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38 - The Republic - Plato · Logic Library

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Book ten, Part three. Are you aware I said that the soul of
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a man is immortal and imperishable. He looked at me in astonishment and said,
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no, by Heaven. And are you really prepared to maintain this?
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Yes, I said I ought to be, and you too. There is
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no difficulty in proving it. I see great difficulty. But I should like
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to hear you state this argument of which you make so light. Listen.
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Then I am attending there is a thing which you call good and another which
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you call evil. Yes, he replied. Would you agree with me in
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thinking that the corrupting and destroying element is the evil, and the saving and
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improving element the good. Yes, And you admit that everything has a good
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and also an evil, as ophthalmia is an evil of the eyes, and
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disease of the whole body, as mildrew is of corn, and rot of
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timber, or rust of copper and iron in everything are in almost everything there
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is an inherent evil and disease, yes, he said, And anything which
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is infected by any of these evils is made evil, and at last wholly
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dissolves and dies. True. Then vice and evil, which is inherent in
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each, is the destruction of each. And if this does not destroy them,
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there is nothing that will for goods certainly will not destroy them. Nor
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again that which is neither good nor evil, certainly not. If then we
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find any nature which, having this inherent corruption, cannot be dissolved or destroyed,
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we may be certain that of such a nature there is no destruction that
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may be assumed. Well, I said, and is there no evil which
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crupts the soul? Yes, he said, there are all the evils which
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we were just now passing in review on righteousness, in temperance, cowardice,
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ignorance. But does any of these dissolve or destroy her? And here do
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not let us fall into the air of supposing that the unjust and foolish man,
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when he is detected, perishes through his own injustice, which is an
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evil of the soul. Take the analogy of the body. The evil of
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the body is a disease which wastes and reduce and annihilates the body. And
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all the things of which we were just now speaking come to annihilation through their
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own corruption, attaching to them and inhering in them, and so destroying them.
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Is not this true? Yes, consider the soul in a like manner.
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Does the injustice or other evil which exists in the soul, waste and
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consume her. Do they, by attaching to the soul and inhering in her,
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at the last, bring her to death, and so separate her from
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the body. Certainly not. And yet I said, it is unreasonable to
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suppose that anything can perish from without through affection of external evil, which could
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not be destroyed from within by a corruption of its own it is, he
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replied, Consider, I said, gloucon that even the badness of food,
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whether staleness, decomposition, or any other bad quality, when confined to the
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actual food, is not supposed to destroy the body. Although if the badness
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of food communicates corruption to the body, then we should say that the body
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has been destroyed by a corruption of itself, which is the disease brought on
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by this. But that the body, being one thing, can be destroyed
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by the badness of food, which is another, and which does not engender
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any natural infection, this we shall absolutely deny, very true. And on
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the same principle, unless some bodily evil can produce an evil of the soul,
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which we must not suppose that the soul, which is one thing,
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can be dissolved by any merely external evil which belongs to another. Yes,
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he said, there is reason in that. Either then let us refute this
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conclusion, or while it remains unrefuted, let us never say that fever or
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any other disease, or the knife put to the throat, or even the
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cutting up of the whole body into the minutest pieces, can destroy the soul
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until she herself is proved to become more unholy or unrighteous in consequence of these
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things being done to the body. But that the soul or anything else,
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if not destroyed by an internal evil, can be destroyed by an external one,
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is not to be affirmed by any man. And surely, he replied,
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no one will ever prove that the souls of men become more unjust in
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consequence of death. But if someone who would rather not admit the immortality of
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the soul boldly denies this and says that the dying do really become more evil
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and unrighteous, then if the speaker is right, I suppose that injustice,
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like disease, must be assumed to be fatal to the unjust, and that
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those who take this disorder die by the natural inherent power of destruction which evil
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has and which kills them sooner or later. But in quite another way from
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that in which at present the wicked receive death at the hands of others as
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the penalty for their deeds. Nay, he said, in that case,
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injustice, if fatal to the unjust, would not be so very terrible to
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him, for he would be delivered from evil. But I rather suspect the
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opposite to be the truth. And that injustice, which if it have the
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power, will murder others, keep the murderer alive, aye, and well
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awake too, so far removed as her dwelling place from being a house of
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death. True, I said. And if the inherent, natural vice or
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evil of the soul is unable to destroy or kill her, hardly will that
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which is a pointin it to be the destruction of some other body destroy a
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soul or anything else except that of which it was appointed to be the destruction.
