ites generated out of their opposites? I mean
such things as good and evil, just and unjust--and there are innumerable
other opposites which are generated out of opposites. And I want to show
that in all opposites there is of necessity a similar alternation;
I mean to say, for example, that anything which becomes greater must
become greater after being less.

True.

And that which becomes less must have been once greater and then have
become less.

Yes.

And the weaker is generated from the stronger, and the swifter from the
slower.

Very true.

And the worse is from the better, and the more just is from the more
unjust.

Of course.

And is this true of all opposites? and are we convinced that all of them
are generated out of opposites?

Yes.

And in this universal opposition of all things, are there not also two
intermediate processes which are ever going on, from one to the other
opposite, and back again; where there is a greater and a less there is
also an intermediate process of increase and diminution, and that which
grows is said to wax, and that which decays to wane?

Yes, he said.

And there are many other processes, such as division and composition,
cooling and heating, which equally involve a passage into and out of one
another. And this necessarily holds of all opposites, even though not
always expressed in words--they are really generated out of one another,
and there is a passing or process from one to the other of them?

Very true, he replied.

Well, and is there not an opposite of life, as sleep is the opposite of
waking?

True, he said.

And what is it?

Death, he answered.

And these, if they are opposites, are generated the one from the other,
and have there their two intermediate processes also?

Of course.

Now, said Socrates, I will analyze one of the two pairs of opposites
which I have mentioned to you, and also its intermediate processes, and
you shall analyze the other to me. One of them I term sleep, the other
waking. The state of sleep is opposed to the state of waking, and out
of sleeping waking is generated, and out of waking, sleeping; and the
process of generation is in the one case falling asleep, and in the
other waking up. Do you agree?

I entirely agree.

Then, suppose that you analyze life and death to me in the same manner.
Is not death opposed to life?

Yes.

And they are generated one from the other?

Yes.

What is generated from the living?