nd in need of an illustration;
for the argument appears to me to have been put thus, as if any one
should advance this argument about an aged weaver who had died, that the
man has not yet perished, but perhaps still exists somewhere; and, as a
proof, should exhibit the garment which he wore and had woven himself,
that it is entire and has not perished; and if any one should disbelieve
him, he would ask, which of the two is the more durable, the species of
a man or of a garment, that is constantly in use and being worn; then,
should any one answer that the species of man is much more durable, he
would think it demonstrated that, beyond all question, the man is
preserved, since that which is less durable has not perished. 83. But I
do not think, Simmias, that this is the case, and do you consider what I
say, for every one must think that he who argues thus argues, foolishly.
For this weaver, having worn and woven many such garments, perished
after almost all of them, but before the last, I suppose; and yet it
does not on this account follow any the more that a man is inferior to
or weaker than a garment. And I think, the soul might admit this same
illustration with respect to the body, and he who should say the same
things concerning them would appear to me to speak correctly, that the
soul is more durable, but the body weaker and less durable; for he would
say that each soul wears out many bodies, especially if it lives many
years; for if the body wastes and is dissolved while the man still
lives, but the soul continually weaves anew what is worn out, it must
necessarily follow that when the soul is dissolved it must then have on
its last garment, and perish before this alone; but when the soul has
perished the body would show the weakness of its nature, and quickly rot
and vanish. 84. So that it is not by any means right to place implicit
reliance on this argument, and to believe that when we die our soul
still exists somewhere. For, if any one should concede to him who admits
even more than you do, and should grant to him that not only did our
soul exist before we were born, but that even when we die nothing
hinders the souls of some of us from still existing, and continuing to
exist hereafter, and from being often born, and dying again--for so
strong is it by nature, that it can hold out against repeated births--if
he granted this, he would not yet concede that it does not exhaust
itself in its many births, and at lengt