Book X, 611–618

611a “its own nor another’s, plainly it must necessarily exist forever; and if it exists forever, it is immortal.”“Necessarily,” he said.“Let that stand, then,” I said. “And if it stands, you see that souls must always be the same in number. Their number could not grow smaller, since none perishes, nor could it grow larger. For if anything immortal increased in number, you know it would arise from the mortal, and in the end everything would be immortal.”“You speak the truth.”“But we must not believe that,” I said, “for reason will not allow it; nor should we believe that in its truest nature the soul is so full of variety, dissimilarity, and conflict within itself 611b.”“What do you mean?” he asked.“It is not easy,” I said, “for something to be everlasting if it is composed of many parts and lacks the finest arrangement, as the soul has now appeared to us to be.”“No, that is unlikely.”“That the soul is immortal, then, our recent argument and others besides would compel us to acknowledge. But to see what it truly is, we must not look at it when maimed 611c by its fellowship with the body and other evils, as we see it now. We must examine it adequately by reason as it is when pure; then we shall find it far more beautiful and discern justice and injustice more clearly, along with everything we have discussed. What we have said about it as it now appears is true, but we have looked upon it in a condition like that of the sea-god Glaucus 611d. Those who see him can no longer easily discern his original form: some of the old parts of his body have broken off, some have been ground down and wholly disfigured by the waves, while other things have grown onto him—shellfish, seaweed, and stones—so that he looks more like any beast at all than what he was by nature. Thus we look at the soul, deformed by countless evils. But we must turn our eyes elsewhere, Glaucon.”“Where?” he asked. 611e“To its love of wisdom. We must consider the things it reaches toward and the company it longs to keep, since it is akin to the divine, the immortal, and what always is. Consider what it might become if it followed that pursuit wholly, and its impulse carried it out of the sea where it now lies, and knocked off the stones

612a “and shells that have grown thick around it—earthy, stony, wild accretions from feasting on earth at the so-called happy banquets. Then one might see its true nature: whether it has many forms or only one, and how and in what way it is constituted. But as for the conditions and forms it assumes in human life, I think we have given a fair account of those.”“Indeed we have,” he said.“Now,” I said, “have we not discharged our other obligations in the argument? 612b We did not praise justice for its wages or its reputation, as you said Hesiod and Homer did. We found justice itself to be best for the soul itself, and that the soul should do what is just whether it has the ring of Gyges or not, and even if it has the cap of Hades along with such a ring.”“What you say is entirely true,” he said.“Then, Glaucon,” I said, “is it now beyond reproach if, in addition, we restore to justice and the rest of virtue the wages they bring the soul 612c from human beings and gods, both during life and after death?”“Entirely,” he said.“Will you then give back what you borrowed from me in the argument?”“What, in particular?”“I granted you that the just person might appear unjust and the unjust person just. You asked for this concession for the sake of the argument, even if such appearances could not escape the notice of gods and human beings, so that justice itself could be judged against injustice itself 612d. Or do you not remember?”“I would do wrong if I did not,” he said.“Now that their case has been decided,” I said, “I demand, on justice’s behalf, that we acknowledge how it is actually regarded by gods and human beings, so that it too may collect the prizes of victory, gaining the benefits bestowed by a just reputation upon those who possess it. For we have seen that it also gives the goods that come from being just, and does not deceive those who truly embrace it. 612e”“Your demand is just,” he said.“First, then,” I said, “you will give back this concession: neither one’s true nature escapes the gods.”“We will,” he said.“And if neither escapes them, one will be loved by the gods and the other hated by them, as we agreed at the beginning.”“That is so.”“And shall we not agree that for the person loved by the gods everything that comes from them

