arried beyond the Socratic point of view; in no
other of the writings of Plato is the theory of them so completely
developed. Whether the belief in immortality can be attributed to
Socrates or not is uncertain; the silence of the Memorabilia, and of the
earlier Dialogues of Plato, is an argument to the contrary. Yet in the
Cyropaedia Xenophon has put language into the mouth of the dying Cyrus
which recalls the Phaedo, and may have been derived from the teaching of
Socrates. It may be fairly urged that the greatest religious interest of
mankind could not have been wholly ignored by one who passed his life in
fulfilling the commands of an oracle, and who recognized a Divine plan
in man and nature. (Xen. Mem.) And the language of the Apology and of
the Crito confirms this view.

The Phaedo is not one of the Socratic Dialogues of Plato; nor, on the
other hand, can it be assigned to that later stage of the Platonic
writings at which the doctrine of ideas appears to be forgotten. It
belongs rather to the intermediate period of the Platonic philosophy,
which roughly corresponds to the Phaedrus, Gorgias, Republic,
Theaetetus. Without pretending to determine the real time of their
composition, the Symposium, Meno, Euthyphro, Apology, Phaedo may be
conveniently read by us in this order as illustrative of the life of
Socrates. Another chain may be formed of the Meno, Phaedrus, Phaedo,
in which the immortality of the soul is connected with the doctrine of
ideas. In the Meno the theory of ideas is based on the ancient belief in
transmigration, which reappears again in the Phaedrus as well as in the
Republic and Timaeus, and in all of them is connected with a doctrine of
retribution. In the Phaedrus the immortality of the soul is supposed to
rest on the conception of the soul as a principle of motion, whereas in
the Republic the argument turns on the natural continuance of the soul,
which, if not destroyed by her own proper evil, can hardly be destroyed
by any other. The soul of man in the Timaeus is derived from the Supreme
Creator, and either returns after death to her kindred star, or descends
into the lower life of an animal. The Apology expresses the same view
as the Phaedo, but with less confidence; there the probability of death
being a long sleep is not excluded. The Theaetetus also describes, in a
digression, the desire of the soul to fly away and be with God--'and to
fly to him is to be like him.' The Symposium may be observ