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Section 77

"I think it is adequate for him too," said Simmias, "even though he is the most persistent of men in distrusting arguments. I think he has been sufficiently persuaded that our soul existed before we were born. But whether the soul will still exist after we die does not seem to me to have been proven, Socrates. The fear of the multitude that Cebes mentioned still remains: that when the human being dies, the soul is scattered and this is the end of its existence. For what prevents it from being born and constituted from somewhere else, and existing before it entered a human body, but once it enters and then leaves it, ending its existence and being destroyed itself?" "Well said, Simmias," said Cebes. "It seems we have proven only half of what is necessary—that our soul existed before birth. We must also prove that it will exist after we die no less than before we were born, if the proof is to be brought to completion." "It has already been proven, Simmias and Cebes," said Socrates, "if you are willing to combine this argument with the one we agreed upon earlier: that every living thing comes from the dead. For if the soul exists before birth, and if when it enters into life and being born it must necessarily come from death and from being dead, how is it not necessary that it must also exist after it dies, since it must be born again? The proof you ask for has already been provided. Nevertheless, I think you and Simmias would gladly press this argument further, because you have a childish fear that the wind might literally blow the soul apart and scatter it when it leaves the body, especially if one does not die in calm weather, but in some great storm." Cebes laughed and said, "Assume we are afraid, Socrates, and try to reassure us. Or rather, assume it is not us, but that there is perhaps a child within us who fears such things. Let us try to persuade him not to fear death as if it were a bogeyman." "You must sing charms to him every day," said Socrates, "until you have charmed it out of him." "Where shall we find a good charmer for such fears, Socrates," he asked, "since you are leaving us?" "Greece is large, Cebes," he said, "and there are good men in it. The barbarian races are also numerous. You must search through all of them for such a charmer, sparing neither money nor effort, for there is nothing on which you could spend your money more necessarily. You must also search among yourselves for one another; for perhaps you will not easily find anyone more capable of doing this than yourselves." "That shall certainly be done," said Cebes. "But let us return to where we left off, if it pleases you." "It pleases me greatly. How could it not?" "Finely spoken," he said.