613a “comes out as well as possible, unless some necessary evil remains for him from a former offense?”“Certainly.”“Thus we must think of the just person: if he falls into poverty, sickness, or any of the other things that seem evil, these will end in some good for him, whether in life or after death. For the gods will never neglect anyone who willingly strives to become just and, by practicing 613b virtue, to become as like a god as a human being can.”“It is fitting,” he said, “that one so like them should not be neglected by his kindred.”“And we must think the opposite of the unjust?”“Most certainly.”“Such, then, would be the prizes of victory that come to the just person from the gods.”“So I judge,” he said.“And what of those from human beings?” I asked. “If we are to tell the truth, is it not this way? Do clever but unjust people not act like runners who run well on the outward course but not on the return? They leap away swiftly at first, 613c but end as a laughingstock, slinking off with their ears against their shoulders and no crown. True runners reach the finish, receive the prizes, and are crowned. Does not much the same thing usually happen to the just? At the end of each action and association and of life itself, they win esteem and bear off prizes from human beings.”“Very much so.”“Will you endure my saying about them what you yourself said 613d about the unjust? I shall say that when just people grow older, they hold offices in their city if they wish, marry into whatever families they wish, and give their children in marriage to whomever they choose. Everything you said about the others I now say about these. And of the unjust I shall say that most, even if they escape notice in youth, are caught at the end of their course and become a laughingstock. In old age they are wretched, insulted by strangers 613e and fellow citizens alike, whipped and subjected to the brutal punishments you rightly spoke of: then they will be racked and burned. Imagine that you have heard me say that they suffer all these things. But tell me whether you can bear what I say.”“Certainly,” he said. “What you say is just.”“Those, then,” I said, “are the prizes, wages, and gifts the just person receives while alive from gods

614a “and human beings, in addition to the goods that justice itself supplied.”“And they are fine and secure,” he said.“Yet in number and magnitude these are nothing beside what awaits each of them after death. We must hear of these things, so that each may receive in full what our argument owes him.”614b“Speak, then,” he said. “Few things are sweeter to hear.”“But the tale I shall tell you,” I said, “is not a tale of Alcinous, but of a valiant man, Er the Armenian, by birth a Pamphylian. He died once in battle, and when the bodies were gathered on the tenth day, already decaying, his was found intact. He was taken home to be buried, but on the twelfth day, as he lay on the funeral pyre, he came back to life. Revived, he told what he had seen in the other world. He said that when his soul left his body 614c, it traveled with many others, and they came to a marvelous place. There were two openings in the earth beside each other, and opposite them, above, two more in the heavens. Between them sat judges. After judgment, they told the just to take the path on the right and upward through the heavens, with signs of their judgments fastened in front, and the unjust to take the path on the left and downward, bearing behind them signs of all they had done. 614d When Er himself came forward, they said that he must become a messenger to humanity of what took place there, and ordered him to hear and observe everything in that place. He saw souls departing through one opening in each of heaven and earth after judgment, and through the other two openings souls rising from the earth covered in grime and dust, while others descended clean from heaven 614e. The new arrivals always seemed to return from a long journey; glad to go into the meadow, they camped as though at a festival. Those who knew one another exchanged greetings. The souls from earth asked the others about things above, and the souls from heaven asked about things below.“They told each other their stories.

615a “Those from below wept and lamented as they recalled all they had suffered and seen on their journey beneath the earth—a journey of a thousand years—while those from heaven spoke of their good fortune and visions of unspeakable beauty. Most of their stories, Glaucon, would take a long time to tell, but this, he said, was the substance. For every wrong they had done to each person, they had paid the penalty in turn, ten times over for each wrong, once in every century 615b—a century being the measure of a human life—so that their payment was ten times the wrong. For example, if they had caused many deaths by betraying cities or armies and consigning people to slavery, or had been complicit in some other ill-treatment, they received tenfold pain for each offense. And if they had done anyone good, and had been just and pious, they received a corresponding reward 615c. Concerning those who had been born only to live a little while, he said other things not worth recounting. But he described yet greater rewards for impiety or piety toward gods and parents, and for murder by one’s own hand.“He said he stood near when one soul asked another where Ardiaeus the Great was. This Ardiaeus had been tyrant in a city of Pamphylia a thousand years before that time. He had killed his aged father 615d and his elder brother, and committed many other impious acts, so people said. The soul questioned replied: ‘He has not come,’ it said, ‘and he will never come here. For this too was among the terrible sights we saw. When we were near the mouth of the opening, about to ascend after all we had endured, we suddenly saw him and others, almost all of them tyrants, though there were also some private people 615e who had committed great crimes. They thought they could ascend, but the opening would not admit them. It roared whenever one of these incurably wicked souls, or one that had not paid enough penalty, tried to go up.“‘Then savage men, fiery to look upon, who stood by and heard the roar, seized some and led them away. Ardiaeus and others they bound hand and foot and head,

