s you may remember, was imagined by us after a while to behold the
real animals and stars, and last of all the sun himself. And so with
dialectic; when a person starts on the discovery of the absolute by
the light of reason only, and without any assistance of sense, and
perseveres until by pure intelligence he arrives at the perception
of the absolute good, he at last finds himself at the end of the
intellectual world, as in the case of sight at the end of the visible.

Exactly, he said.

Then this is the progress which you call dialectic?

True.

But the release of the prisoners from chains, and their translation
from the shadows to the images and to the light, and the ascent from the
underground den to the sun, while in his presence they are vainly trying
to look on animals and plants and the light of the sun, but are able to
perceive even with their weak eyes the images in the water (which are
divine), and are the shadows of true existence (not shadows of images
cast by a light of fire, which compared with the sun is only an
image)--this power of elevating the highest principle in the soul to
the contemplation of that which is best in existence, with which we may
compare the raising of that faculty which is the very light of the body
to the sight of that which is brightest in the material and visible
world--this power is given, as I was saying, by all that study and
pursuit of the arts which has been described.

I agree in what you are saying, he replied, which may be hard to
believe, yet, from another point of view, is harder still to deny. This,
however, is not a theme to be treated of in passing only, but will have
to be discussed again and again. And so, whether our conclusion be true
or false, let us assume all this, and proceed at once from the prelude
or preamble to the chief strain (A play upon the Greek word, which means
both 'law' and 'strain.'), and describe that in like manner. Say, then,
what is the nature and what are the divisions of dialectic, and what
are the paths which lead thither; for these paths will also lead to our
final rest.

Dear Glaucon, I said, you will not be able to follow me here, though
I would do my best, and you should behold not an image only but the
absolute truth, according to my notion. Whether what I told you would
or would not have been a reality I cannot venture to say; but you would
have seen something like reality; of that I am confident.

Doubtless, he replied.