The dialogues of Plato in five volumes, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Translated into English with analyses and introductions
Plato · en
Yet the exchange of one fear or pleasure or pain for
another fear or pleasure or pain, and of the greater for the
less, as if they were coins, is not the exchange of virtue. O
my blessed Simmias, is there not one true coin for which all
things ought to be exchanged?—and that is wisdom; and
only in exchange for this, and in company with this, is anything
truly bought or sold, whether courage or temperance
or justice. And is not all true virtue the companion of
wisdom, no matter what fears or pleasures or other similar
goods or evils may or may not attend her? But the virtue
which is made up of these goods, when they are severed
from wisdom and exchanged with one another, is a shadow
of virtue only, nor is there any freedom or health or truth in
her; but in the true exchange there is a purging away of all
these things, and temperance, and justice, and courage, and
wisdom herself are the purgation of them. The founders of
the mysteries would appear to have had a real meaning, and
were not talking nonsense when they intimated in a figure
long ago that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into
the world below will lie in a slough, but that he who arrives
there after initiation and purification will dwell with the
gods. For ‘many,’ as they say in the mysteries, ‘are the
thyrsus-bearers, but few are the mystics,’—meaning, as I
interpret the words, ‘the true philosophers.’ In the number
of whom, during my whole life, I have been seeking, according
to my ability, to find a place;—whether I have sought in
a right way or not, and whether I have succeeded or not, I
shall truly know in a little while, if God will, when I myself
arrive in the other world—such is my belief. And therefore
I maintain that I am right, Simmias and Cebes, in not
grieving or repining at parting from you and my masters
in this world, for I believe that I shall equally find good
masters and friends in another world. But most men do
not believe this saying; if then I succeed in convincing you
by my defence better than I did the Athenian judges, it will
be well.
[Sidenote: Fears are entertained lest the soul when she dies should be
scattered to the winds.]