went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were
best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would
care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them?  Would he
not say with Homer, Better to be a poor servant of a poor master, and endure
anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner.
    Yes, he said, I think that he would rather anything than entertain these
false notions and live in this miserable manner.
    Imagine once more, I said, such a one coming suddenly out of the sun to be
replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full
of darkness?
    To be sure, he said.
    And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the
shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight
was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which
would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very
considerable), would he not be ridiculous?  Men would say of him that up he
went and down he came without his eyes; and it was better not even to think of
ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light,
let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
    No question, he said.
    This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the
previous argument; the prison house is the world of sight, the light of the
fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey
upwards to be ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my
poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed - whether rightly or
wrongly, God knows.  But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the
world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with
an effort; and when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all
things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this
visible world, and immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual;

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and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in
public or private life must have his eye fixed.
    I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.
    Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this
beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are
ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire
of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted.
    Yes, very natural.
    And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine
contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous
manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to
the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in
other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justices, and is
endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute
justice?
    Anything but surprising, he said.
    Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the
eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of
the light or going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as
much as the bodily eye; and he who remembers this who sees anyone whose vision
is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask
whether the soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to
see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the
day is dazzled by excess of light.  And he will count the one happy in his
condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a
mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be
more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above
out of the light into the den."
    At this point, the discussion is suddenly shifted to use the parable to
explain the theoretically perfect educational and political establishment.  It

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