616a “‘threw them down and flayed them. They dragged them beside the road and scraped them on thornbushes, telling each passing soul what they had done and that they were being led away to be cast into Tartarus.’ Of all the many fears they felt there, he said, the greatest was that each might hear the roar as he ascended; each was overjoyed when the opening stayed silent and let him pass. Such, more or less, were the penalties and punishments 616b, and the rewards were their counterparts. When each group had spent seven days in the meadow, they had to rise and set out on the eighth; four days later they arrived where they could look down from above on a straight beam of light stretching through all heaven and earth. It most resembled a rainbow, but was brighter and purer. After traveling another day they came to it and saw there, in the middle of the light 616c, the ends of its bonds stretching down from heaven. For this light was the girdle of heaven, holding its entire revolution together like the cables bound around a warship. From the ends hung the spindle of Necessity, through which all the circles turned. Its shaft and hook were made of adamant, while the whorl was a mixture of adamant and other substances. 616d The whorl was shaped like this: its form was like whorls here on earth, but from Er’s description we must imagine it as a single large hollow whorl, carved through, with another smaller whorl of the same kind fitted inside it, like vessels fitting into one another, then a third, a fourth, and four more. There were eight whorls altogether, nested one inside another 616e. Seen from above, their rims appeared as circles, and together their backs formed one continuous surface about the shaft, which ran straight through the center of the eighth. The first, outermost whorl had the broadest rim; the sixth had the second broadest, the fourth the third, the eighth the fourth, the seventh the fifth, the fifth the sixth, the third the seventh, and the second the eighth.“The rim of the greatest was variegated; the seventh was brightest; the eighth got its color from the light shed on it by the seventh. The rims of the second and fifth were much alike,

617a “and yellower than the others. The third was the whitest; the fourth was reddish; the sixth was second in whiteness. As the spindle turned, the whole revolved in one direction, while within the revolving whole the seven inner circles slowly revolved in the opposite direction. Of these, the eighth moved fastest; next, and moving together 617b, were the seventh, sixth, and fifth. Third in speed, it seemed to them, was the fourth as it turned back upon itself; fourth was the third, and fifth the second. The spindle turned in the lap of Necessity. Upon each of its circles stood a Siren, turning with it and uttering a single sound, one note; all eight notes together formed a single harmony. Around it, at equal intervals, sat three others 617c, each on a throne: the Fates, daughters of Necessity, dressed in white with wreaths upon their heads, Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos. They sang in harmony with the Sirens: Lachesis of things past, Clotho of things present, and Atropos of things to come. Clotho, from time to time, touched the outer revolution of the spindle with her right hand and helped turn it; Atropos likewise touched the inner revolutions with her left; Lachesis 617d touched each in turn with either hand. So when they arrived, they had to go straight to Lachesis. First, an interpreter marshaled them in order. Then he took lots and patterns of lives from Lachesis’ lap, mounted a high platform, and declared:“‘The word of Lachesis, maiden daughter of Necessity. Souls of a day, here begins another cycle of the mortal race, which ends in death. 617e No guardian spirit shall draw you by lot; you shall choose your guardian spirit. Whoever draws the first lot, let him choose first a life to which he will then be bound. Virtue has no master: each shall have more or less of her as he honors or dishonors her. The chooser bears the blame; god is blameless.’“Having said this, the interpreter cast the lots out among them all. Each picked up the lot that fell near him, except Er, whom he did not permit to do so. The lot showed each soul its place in the order of choice.

618a “After that the interpreter laid out before them on the ground the patterns of lives, far more numerous than the souls present. They were of every kind: lives of every animal, and every kind of human life. Among them were tyrannies lasting a whole lifetime, and others that broke down midway and ended in poverty, exile, and beggary. There were lives of men renowned for their appearance, beauty, physical strength 618b, and skill in contests, and others renowned for birth and their ancestors’ virtues. There were lives of men obscure in these respects, and likewise lives of women. But no arrangement of the soul was included, since a soul that chose a different life would necessarily become different itself. Other features were intermingled with one another and with riches and poverty, sickness and health, while some lives lay between these extremes. Here, it seems, dear Glaucon, lies the whole danger for a human being. This is why 618c each of us must give special care, setting aside every other study, to be both student and seeker of this study, if somehow he can learn and discover who will give him the power and knowledge to distinguish a good life from a bad one and choose, in every place and at every time, the best life possible. He must calculate the bearing on a life’s virtue of all the things just mentioned, both in their combinations and in their separations. He must know what beauty, mingled with poverty or wealth 618d and a certain disposition of soul, brings about for good or evil; what noble birth and low birth, private life and offices, strength and weakness, ease of learning and difficulty of learning, and every such natural or acquired quality of the soul produce when blended with one another. From all this he can reason and choose, with his eye on the soul’s nature, which life is worse and which better: worse, the life that leads it toward becoming more unjust 618e; better, the life that leads it toward becoming more just. All else he will let go. For we have seen that this is the best choice both in life and after death.”“Unyieldingly, then

