II.
SOCRATES ON JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH.
“Such appears to me, O Callicles, the case with the soul; all
things in it become manifest as soon as it is stripped of the body,
its natural disposition, and the affections it has contracted by
the pursuit of any object during life. When therefore they come
into the judge's presence he attentively examines each soul; and
oftentimes meeting with the soul of some great man, he finds it
covered with sores and wounds from perjuries and injustice, such
as the conduct of each has impressed on his own soul, corrupted
by falsehood and pride, and from having lived without truth....
On beholding which he forthwith dismisses it to a place of
suffering suited for it.” “Now I, Callicles, for my part, am
persuaded by these accounts, and keep watch over myself, that I
may manifest to the judge a soul as healthful as possible: and
therefore bidding adieu to the honours of the world, and looking
to truth, I will endeavour to be as good as I can while I live,
and to continue so when I come to die. And all other men I
exhort so to be as far as in me lies.... Now all these things
perhaps appear to you to be as an old wife's tale, and you despise
such stories. And indeed we might well do so, if by our
enquiries we were able to discover any thing better and more true.”
Gorgias.
O worthy e'en a martyr's death to die
Who thus could live and look beyond the tomb,
A heathen world by dying to illume,
And after death to leave along the sky
Of Grecian sages such a galaxy,
That they continue to the day of doom,
Lighting the horrors of that pagan gloom!
But if Truth's shadow so could charm thine eye,
What words thine adoration would express
Couldst thou but on the Man of Sorrows gaze!
How would that sight have lit and cheer'd thy ways!
For all-divinely didst thou speak e'en then
Of Truth, that had “no form nor comeliness,”
In tortures and in death from hands of men