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Yes, that can hardly be. But the soul, which cannot be
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destroyed by an evil, whether inherent or external, must exist forever, And
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if existing forever, must be immortal. Certainly that is the conclusion, I
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said. And if a true conclusion, then the souls must always be the
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same, For if none be destroyed, they will not diminish in number,
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neither will they increase, For the increase of their mortal natures must come from
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something mortal, and all things would thus end in immortality. Very true,
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But this we cannot believe. Reason will not allow us any more than we
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can believe the soul, in her truest nature, to be full of variety
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and difference and dissimilarity. What do you mean, he said the soul,
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I said, being as is now proven, immortal, must be the fairest
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of compositions, and cannot be compounded of many elements. Certainly not. Her
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immortality is demonstrated by the previous argument, and there are many other proofs.
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But to see her as she really is, not as we now behold her
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marred by communion with the body and other miseries, you must contemplate her with
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the eye of reason, in her original purity, and then her beauty will
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be revealed, and justice and injustice, and all the things which we have
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described will be manifested more clearly. Thus far we have spoken the truth concerning
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her as she appears at present. But we must remember also that we have
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seen her only in a condition which may be compared to that of the sea
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god Glaucus, whose original image can hardly be discerned, because his natural members
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are broken off and crushed and damaged by the waves in all sorts of ways,
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and incrustaceans have grown over them of seaweed and shells and stones, so
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that he is more like some monster than he is to his own natural form.
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And the soul which we behold is in a similar condition, disfigured by
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ten thousand ills. But not there, glaucan not there? Must we look?
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Where? Then at her love of wisdom? Let us see whom she
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affects, and what society and converse she seeks in virtue of her near kindred
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with the immortal and eternal and divine. Also, how different she would become
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if wholly following this superior principle, and borne by a divine impulse, out
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of the ocean in which she now is, and disengage from the stones and
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shells and things of earth and rock, which in wild varieties spring up around
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her because she feeds upon earth and is overgrown by good things of this life
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as they are termed. Then would we see her as she is and know
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whether she have one shape or many, or what her nature is, of
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her affections, and of the forms which she takes in this present life.
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I think that we have now said enough, true, he replied, And
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thus I said, we have fulfilled the conditions of the argument. We have
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not introduced the rewards and glories of justice, which, as you were saying,
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are to be found in Homer and Hazide. But justice in her own
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nature has been shown to be best for the soul. In her own nature,
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Let a man do what is just, whether he have the ring of
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Gaius or not. And even if in addition to the ring of Gaius he
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puts on a helmet of hades. Very true, and now glaucan there will
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be no harm. In further enuminating how many and how great are the rewards
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which justice and the other virtues procure to the soul from Gods and men,
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both in life and after death. Certainly not, he said, we re
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pay me then what you borrowed in the argument? What did I borrow?
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The assumption that the just man should appear unjust and the unjust just. For
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you were of the opinion that even if the true state of the case could
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not possibly escape the eyes of God and men, Still, this submission ought
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to be made for the sake of the argument, in order that pure justice
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might be weighed against pure injustice. Do you remember I should be much to
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blame if I had forgotten. Then, as the cause is decided, I
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demand on behalf of justice, that the estimation of which she is held by
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gods and men, and which we acknowledged to be her due, should now
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be restored to her by us, since she has been shown to confer reality
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and not to deceive those who truly possess her. Let what has been taken
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from her be given back that so she may win that palm of appearance,
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which is hers also, and which she gives to her own. The demand,
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he said, is just in the first place, I said, and
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this is the first thing which you will have to give back. The nature
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both of the just and unjust, is truly known to the gods, granted,
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And if they are both known to them, one must be the friend
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and the other the enemy of the gods, as we omitted from the beginning,
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true, and the friend of the gods must be supposed to receive from
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them all things at their best, excepting only such evil as is the necessary
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consequence of former sins. Certainly, then this must be our notion of the
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just man, that even when he is in poverty, or sickness, or
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any other seeming misfortune, all things will in the end work together for good
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to him in life and death. For the gods have a care of anyone
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whose desire is to become just and to be like God, as far as
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man can attain the divine likeness by the pursuit of virtue. Yes, he
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said, if he is like God, he will surely not be neglected by
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him. And of the unjust, may not the opposite be supposed? Certainly,
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such then are the palms of victory which the gods give the just.
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That is my conviction. And what do they receive of men? Look at
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things as they really are, and you will see that the clever unjust are.
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In the case of runners who run well from the starting place to the
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goal, but not back again. From the goal, they go off at
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a great pace, but in the end only look foolish, slinking away with
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their ears draggling on their shoulders, and without a crown. But the true
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runner comes to the finish and receives the prize and is crowned. And this
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is the way with the just. He who endures to the end of every
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action and occasion of his entire life, has a good report and carries off
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the prize which men have to bestow true end of Book ten, Part three,