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Section 82

"They are naturally bound to the very same kinds of character traits they practiced in life." "What kinds do you mean, Socrates?" "For example, those who practiced gluttony, insolence, and drunkenness, and did not take care to avoid them, naturally enter into the bodies of asses and similar beasts. Don't you think?" "That is very likely." "And those who valued injustice, tyranny, and robbery enter into wolves, hawks, and kites. Where else could we say such souls go?" "Undoubtedly into such creatures," said Cebes. "And the others follow the same rule, each according to the similarities of their practice?" "Clearly," he said. "How could they not?" "Are not the happiest among these, going to the best place, those who practiced the popular and political virtue they call moderation and justice, achieved through habit and practice without philosophy and reason?" "Why are they the happiest?" "Because it is likely they pass back into some social and gentle race, like bees, wasps, or ants, or even back into the human race, becoming moderate men again." "That is likely." "But to reach the company of the gods is permitted to no one who has not practiced philosophy and departed completely pure—no one but the lover of learning. Because of this, my comrades Simmias and Cebes, the true philosophers abstain from all bodily desires, remain firm, and do not surrender themselves to them. They do not fear poverty or ruin of their estate, like the money-loving multitude; nor do they fear the dishonor or infamy of a poor reputation, like the lovers of power and honor; that is why they abstain from them." "It would not be fitting if they did not, Socrates," said Cebes. "By Zeus, no," he said. "That is why those who care for their own soul, and do not live merely modeling their body, bid farewell to all these people. They do not walk the same path as them, for those people do not know where they are going. Believing that they must not act contrary to philosophy and its releasing and purifying power, they turn and follow it wherever it leads."