s not so."

"But what as to the body?"

"It is more like the other."

"Consider it also thus, that, when soul and body are together, nature
enjoins the latter to be subservient and obey, the former to rule and
exercise dominion. And, in this way, which of the two appears to you to
be like the divine, and which the mortal? Does it not appear to you to
be natural that the divine should rule and command, but the mortal obey
and be subservient?"

"To me it does so."

"Which, then, does the soul resemble?"

"It is clear, Socrates, that the soul resembles the divine; but the
body, the mortal."

"Consider, then, Cebes," said he, "whether, from all that has been said,
these conclusions follow, that the soul is most like that which is
divine, immortal, intelligent, uniform, indissoluble, and which always
continues in the same state; but that the body, on the other hand, is
most like that which is human, mortal, unintelligent, multiform,
dissoluble, and which never continues in the same state. Can we say any
thing against this, my dear Cebes, to show that it is not so?"

"We can not."

67. "What, then? Since these things are so, does it not appertain to the
body to be quickly dissolved, but to the soul, on the contrary, to be
altogether indissoluble or nearly so?"

"How not?"

"You perceive, however," he said, "that when a man dies, the visible
part of him, the body, which is exposed to sight, and which we call a
corpse, to which it appertains to be dissolved, to fall asunder and be
dispersed, does not immediately undergo any of these affections, but
remains for a considerable time, and especially so if any one should die
with his body in full vigor, and at a corresponding age;[31] for when
the body has collapsed and been embalmed, as those that are embalmed in
Egypt, it remains almost entire for an incredible length of time; and
some parts of the body, even though it does decay, such as the bones and
nerves, and every thing of that kind, are, nevertheless, as one may say,
immortal. Is it not so?"

"Yes."

68. "Can the soul, then, which is invisible, and which goes to another
place like itself, excellent, pure and invisible, and therefore truly
called the invisible world,[32] to the presence of a good and wise God
(whither, if God will, my soul also must shortly go)--can this soul of
ours, I ask, being such and of such a nature, when separated from the
body, be immediately dispersed and destroyed, as most men as