o be freed from the dominion of bodily
pleasures and of the senses, which are always perturbing his mental
vision. He wants to get rid of eyes and ears, and with the light of the
mind only to behold the light of truth. All the evils and impurities
and necessities of men come from the body. And death separates him from
these corruptions, which in life he cannot wholly lay aside. Why then
should he repine when the hour of separation arrives? Why, if he is dead
while he lives, should he fear that other death, through which alone he
can behold wisdom in her purity?

Besides, the philosopher has notions of good and evil unlike those of
other men. For they are courageous because they are afraid of greater
dangers, and temperate because they desire greater pleasures. But he
disdains this balancing of pleasures and pains, which is the exchange
of commerce and not of virtue. All the virtues, including wisdom, are
regarded by him only as purifications of the soul. And this was the
meaning of the founders of the mysteries when they said, 'Many are the
wand-bearers but few are the mystics.' (Compare Matt. xxii.: 'Many are
called but few are chosen.') And in the hope that he is one of these
mystics, Socrates is now departing. This is his answer to any one who
charges him with indifference at the prospect of leaving the gods and
his friends.

Still, a fear is expressed that the soul upon leaving the body may
vanish away like smoke or air. Socrates in answer appeals first of all
to the old Orphic tradition that the souls of the dead are in the world
below, and that the living come from them. This he attempts to found
on a philosophical assumption that all opposites--e.g. less, greater;
weaker, stronger; sleeping, waking; life, death--are generated out of
each other. Nor can the process of generation be only a passage from
living to dying, for then all would end in death. The perpetual sleeper
(Endymion) would be no longer distinguished from the rest of mankind.
The circle of nature is not complete unless the living come from the
dead as well as pass to them.

The Platonic doctrine of reminiscence is then adduced as a confirmation
of the pre-existence of the soul. Some proofs of this doctrine are
demanded. One proof given is the same as that of the Meno, and is
derived from the latent knowledge of mathematics, which may be elicited
from an unlearned person when a diagram is presented to him. Again,
there is a power of association, w