611a its own nor another's, it clearly must always exist. And if it always exists, it is immortal.""It must be," he said."Let's accept that, then," I said. "If it is true, you see that souls must always be the same in number. None can disappear, so there cannot be fewer, and there cannot be more either. If any immortal thing increased in number, you know the increase would have to come from mortal things, until everything ended up immortal.""You're right.""But we mustn't believe that," I said. "The argument 611b won't allow it. Nor should we believe that the soul, in its truest nature, is full of variety and inner differences and divisions.""What do you mean?" he asked."It's hard for a thing to last forever if it is made up of many parts that are not joined together in the best way. Yet that is how the soul appeared to us just now.""That doesn't seem likely.""Our recent argument, and others too, would compel us to agree that the soul is immortal. But to see what it really is, we must not look at it while it is disfigured 611c by its association with the body and other evils, as we are looking at it now. We need to use reason to examine it closely in its pure state. Then we will find it much more beautiful. We will see more clearly what justice and injustice are, along with everything we have discussed. What we've said about the soul as it appears now is true. But the condition in which we've seen it is like that of the sea god Glaucus. People who look at him 611d would have trouble seeing his original form. The waves have broken off some old parts of his body, worn down others, and disfigured all of it. Shells, seaweed, and rocks have grown onto him. He looks like some other sea creature rather than what he naturally was. In the same way, we see the soul disfigured by countless evils. But we must look in another direction, Glaucon.""Where?" he asked. 611e"Toward the soul's love of wisdom. Think about the things it reaches for and the company it longs to keep. It is related to what is divine, immortal, and always real. Think what it would become if it followed such things completely. That drive would lift it out of the sea where it now lies. It would knock away the rocks and shells that have grown onto it. Since it feeds on the earth, many earthy, stony, and wild things have gathered there through the feasts people call happy ones.

612a Then we could see its true nature: whether it has many forms or just one, and exactly what it is like. For now, I think we have given a fair account of its experiences and appearances during human life.""We certainly have," he said."Haven't we also removed the other distractions from our argument?" I said. "We haven't praised justice for its rewards or reputation, as you said Hesiod and Homer did. We found that justice itself is best for the soul itself, and that the soul ought to do just things whether it possesses the ring of Gyges or not—even if it had Hades' helmet of invisibility as well. 612b""What you say is completely true," he said."Then, Glaucon, can we now return to justice and the other virtues, without anyone objecting, all the rewards they give the soul from people and gods, while a person is alive and after death?""Certainly," he said. 612c"Will you return what you borrowed from me during our argument?""What exactly?""I let you assume that the just person looks unjust and the unjust person looks just. You asked for this assumption for the sake of argument, even if it proved impossible for either gods or people to be mistaken about them. That way we could judge justice itself against injustice itself. Don't you remember? 612d""It would be wrong of me not to," he said."Now that the judgment is over," I said, "I ask you on behalf of justice to agree that it has the reputation it actually has with gods and people. That way it can collect the prizes that come from being seen for what it is, the prizes it gives to those who have it. We have already seen that justice gives its own benefits and does not deceive those who truly possess it. 612e""That's a fair request," he said."First, then, you'll give back this assumption: the gods know what each person is really like?""We will," he said."If the gods know, they must love the just person and hate the unjust one, as we agreed at the start.""Yes.""And won't we agree that everything that comes from the gods to the person they love turns out as well as possible, unless he has some necessary evil left over from an earlier wrongdoing?

613a ""Certainly.""Then that is how we must think of the just person. Whether he lives in poverty, falls ill, or suffers anything else people consider bad, it will end in some good for him, either in life or after death. The gods never neglect a person who wants to become just and practices 613b virtue, becoming as like a god as a human can.""It makes sense," he said, "that someone like the gods would not be neglected by them.""And we must think the opposite about the unjust person?""Absolutely.""Those would be the prizes the gods give to the just person.""That's my view, at least," he said."What about the prizes people give?" I asked. "If we are to say what really happens, isn't it like this? Clever but unjust people are like runners who run well on the outward stretch but not on the way back. They sprint away at first, 613c but in the end they make themselves ridiculous, running off with their ears down by their shoulders and no wreath on their heads. The genuine runners reach the finish, take the prizes, and are crowned. Doesn't this usually happen to just people too? By the end of each action, relationship, and life, they earn a good reputation and receive their prizes from people.""Yes, it does.""Then will you let me say about just people what you yourself said 613d about unjust people? I'll say that when just people get older, they hold offices in their own city if they wish. They marry into whatever families they choose and give their children in marriage to whomever they wish. Everything you said about the others, I now say about these people. And I'll say this about the unjust: most of them, even if they escape notice while young, are caught near the end of their race and become objects of ridicule. When they grow old, they are miserable. Foreigners and fellow citizens insult them and whip them. Then they suffer the things you rightly called brutal: they are racked and burned with hot irons. You may take it that I too have described them suffering all those things. But tell me whether you can accept what I say. 613e""I certainly can," he said. "What you say is fair.""Those, then," I said, "are the prizes, wages, and gifts that gods and

