True Virtue and Purification

"Then," said Socrates, "if this is true, my friend, there is great hope that when I arrive where I am going, there, if anywhere, I shall fully attain what has been the aim of all our labour in the life gone by. So the 67c journey now appointed for me is made with good hope, as it is for any other man who believes that his mind has been made ready, as if purified."

"Certainly," said Simmias.

"And does not purification turn out to be what was said long ago in our argument: separating the soul as far as possible from the body, and accustoming it to gather and collect itself together by itself, out of every part of the body, and to dwell, as far as it can, both now and 67d hereafter, alone by itself, freed from the body as from fetters?"

"Certainly," he said.

"And is not this what is called death — a release and separation of the soul from the body?"

"Entirely so," said he.

"And it is above all, and only, those who practise philosophy rightly who are always eager to release it, as we say; and this very thing is the study of philosophers, the release and separation of the soul from the body. Is it not?"

"It appears so."

"Then, as I said at the beginning, it would be ridiculous for a man 67e who had prepared himself all his life to live as close as possible to being dead, to be resentful when it comes to him?"

"Ridiculous, of course."

"In truth, then, Simmias," he said, "those who practise philosophy rightly are practising dying, and to them of all men being dead is least to be feared. Look at it from this side.

"If they are at odds with the body in every way and desire to have the soul alone by itself, would it not be very unreasonable for them to be afraid and resentful when this comes about, and not to 68a go gladly to the place where they have hope of attaining what they longed for all their lives — and what they longed for was wisdom — and of being rid of the company of that with which they were at odds? When human loves, or wives, or sons have died, many men have been willing to go to Hades of their own accord, led by the hope of seeing there those they longed for, and of being with them. And will one who truly loves wisdom, and has firmly grasped this same hope, that nowhere else will he find it 68b in any way worth speaking of except in Hades, be resentful at dying, and not go there gladly? We must surely think so, my friend, if he is truly a philosopher; for he will firmly believe that nowhere else but there will he find wisdom in its purity. And if this is so, as I said just now, would it not be very unreasonable for such a man to fear death?"

"Very unreasonable indeed, by Zeus," said he.

"So you have sufficient evidence," he said, "whenever you see a man resentful because he is about to die, that he was 68c not a lover of wisdom but a lover of the body? And this same man, surely, is also a lover of money and a lover of honours, either one of these or both."

"It is just as you say," he said.

"And then, Simmias," he said, "does not what is called courage belong especially to people of this disposition?"

"Certainly," he said.

"And self-control too, what even the many call self-control — not being excited by the desires, but being indifferent to them and orderly — does it not belong only to those who most disregard the body and live in philosophy?"

"Necessarily," he said.

"For if you will consider the courage and self-control of other men," said he, "you will find them strange."

"How so, Socrates?"

"You know," said he, "that all the others think death one of the great evils?"

"Very much so," he said.

"And the brave among them face death, when they do face it, through fear of greater evils?"

"That is so."

"So all men except philosophers are brave through being afraid and through fear; and yet it is surely unreasonable to be brave through fear and cowardice."

68e "Certainly."

"And what of the orderly among them? Is it not the same with them — they are self-controlled through a kind of licentiousness? We say that this is impossible, yet the case of their simple-minded self-control turns out much like this. Because they fear to be deprived of other pleasures, and desire them, they abstain from some because they are mastered by others.

"Being ruled by pleasures is what 69a people call licentiousness; and yet it turns out that, being mastered by pleasures, they master other pleasures. And this is like what was said just now, that in a way they are made self-controlled through licentiousness."

"So it seems."

"My dear Simmias, I fear this may not be the right exchange with a view to virtue — exchanging pleasures for pleasures, pains for pains, fear for fear, greater for lesser, like coins. The only right coin, for which all these must be exchanged, is wisdom; 69b and with wisdom there truly is courage and self-control and justice and, in a word, true virtue, whether pleasures and fears and all such things are added or taken away. But when they are cut off from wisdom and exchanged for one another, such virtue is a kind of illusion, fit in truth only for slaves, with nothing sound or true in it; whereas the truth is in fact 69c a kind of purification from all such things, and self-control and justice and courage, and wisdom itself, are a kind of purifying rite. And it may well be that those who established our mystic rites were no fools, but long ago spoke in riddles when they said that whoever arrives in Hades uninitiated and unpurified will lie in the mire, while he who arrives there purified and initiated will dwell with the gods. For, as those who know the rites say, 'many carry the wand, 69d but few are Bacchants.'¹ And these few, in my opinion, are none other than those who have practised philosophy rightly. I myself, as far as I could, have left nothing undone in my life, but have striven in every way to be one of them. Whether I have striven rightly and achieved anything, we shall know for certain when we arrive there, god willing, in a little while, as it seems to me. That, Simmias and Cebes," he said, "is my defence: that I have good reason not to take it hard or resent leaving you and my masters here, since I believe that there too, no less than here, I shall find good masters and good companions. If my defence convinces you more than it did the Athenian judges, that would be well."

1. A saying from the mysteries of Dionysus: many carry the god's fennel wand in the procession, but few are truly possessed by him. ↩