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Section 71

"Well then," he said, "is there an opposite to living, just as sleeping is the opposite to being awake?" "Certainly," he said. "What is it?" "Being dead," he said. "Do these come from each other, since they are opposites, and are there two processes of coming to be between them, since they are two?" "Of course." "I will tell you one of the pairs of opposites I just mentioned," said Socrates, "and its processes. You tell me the other. I say there is sleeping and being awake, and from sleeping comes being awake, and from being awake comes sleeping. The processes between them are falling asleep and waking up. Is this clear to you or not?" "Very clear." "Now you tell me similarly about life and death. Do you not say that being dead is the opposite to living?" "I do." "And that they come from each other?" "Yes." "From the living, what comes to be?" "The dead," he said. "And from the dead?" "I must agree that the living come to be." "So from the dead, Cebes, living things and living people come to be?" "It appears so," he said. "Then our souls exist in Hades," said Socrates. "It seems likely." "Regarding the two processes between them, is not one of them perfectly clear? For dying is certainly clear, is it not?" "Certainly," he said. "What shall we do then? Shall we not assign an opposing process to balance it? Or is nature lame in this regard? Must we not assign some process opposite to dying?" "We must." "What is it?" "Coming back to life." "Then if there is a coming back to life, it would be a coming-to-be from the dead into the living?" "Yes." "So we are agreed on this as well: the living have come from the dead no less than the dead have come from the living. And since this is so, it seemed to me a sufficient proof that the souls of the dead must exist somewhere, from whence they are born again." "It seems to me, Socrates," he said, "that this necessarily follows from what we have agreed." "Consider this too, Cebes, that we have not agreed unjustly, as it seems to me. If opposing things did not always balance each other in coming into being, as if moving in a circle, but coming into being went in a straight line from one thing to its opposite, without bending back to the first thing or making a turn—you understand that eventually all things would take on the same shape, suffer the same state, and cease coming into being?"