Yet once more consider the matter in this light : When the soul and the body are united, then nature orders the soul to rule and govern, and the body to obey and serve.
Now which of these two functions is akin to the divine ? and which to the mortal ? Does not the divine appear to you to be that which naturally orders and rules, and the mortal that which is subject and servant ?
True.
And which does the soul resemble ?
The soul resembles the divine and the body the mortal — there can be no doubt of that, Socrates.
Then reflect, Cebes : is not the conclusion of the whole matter this ? — that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable ; and the body is in the very likeness of the human, and mortal, and unintelligible, and multiform, and dissoluble, and changeable. Can this, my dear Cebes, be denied ?
No, indeed.
But if this is true, then is not the body liable to speedy dissolution ?
and is not the soul almost or altogether indissoluble ?
Certainly.
And do you further observe, that after a man is dead, the body, which is the visible part of man, and has a visible framework, which is called a corpse, and which would naturally be dissolved and decomposed and dissipated, is not dissolved or decomposed at once, but may remain for a good while, if the constitution be sound at the time of death, and the season of the year favorable ? For the body when shrunk and embalmed, as is the custom in Egypt, may remain almost entire through infinite ages ; and even in decay, still there are some portions, such as the bones and ligaments, which are practically indestructible. You allow that ?
Yes.
And are we to suppose that the soul, which is invisible, in passing to the true Hades, which like her is invisible, and pure, and noble, and on her way to the good and wise God, whither, if God will, my soul is also soon to go — that the soul, I repeat, if this be her nature and origin, is blown away and perishes immediately on quitting the body as the many say ?