l these, proceed not in the same way with
them, as being ignorant whither they are going, but, being convinced
that they ought not to act contrary to philosophy, but in accordance
with the freedom and purification she affords, they give themselves up
to her direction, following her wherever she leads."

"How, Socrates?"

"I will tell you," he replied. "The lovers of wisdom know that
philosophy, receiving their soul plainly bound and glued to the body,
and compelled to view things through this, as through a prison, and not
directly by herself, and sunk in utter ignorance, and perceiving, too,
the strength of the prison, that it arises from desire, so that he who
is bound as much as possible assists in binding himself. 73. I say,
then, the lovers of wisdom know that philosophy, receiving their soul in
this state, gently exhorts it, and endeavors to free it, by showing that
the view of things by means of the eyes is full of deception, as also is
that through the ears and the other senses; persuading an abandonment
of these so far as it is not absolutely necessary to use them, and
advising the soul to be collected and concentrated within itself, and to
believe nothing else than herself, with respect to what she herself
understands of things that have a real subsistence; and to consider
nothing true which she views through the medium of others, and which
differ under different aspects;[32] for that a thing of this kind is
sensible and visible, but that what she herself perceives is
intelligible and invisible. The soul of the true philosopher, therefore,
thinking that she ought not to oppose this deliverance, accordingly
abstains as much as possible from pleasures and desires, griefs and
fears, considering that when any one is exceedingly delighted or
alarmed, grieved or influenced by desire, he does not merely suffer such
evil from these things as one might suppose, such as either being sick
or wasting his property through indulging his desires; but that which is
the greatest evil, and the worst of all, this he suffers, and is not
conscious of it."

"But what is this evil, Socrates?" said Cebes.

74. "That the soul of every man is compelled to be either vehemently
delighted or grieved about some particular thing, and, at the same time,
to consider that the thing about which it is thus strongly affected is
most real and most true, though it is not so. But these are chiefly
visible objects, are they not?"

"Certainly."