lmed, as the manner is in Egypt, may remain almost
entire through infinite ages; and even in decay, there are still
some portions, such as the bones and ligaments, which are practically
indestructible:--Do you agree?

Yes.

And is it likely that the soul, which is invisible, in passing to the
place of the true Hades, which like her is invisible, and pure, and
noble, and on her way to the good and wise God, whither, if God will, my
soul is also soon to go,--that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature
and origin, will be blown away and destroyed immediately on quitting the
body, as the many say? That can never be, my dear Simmias and Cebes.
The truth rather is, that the soul which is pure at departing and draws
after her no bodily taint, having never voluntarily during life had
connection with the body, which she is ever avoiding, herself gathered
into herself;--and making such abstraction her perpetual study--which
means that she has been a true disciple of philosophy; and therefore
has in fact been always engaged in the practice of dying? For is not
philosophy the practice of death?--

Certainly--

That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world--to
the divine and immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of
bliss and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and
wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as they say
of the initiated, in company with the gods (compare Apol.). Is not this
true, Cebes?

Yes, said Cebes, beyond a doubt.

But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the time of her
departure, and is the companion and servant of the body always, and is
in love with and fascinated by the body and by the desires and pleasures
of the body, until she is led to believe that the truth only exists in
a bodily form, which a man may touch and see and taste, and use for the
purposes of his lusts,--the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear
and avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is dark
and invisible, and can be attained only by philosophy;--do you suppose
that such a soul will depart pure and unalloyed?

Impossible, he replied.

She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual association and
constant care of the body have wrought into her nature.

Very true.

And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty and earthy,
and is that element of sight by which a soul is depressed and drag