contrary, the answer
is--Then why do criminals require the hand of the executioner, and
not die of themselves? 'Truly,' he said, 'injustice would not be very
terrible if it brought a cessation of evil; but I rather believe that
the injustice which murders others may tend to quicken and stimulate
the life of the unjust.' You are quite right. If sin which is her own
natural and inherent evil cannot destroy the soul, hardly will anything
else destroy her. But the soul which cannot be destroyed either by
internal or external evil must be immortal and everlasting. And if
this be true, souls will always exist in the same number. They cannot
diminish, because they cannot be destroyed; nor yet increase, for the
increase of the immortal must come from something mortal, and so all
would end in immortality. Neither is the soul variable and diverse; for
that which is immortal must be of the fairest and simplest composition.
If we would conceive her truly, and so behold justice and injustice in
their own nature, she must be viewed by the light of reason pure as at
birth, or as she is reflected in philosophy when holding converse with
the divine and immortal and eternal. In her present condition we see her
only like the sea-god Glaucus, bruised and maimed in the sea which is
the world, and covered with shells and stones which are incrusted upon
her from the entertainments of earth.

Thus far, as the argument required, we have said nothing of the rewards
and honours which the poets attribute to justice; we have contented
ourselves with showing that justice in herself is best for the soul in
herself, even if a man should put on a Gyges' ring and have the helmet
of Hades too. And now you shall repay me what you borrowed; and I will
enumerate the rewards of justice in life and after death. I granted,
for the sake of argument, as you will remember, that evil might
perhaps escape the knowledge of Gods and men, although this was really
impossible. And since I have shown that justice has reality, you must
grant me also that she has the palm of appearance. In the first place,
the just man is known to the Gods, and he is therefore the friend of the
Gods, and he will receive at their hands every good, always excepting
such evil as is the necessary consequence of former sins. All things end
in good to him, either in life or after death, even what appears to
be evil; for the Gods have a care of him who desires to be in their
likeness. And what s