The tale, my friend, he said, is as follows:--In the first place, the
earth, when looked at from above, is in appearance streaked like one of
those balls which have leather coverings in twelve pieces, and is decked
with various colours, of which the colours used by painters on earth are
in a manner samples. But there the whole earth is made up of them,
and they are brighter far and clearer than ours; there is a purple of
wonderful lustre, also the radiance of gold, and the white which is in
the earth is whiter than any chalk or snow. Of these and other colours
the earth is made up, and they are more in number and fairer than the
eye of man has ever seen; the very hollows (of which I was speaking)
filled with air and water have a colour of their own, and are seen like
light gleaming amid the diversity of the other colours, so that the
whole presents a single and continuous appearance of variety in unity.
And in this fair region everything that grows--trees, and flowers, and
fruits--are in a like degree fairer than any here; and there are hills,
having stones in them in a like degree smoother, and more transparent,
and fairer in colour than our highly-valued emeralds and sardonyxes and
jaspers, and other gems, which are but minute fragments of them: for
there all the stones are like our precious stones, and fairer still
(compare Republic). The reason is, that they are pure, and not, like
our precious stones, infected or corroded by the corrupt briny elements
which coagulate among us, and which breed foulness and disease both in
earth and stones, as well as in animals and plants. They are the jewels
of the upper earth, which also shines with gold and silver and the like,
and they are set in the light of day and are large and abundant and in
all places, making the earth a sight to gladden the beholder's eye.
And there are animals and men, some in a middle region, others dwelling
about the air as we dwell about the sea; others in islands which the air
flows round, near the continent: and in a word, the air is used by them
as the water and the sea are by us, and the ether is to them what the
air is to us. Moreover, the temperament of their seasons is such that
they have no disease, and live much longer than we do, and have
sight and hearing and smell, and all the other senses, in far greater
perfection, in the same proportion that air is purer than water or the
ether than air. Also they have temples and sacred places in which the
gods really dwell, and they hear their voices and receive their answers,
and are conscious of them and hold converse with them, and they see the
sun, moon, and stars as they truly are, and their other blessedness is
of a piece with this.