as much as possible away from it and towards the soul? Therefore
this is the first mark of the philosopher, that he, more than all
other men, relieves his soul of association with the body."

On this subject Socrates has something more to say, _i.e._, that
aspiration after wisdom has this much in common with dying, that it
turns man away from the physical. But whither does he turn? Towards
the spiritual. But can he desire the same from spirit as from the
senses? Socrates thus expresses himself on this point: "But how is it
with reasonable knowledge itself? Is the body a hindrance or not, if
we take it as a companion in our search for knowledge? I mean, do
sight and hearing procure man any truth? Or is what the poets sing
meaningless, that we see and hear nothing clearly?... When does the
soul catch sight of truth? For when it tries to examine something with
the help of the body, it is manifestly deceived by the latter."

Everything of which we are cognisant by means of our bodily senses
appears and disappears. And it is this appearing and disappearing
which is the cause of our being deceived. But when with our reasonable
intelligence we look deeper into things, the eternal element in them
is revealed to us. Thus the senses do not offer us the eternal in its
true form. The moment we trust them implicitly they deceive us. They
cease to deceive us if we confront them with our thinking insight and
submit what they tell us to its examination.

But how could our thinking insight sit in judgment on the declarations
of the senses, unless there were something living within it which
transcends sense-perception? Therefore the truth or falsity in things
is decided by something within us which opposes the physical body and
is consequently not subject to its laws. First of all, it cannot be
subject to the laws of growth and decay. For this something contains
truth within it. Now truth cannot have a yesterday and a to-day, it
cannot be one thing one day and another the next, like objects of
sense. Therefore truth must be something eternal. And when the
philosopher turns away from the perishable things of sense and towards
truth, he is turning towards an eternal element that lives within him.
If we immerse ourselves wholly in spirit, we shall live wholly in
truth. The things of sense around us are no longer present merely in
their physical form. "And he accomplishes this most perfectly," says
Socrates, "who approaches everything as