< Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 2.djvu
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Transmigration of men into animals.

Phaedo.
Socrates, Cebes.which have not departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible.[1]

That is very likely, Socrates.

Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the souls, not of the good, but of the evil, which are compelled to wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former evil way of life ; and they continue to wander until through the craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their former lives.

What natures do you mean, Socrates ?

They wander into the bodies of the animals or of birds which are of a like nature with themselves. What I mean is that men who have followed after gluttony, They wan- and wantonness, and drunkenness, and have had no thought d^"'" 'he r-.-i 11 • i-,r7 bodies of 01 avoidmg tliem, would pass into asses and anmials of that the animals 82 sort. What do you think ? or of birds

I think such an opinion to be exceedingly probable. alike

And those who have chosen the portion of injustice, and nature with tyranny, and violence, will pass into wolves, or into hawks and kites ; — whither else can we suppose them to go? Yes, said Cebes ; with such natures, beyond question. And there is no difficulty, he said, in assigning to all of them places answering to their several natures and pro- pensities ?

There is not, he said.

Some are happier than others ; and the happiest both in themselves and in the place to which they go are those who

have practised the civil and social virtues which are called

VOL. II.

Q

  1. ↑ Compare Milton, Comus, 463 foll.:—
    'But when lust,
    By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
    But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,
    Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
    The soul grows clotted by contagion,
    Imbodies, and imbriites, till she quite lose,
    The divine property of her first being.
    .Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp
    Oft seen in charnel vaults and sepulchres.
    Lingering, and sitting by a new made grave.
    As loath to leave the body that it lov'd,
    And linked itself by carnal sensuality
    To a degenerate and degraded slate.'
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