614a people give a just person during his life, in addition to the good things justice itself provides.""And they are fine, dependable rewards," he said."But these are nothing in number or size compared with what awaits both the just and the unjust after death. We must hear about those things, so each one can receive in full what our argument owes him.""Go on," he said. "There aren't many things I'd rather hear. 614b""But I won't tell you a tale of Alcinous," I said. "I'll tell you the tale of a brave man, Er, the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He once died in battle. Ten days later, when the bodies were collected and the others had decayed, his body was found intact. He was carried home for burial, and on the twelfth day, as he lay on the funeral pyre, he came back to life. When he recovered, he told what he had seen in the other world. He said that when his soul left his body, it traveled 614c with many others and arrived at a strange place. There were two openings in the earth side by side, and above them, directly opposite, two more openings in the sky. Judges sat between them. After passing judgment, they directed the just to the right-hand road leading upward through the sky, with signs of the verdict attached to their fronts. They directed the unjust along the left-hand road leading downward, with signs of all their deeds attached to their backs. 614d When Er himself came before the judges, they told him he must become a messenger to humanity about that place. They ordered him to listen and watch everything there. He saw souls depart by one opening in the sky and one in the earth once judgment was given. Through the other two openings, he saw souls rise from the earth covered in dirt and dust, and others come down from the sky clean. 614e The souls kept arriving as though they had made a long journey. They gladly went out into the meadow and camped there as if at a festival. Those who knew one another greeted each other. Souls coming from the earth asked the others about the world above, and souls coming from the sky asked about the world below. They told each other their stories.

