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Section 80

"Look at it this way too: when soul and body are together, nature commands the latter to serve and be ruled, and the former to rule and be master. According to this, which seems to you similar to the divine, and which to the mortal? Do you not think the divine is naturally suited to rule and lead, while the mortal is suited to be ruled and serve?" "I do." "To which is the soul similar?" "Clearly, Socrates, the soul is similar to the divine, and the body to the mortal." "Consider then, Cebes, whether these are the conclusions from all that has been said: the soul is most similar to the divine, immortal, intelligible, uniform, indissoluble, and what always remains the same in the same state. The body, on the other hand, is most similar to the human, mortal, multiform, unintelligible, dissoluble, and what never remains the same in the same state. Can we say anything against this, my dear Cebes, to show it is not so?" "We cannot." "Well then, since these things are so, is it not proper for the body to be quickly dissolved, and for the soul to be completely indissoluble, or something close to it?" "How could it be otherwise?" "You notice," he said, "that after a man dies, the visible part of him—the body lying in the visible realm, which we call the corpse, whose nature is to dissolve, fall apart, and scatter—does not suffer any of these things immediately, but remains for a remarkably long time, especially if a man dies in a fine condition and in a fine season. When the body is shrunk and embalmed, like the mummies in Egypt, it remains almost entire for an incredibly long time. And even when the body rots, some parts—like bones, sinews, and such—are virtually immortal. Is that not so?" "Yes." "But the soul, the invisible part, which goes to another place that is noble, pure, and invisible like itself—to the true Hades, to the good and wise god, where, if the god wills, my own soul must soon go—could this soul, possessing such a nature, be blown apart and destroyed the moment it leaves the body, as the multitude of men say? Far from it, my dear Cebes and Simmias."