justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have
never yet seen the absolute justice?

There is nothing surprizing in that, he replied.

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of
the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from
coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of
the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who
remembers this when he sees the soul of any one whose vision is
perplexed and weak will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask
whether that soul has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to
see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness
to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And then he will count the
one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the
other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from
below into the light there will be more reason in this than in the
laugh which greets the other from the den.

That, he said, is a very just remark.

But if this is true, then certain professors of education must be
mistaken in saying that they can put a knowledge into the soul which
was not there before, like giving eyes to the blind.

Yes, that is what they say, he replied.

Whereas, I said, our argument shows that the power is already in the
soul; and that as the eye can not turn from darkness to light without
the whole body, so too, when the eye of the soul is turned round, the
whole soul must be turned from the world of generation into that of
being, and become able to endure the sight of being and of the
brightest and best of being--that is to say, of the good.

Very true.

And this is conversion; and the art will be how to accomplish this as
easily and completely as possible; not implanting eyes, for they exist
already, but giving them a right direction, which they have not.

Yes, he said, that may be assumed.

And hence while the other qualities seem to be akin to the body, being
infused by habit and exercise and not originally innate, the virtue of
wisdom is part of a divine essence, and has a power which is
everlasting, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable,
and is also capable of becoming hurtful and useless. Did you never
observe the narrow intelligence flashing from the keen eye of a clever
rogue--how eager he is, how clearly his paltry soul sees the way to
his end; he is the reverse of blin