Plato

“ For carried along myself by reason I know firmly this alone, that the soul is wholly immortal, and that, when it is removed from this spot, it is there without pain; so that it must needs be, Axiochus, that, if you have lived piously, you will be happy either below or above. Axio. I am ashamed, Socrates, to say a word. For so far am I from fearing death, that already I feel a desire for it ”

“ Through your own ignorance, Axiochus, you are combining sensation with the want of sensation and you are acting and speaking in a manner at variance with your self; and you do not consider that you are at one and the same time lamenting your want of sensation, and pained at the idea of your rotting away, and of being deprived of what is pleasant, as if you are to die and live in another state, and not to pass into insensibility complete, and the same as that before you were born. ”

“ For you will, when released from this prison, depart thither, where all is without trouble, and moanings, and old age, and life is a calm, and with no taste of ill, and where in a mild atmosphere of unruffled tranquillity you (will dwell) , looking round upon Nature, and acting the philosopher not before a mob and a theatre, but in the presence of Truth, blooming around. ”

“ And then old age stealthily and unconsciously comes on, to which flow together all that is on the verge of death and hard to be remedied. And should a person not pay, as a debt, his life rather quickly, Nature, like an usurer, stands near and takes as a pledge from one his eye-sight, and from another his hearing, and frequently both ”

“ Now sufferings do not endure sophisms; and upon those things alone, that can reach the soul, rests there any aid.
16. Soc. You are putting together, Axiochus, (words) without reason, in bringing the perception of things that are bad as opposed to the deprivation of things that are good, through your forgetting that you are dead. For the counter-suffering of ill pains him who is deprived of good; but he, who does not exist, does not lay hold even of deprivation. How then should there be a grief for that, which is about to furnish no knowledge of the things that will cause pain? ”

“ Will not you, a man of so long a life, and the hearer of (the finest) reasonings, and, if nothing else, at least an Athenian, after surveying nature consider that this is surely a common (saying) , and bruited amongst all, that life is a kind of sojourn (upon earth) ; and that we must pass through it in a reasonable and good-tempered manner, and take our departure, only not singing paeans on the road to fate; while to conduct yourself in so cowardly a manner, and to be torn with difficulty from existence, is to exhibit, like a child, a period of life not over-wise. ”

“ There without stint the seasons bloom with every kind of produce, and fountains of pure water flow; and every where are meadows made beautiful by flowers of varied hues, and places of discussions for philosophers, and theatres of poets, and cyclic choirs, and the hearing of music, and elegant banquets, and feasts self-furnished, and an unmixed freedom from pain, and a delightful mode of living. Nor is produced there violent cold or heat, but a well-tempered air is diffused around, mixed with the sun s mild beams. There is the seat of honour to those, who have shared in the Mysteries ”

“ But the deprivation of the good things of life is what gives me pain, even should you rattle out reasons, Socrates, still more plausible than those just now. For the mind, when it is wandering, thinks nothing of fine-spoken words ”

“ Weep for the ills, to which the new-born comes.
But I will stop here, lest, contrary to my engagement, I become prolix by making mention of others likewise.
11. With what pursuit or art does not he, who has chosen it, find fault, and is discontented with his present state? Let us go to handicraftsmen and workers at a furnace, who labour from night to night, and with difficulty procure the necessaries of life, and let (us hear) them bewailing their fate and filling up their sleepless hours with lamentations and tears. ”

“ Since then, Axiochus, yon lay down the science, which is the most free, as the least to be prayed for amongst the rest, what shall we think of the remaining pursuits? Are they not to be avoided? I once indeed heard Prodicus saying that death does not exist as regards either the living or those, who have changed their existence. Axio. How say you, Socrates? Soc. That as regards the living, it does not exist; while they, who are dead, do not exist ”

“ For I have no longer a fear of death, but already a desire to say myself, in imitation of the orators, something still more; and for a long time I have been thinking upon things on high, and I will go through the eternal and divine course, since after my weakness I have collected my strength and am become a new man. ”

“ And lately, when he was making a display at the house of Callias, the son of Hipponicus, he spoke so much against living, that I drew a line through (the word) life as a thing of the least value; and from that time, Axiochus, my soul yearned for death. Axio. And what was said then? Soc. I will tell you all I can remember. For what part of life, said he, is free from pain? Does not the infant cry at its first birth, beginning to live from pain? Nor is it deficient in any suffering, but is affected painfully either by the want of something, or excessive cold or heat, or a blow ”

“ Or let us reckon up the sailor’s (life) , passed in the midst of so many dangers, and which, as Bias has shown, is neither amongst the living nor the dead; for the man who belongs to earth, has, as if he were amphibious, thrown himself upon the sea, and become wholly in the power of fortune. But farming is at least a pleasant thing. ”

“ But now you are turning yourself round, while fearing that you shall be deprived of soul, and place a soul round deprivation; 5 and you fear that you shall not have a perception; and yet you imagine that you shall by perception comprehend a perception, that will not exist.
17. In addition to their being many and beautiful reasons for the immortality of the soul. ”

“ As then none of the mischief during the political period of Draco and Clisthenes pertained to your self for you, to whom it might have pertained, did not exist at all so it will not after death occur to you; for you, to whom it might occur, will not be in existence. ”

“ And hence even the gods, who take cognizance of human affairs, release more quickly from life those, on whom they set the greatest value. 10. For example, Agamedes and Trophonius, who built up the close, sacred to the god at Pytho, did, after praying that the best thing might befall them, lay themselves on their bed and never rise from it again. ”

“ And when he is registered amongst the young men, there are, what is a worse fear, the l Lyceum and Academy, and the Gymnasiarchs and their staves, and a measureless amount of ills. And the whole period of youth is under Moderators and the selection of those placed over young persons by the Council of the Areopagus. ”