one who had seen, how much purer and fairer the world above
is than his own. And such is exactly our case: for we are dwelling in a
hollow of the earth, and fancy that we are on the surface; and the air
we call the heaven, in which we imagine that the stars move. But the
fact is, that owing to our feebleness and sluggishness we are prevented
from reaching the surface of the air: for if any man could arrive at the
exterior limit, or take the wings of a bird and come to the top, then
like a fish who puts his head out of the water and sees this world, he
would see a world beyond; and, if the nature of man could sustain the
sight, he would acknowledge that this other world was the place of the
true heaven and the true light and the true earth. For our earth, and
the stones, and the entire region which surrounds us, are spoilt and
corroded, as in the sea all things are corroded by the brine, neither
is there any noble or perfect growth, but caverns only, and sand, and an
endless slough of mud: and even the shore is not to be compared to the
fairer sights of this world. And still less is this our world to be
compared with the other. Of that upper earth which is under the heaven,
I can tell you a charming tale, Simmias, which is well worth hearing.

And we, Socrates, replied Simmias, shall be charmed to listen to you.

The tale, my friend, he said, is as follows:--In the first place, the
earth, when looked at from above, is in appearance streaked like one of
those balls which have leather coverings in twelve pieces, and is decked
with various colours, of which the colours used by painters on earth are
in a manner samples. But there the whole earth is made up of them,
and they are brighter far and clearer than ours; there is a purple of
wonderful lustre, also the radiance of gold, and the white which is in
the earth is whiter than any chalk or snow. Of these and other colours
the earth is made up, and they are more in number and fairer than the
eye of man has ever seen; the very hollows (of which I was speaking)
filled with air and water have a colour of their own, and are seen like
light gleaming amid the diversity of the other colours, so that the
whole presents a single and continuous appearance of variety in unity.
And in this fair region everything that grows--trees, and flowers, and
fruits--are in a like degree fairer than any here; and there are hills,
having stones in them in a like degree smoother, and more transparent