conjecture from
our religious and funeral rites.[40] 131. The well-ordered and wise
soul, then, both follows, and is not ignorant of its present condition;
but that which through passion clings to the body, as I said before,
having longingly fluttered about it for a long time, and about its
visible place,[41] after vehement resistance and great suffering, is
forcibly and with great difficulty led away by its appointed demon. And
when it arrives at the place where the others are, impure and having
done any such thing as the committal of unrighteous murders or other
similar actions, which are kindred to these, and are the deeds of
kindred souls, every one shuns it and turns away from it, and will be
neither its fellow-traveler nor guide; but it wanders about, oppressed
with every kind of helplessness, until certain periods have elapsed; and
when these are completed, it is carried, of necessity, to an abode
suitable to it. But the soul which has passed through life with purity
and moderation, having obtained the gods for its fellow-travelers and
guides, settles each in the place suited to it. 132. There are, indeed,
many and wonderful places in the earth, and it is itself neither of such
a kind nor of such a magnitude as is supposed by those who are
accustomed to speak of the earth, as I have been persuaded by a certain
person."

Whereupon Simmias said, "How mean you, Socrates? For I, too, have heard
many things about the earth--not, however, those things which have
obtained your belief. I would, therefore, gladly hear them."

"Indeed, Simmias, the art of Glaucus[42] does not seem to me to be
required to relate what these things are. That they are true, however,
appears to me more than the art of Glaucus can prove, and, besides, I
should probably not be able to do it; and even if I did know how, what
remains to me of life, Simmias, seems insufficient for the length of the
subject. However, the form of the earth, such as I am persuaded it is,
and the different places in it, nothing hinders me from telling."

"But that will be enough," said Simmias.

"I am persuaded, then," said he, "in the first place, that, if the earth
is in the middle of the heavens, and is of a spherical form, it has no
need of air, nor of any other similar force, to prevent it from falling;
but that the similarity of the heavens to themselves on every side, and
the equilibrium of the earth itself, are sufficient to support it; for a
thing in a stat