naturally orders and rules, and the mortal to be that
which is subject and servant?

True.

And which does the soul resemble?

The soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal--there can be no
doubt of that, Socrates.

Then reflect, Cebes: of all which has been said is not this the
conclusion?--that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine,
and immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and
unchangeable; and that the body is in the very likeness of the human,
and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform, and dissoluble, and
changeable. Can this, my dear Cebes, be denied?

It cannot.

But if it be true, then is not the body liable to speedy dissolution?
and is not the soul almost or altogether indissoluble?

Certainly.

And do you further observe, that after a man is dead, the body, or
visible part of him, which is lying in the visible world, and is
called a corpse, and would naturally be dissolved and decomposed and
dissipated, is not dissolved or decomposed at once, but may remain for a
for some time, nay even for a long time, if the constitution be sound at
the time of death, and the season of the year favourable? For the body
when shrunk and emba