phaedo   

What is generated from life?

Death.

And what from death?

I can only say in answer-life.

Then the living, whether things or persons, Cebes, are generated

from the dead?

That is clear, he replied.

Then the inference is, that our souls are in the world below?

That is true.

And one of the two processes or generations is visible-for surely

the act of dying is visible?

Surely, he said.

And may not the other be inferred as the complement of nature, who

is not to be supposed to go on one leg only? And if not, a

corresponding process of generation in death must also be assigned

to her?

Certainly, he replied.

And what is that process?

Revival.

And revival, if there be such a thing, is the birth of the dead into

the world of the living?

Quite true.

Then there is a new way in which we arrive at the inference that the

living come from the dead, just as the dead come from the living;

and if this is true, then the souls of the dead must be in some

place out of which they come again. And this, as I think, has been

satisfactorily proved.

Yes, Socrates, he said; all this seems to flow necessarily out of

our previous admissions.

And that these admissions are not unfair, Cebes, he said, may be

shown, as I think, in this way: If generation were in a straight

line only, and there were no compensation or circle in nature, no turn