ited from the Phaedo by what may
be termed the transcendental method of interpretation, and is obviously
inconsistent with the Gorgias and the Republic. Those who maintain
it are immediately compelled to renounce the shadow which they have
grasped, as a play of words only. But the truth is, that Plato in his
argument for the immortality of the soul has collected many elements of
proof or persuasion, ethical and mythological as well as dialectical,
which are not easily to be reconciled with one another; and he is as
much in earnest about his doctrine of retribution, which is repeated
in all his more ethical writings, as about his theory of knowledge.
And while we may fairly translate the dialectical into the language of
Hegel, and the religious and mythological into the language of Dante or
Bunyan, the ethical speaks to us still in the same voice, and appeals to
a common feeling.

20. Two arguments of this ethical character occur in the Phaedo. The
first may be described as the aspiration of the soul after another state
of being. Like the Oriental or Christian mystic, the philosopher is
seeking to withdraw from impurities of sense, to leave the world and the
things of the world, and to find his higher self. Plato recognizes in
these aspirations the foretaste of immortality; as Butler and Addison in
modern times have argued, the one from the moral tendencies of mankind,
the other from the progress of the soul towards perfection. In using
this argument Plato has certainly confused the soul which has left the
body, with the soul of the good and wise. (Compare Republic.) Such a
confusion was natural, and arose partly out of the antithesis of soul
and body. The soul in her own essence, and the soul 'clothed upon' with
virtues and graces, were easily interchanged with one another, because
on a subject which passes expression the distinctions of language can
hardly be maintained.

21. The ethical proof of the immortality of the soul is derived from the
necessity of retribution. The wicked would be too well off if their
evil deeds came to an end. It is not to be supposed that an Ardiaeus,
an Archelaus, an Ismenias could ever have suffered the penalty of
their crimes in this world. The manner in which this retribution is
accomplished Plato represents under the figures of mythology. Doubtless
he felt that it was easier to improve than to invent, and that in
religion especially the traditional form was required in order to give
v