615a Those from below wept and cried as they recalled everything they had suffered and seen on their journey under the earth, a journey of a thousand years. Those from the sky told of the good things they had experienced and of sights of unimaginable beauty. Glaucon, the full story would take a long time to tell. But Er said the main point was this: for every wrong a soul had done to someone, it was punished in turn ten times. Each punishment took place over a hundred years, 615b the span of a human life, so that they paid tenfold for every wrong. For instance, if some people had caused the deaths of many others, betrayed cities or armies, forced people into slavery, or shared responsibility for some other abuse, they suffered ten times as much pain for every act. But if they had done good to people and had been just and respectful toward the gods, they received rewards in the same proportion. 615c Er had other things to say about those who died shortly after birth and lived only a little while, but they aren't worth repeating. He described still greater rewards and punishments for respect and disrespect toward the gods and parents, and for murder committed with one's own hands."He said he was there when one soul asked another where Ardiaeus the Great was. This Ardiaeus had been a tyrant in a city of Pamphylia a thousand years earlier. He had killed his elderly father 615d and his older brother and, according to the story, committed many other terrible crimes. The soul that was asked replied, 'He has not come here, and he never will. We ourselves saw a horrifying sight. We were close to the mouth of the passage, ready to go up after all we had endured, when we suddenly saw him and some others. Most of them were tyrants, though there were also private citizens guilty of great crimes. They expected to ascend, but the mouth would not admit them. It roared whenever anyone incurably wicked or not yet sufficiently punished tried to go up. 615e Then wild men with bodies like fire, who were standing there listening for the sound, seized some of them and led them away. They seized Ardiaeus and the others, bound their hands, feet, and heads, 616a threw them to the ground and skinned them. They dragged them off the road and scraped them on thornbushes, telling each soul that passed why they were doing this and that they were taking the prisoners to cast them into Tartarus. Of all the many kinds of fear we felt there, the greatest was that the mouth might roar as each of us went up. Every soul was overjoyed to make the ascent when the mouth stayed quiet.' Such, Er said, were the punishments and penalties. The rewards were their opposites. 616b After each group of souls had spent seven days in the meadow, they had to get up and travel on the eighth day. Four days later they reached a place from which they could see a straight column of light stretching down through all the sky and earth. It looked most like a rainbow, but was brighter and purer. After another day's journey they reached the light. There, 616c in the middle of it, they saw the ends of its bands stretching from the sky. This light was a band holding the heavens together, like the ropes wrapped around a warship to hold it together. It kept the whole rotating sky in place. From the ends of the bands hung the spindle of Necessity, which turned all the heavenly circles. Its shaft and hook were made of adamant, while its whorl was made of adamant mixed with other materials."616d This was the structure of the whorl. Its shape was like a whorl here on earth. From Er's description, imagine a large hollow whorl scooped out all the way through, containing a smaller whorl fitted inside it, like buckets that fit into each other. Then there was a third, a fourth, and four more in the same way. 616e There were eight whorls in all, fitted one inside another. Seen from above, their rims looked like circles, while together they made the continuous back of one whorl around the shaft. The shaft passed all the way through the center of the eighth. 616d The first and outermost whorl had the widest rim. The rim of the sixth was second widest, that of the fourth third, the eighth fourth, the seventh fifth, the fifth sixth, the third seventh, and the second eighth."617a The largest circle was many-colored. The seventh was the brightest. The eighth got its color from the light of the seventh shining on it. The second and fifth looked like each other and were yellower than the others. The third was the whitest. The fourth was reddish. The sixth came second in whiteness. The whole spindle turned in the same direction. Within the turning whole, the seven inner circles turned slowly in the opposite direction. The eighth moved fastest, followed jointly by the seventh, sixth, and fifth. 617b Next, as it seemed to them, came the fourth, moving backward at the third-fastest rate. The third came fourth, and the second fifth. The spindle turned in Necessity's lap. On top of each of its circles stood a Siren, carried around with it and sounding one note in one pitch. The eight Sirens together made a single harmony. 617c Around them, spaced equally apart, sat three others, each on a throne. These were the Fates, the daughters of Necessity: Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos. They wore white clothes and wreaths on their heads. They sang in harmony with the Sirens: Lachesis sang of what had happened, Clotho of what was happening, and Atropos of what was to come. Clotho used her right hand to help turn the outer circle of the spindle from time to time. Atropos used her left hand to turn the inner circles in the same way. Lachesis touched each in turn with each hand."617d When Er and the others arrived, they had to go straight to Lachesis. First a spokesman arranged them in rows. Then he took lots and examples of lives from Lachesis' lap, climbed onto a high platform, and announced: 'Here is the word of Lachesis, maiden daughter of Necessity. Souls who live for a day, a new cycle of mortal life begins, and it ends in death. No spirit will be assigned to you. You will choose your spirit. 617e Whoever draws the first lot must choose first the life that will then be his. Virtue has no master. Each will have more or less of it as he honors or dishonors it. The chooser is responsible; god is not.'"When he had said this, he threw the lots out among them all. Each soul picked up the one that landed close to him, except Er, whom he did not allow to pick one up. Everyone who picked up a lot could see his order of choice.

618a "Next the spokesman spread the examples of lives on the ground before them, far more than the number of souls present. There were lives of every sort, belonging to every kind of animal and to humans of every kind. Some lives were tyrannies lasting until death; others ended partway through, in poverty, exile, and begging. There were lives of men famous for their looks and beauty, other kinds of strength, and success in contests. Others were famous for their birth and the achievements of their ancestors. There were also lives of men without such reputations, and the same was true of women. 618b The examples did not include a fixed condition of the soul. By choosing a different life, a soul would necessarily become different itself. The other features were mixed together in various ways: wealth and poverty, disease and health, and conditions between these extremes."And here, my dear Glaucon, it seems, lies the whole danger for a person. 618c This is why each of us should put every other subject aside to pursue and learn this one, if there is someone from whom he can learn how to find out what will make him capable of telling a good life from a bad one, and of always choosing the better life from those available wherever he is. He must think about all the things we just mentioned. He must consider how they combine with one another or come apart and what they mean for a virtuous life. 618d He must know what beauty does when mixed with poverty or wealth and with a particular state of soul, and whether it produces good or evil. He must know the effects of high and low birth, private life and public office, strength and weakness, quickness and slowness in learning, and all other traits the soul has by nature or acquires. He must consider what all of them do when mixed with one another. From all this he can reason out his choice, looking to the soul's nature, and choose between a worse and a better life. 618e He should call the life that makes the soul more unjust worse, and the one that makes it more just better. He should disregard everything else. We have seen that this is the best choice both in life and after death. One must hold fast as adamant