sert? Far
from it, my dear Cebes and Simmias. But the case is much rather thus: if
it is separated in a pure state, taking nothing of the body with it, as
not having willingly communicated with it in the present life, but
having shunned it, and gathered itself within itself, as constantly
studying this (but this is nothing else than to pursue philosophy
aright, and in reality to study how to die easily), would not this be to
study how to die?"

"Most assuredly."

"Does not the soul, then, when in this state, depart to that which
resembles itself, the invisible, the divine, immortal and wise? And on
its arrival there, is it not its lot to be happy, free from error,
ignorance, fears, wild passions, and all the other evils to which human
nature is subject; and, as is said of the initiated, does it not in
truth pass the rest of its time with the gods? Must we affirm that it is
so, Cebes, or otherwise?"

"So, by Jupiter!" said Cebes.

69. "But, I think, if it departs from the body polluted and impure, as
having constantly held communion with the body, and having served and
loved it, and been bewitched by it, through desires and pleasures, so as
to think that there is nothing real except what is corporeal, which one
can touch and see, and drink and eat, and employ for sensual purposes;
but what is dark and invisible to the eyes, which is intellectual and
apprehended by philosophy, having been accustomed to hate, fear, and
shun this, do you think that a soul thus affected can depart from the
body by itself, and uncontaminated?"

"By no means whatever," he replied.

"But I think it will be impressed with that which is corporeal, which
the intercourse and communion of the body, through constant association
and great attention, have made natural to it."

"Certainly."

"We must think, my dear Cebes, that this is ponderous and heavy, earthly
and visible, by possessing which such a soul is weighed down, and drawn
again into the visible world through dread of the invisible and of
Hades, wandering, as it is said, among monuments and tombs, about which,
indeed, certain shadowy phantoms of souls have been seen, being such
images as those souls produced which have not departed pure from the
body, but which partake of the visible; on which account, also, they are
visible."

"That is probable, Socrates."

70. "Probable indeed, Cebes; and not that these are the souls of the
good, but of the wicked, which are compelled to wande