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at one time to one, at another to another, it changes with all sorts of changes through itself or through another soul, there is no other task for the draughts-player than to move the character that is becoming better to a better place, and the worse to the worse, so that each may receive its fitting destiny. 12.52.24 In what way do you mean? In whatever way there might be ease of care for the gods over all things, in that way he seems to me to be speaking. For if someone, always looking to the whole, were to fashion and transform all things—as for instance, from fire, ensouled water, and not many things from one or one from many—having partaken of a first, second, or even a third generation, the task of arranging the transfers would seem infinite in its complexities. But as it is, there is a wondrous ease for him who cares for the whole. 12.52.25 How do you mean this? Thus: since our king perceived that all our actions are ensouled and contain much virtue and much vice, and that soul and body, though they have come into being, are indestructible but not eternal, as are the gods by law (for there would never be any generation of living things if either of these two were destroyed), and he perceived that the good element of the soul is by nature always beneficial, while the evil element is harmful; perceiving all this, he devised where each of the parts should be placed so that it might provide for virtue to be victorious and vice to be defeated in the whole most completely, 12.52.26 most easily, and best. So he has devised for this whole purpose what sort of being, as it continually develops, must change its seat and what sort of places it must inhabit; but the causes for the generation of a particular quality he left to the wills of each of us. For in whatever way a man desires and of whatever sort he is in his soul, in this way and of this sort, for the most part, each of us nearly always becomes. That is at least likely. 12.52.27 Therefore, all things that partake of soul change, possessing in themselves the cause of the change; and in changing they are moved according to the order and law of destiny. When the changes of character are smaller, they travel less over the surface of the land; but when the changes are greater and more unjust, they fall into the depths and the so-called lower regions, all those places which men call by the names of Hades and the like, and of which they are greatly terrified and dream, both when living and when separated from their bodies. And whenever a soul partakes more of vice or virtue through its own will and powerful association, when it mingles with divine virtue and becomes pre-eminently of such a quality, it also changes to a pre-eminent and wholly holy place, having been transported to another, better place; but when the contrary, it settles its life in the contrary place. 12.52.28 This is the justice of the gods who hold Olympus, O child and youth who thinks you are neglected by the gods, that he who becomes worse goes to the worse souls, and he who becomes better to the better, both in life and in all deaths, to suffer and to do what it is fitting for like to do to 12.52.29 like. Of this justice neither you nor any other who has met with misfortune shall ever boast of having gotten the better of the gods, which the ordainers have established as pre-eminent among all judgements, and which one must reverence above everything. For you will never be neglected by it. You shall not be so small as to sink into the depths of the earth, nor so high as to fly up to heaven, but you will pay them the fitting penalty, whether you remain here, or have passed through to Hades, or have been conveyed to a place even 12.52.30 more sacred than these. And the same account would apply to you concerning those whom you saw become great from small beginnings after committing impious acts or some such thing, and you thought that from being wretched they had become happy, and so, as if in mirrors, you supposed you saw in their actions the neglect of all things by the gods, not knowing their final contribution, how it contributes to the whole. But do you think that to know this, O bravest of all men, is of no account? A man who does not know this could never see an outline, nor would he be able to contribute an account of life with respect to happy and unhappy fortune. 12.52.31 If these things convince you, this Cleinias here and this entire council of elders of ours,

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μὲν ἄλλῳ, τοτὲ δ' ἄλλῳ, μεταβάλλει παντοίας μεταβολὰς δι' ἑαυτὴν ἢ δι' ἑτέραν ψυχήν, οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἔργον τῷ πεττευτῇ πλὴν μετατιθέναι τὸ μὲν ἄμεινον γιγνόμενον ἦθος εἰς βελτίω τόπον, χεῖρον δὲ εἰς τὸν χείρονα, ἵνα τὸ πρέπον ἕκαστον τῆς μοίρας λαγχάνῃ. 12.52.24 Πῇ λέγεις; Ἧιπερ ἂν ἔχοι ῥᾳστώνη ἐπιμελείας θεοῖς τῶν πάντων, ταύτη μοι δοκεῖ φράζειν. εἰ μὲν γὰρ πρὸς τὸ ὅλον ἀεὶ βλέπων πλάττοι τις μετασχηματίζων τὰ πάντα, οἷον ἐκ πυρὸς ὕδωρ ἔμψυχον καὶ μὴ ξύμπολλα ἐξ ἑνὸς ἢ ἐκ πολλῶν ἕν, πρώτης ἢ δευτέρας ἢ καὶ τρίτης γενέσεως μετειληφότα πλήθεσιν ἂν ὁρᾶν εἴη τῆς μετατιθεμένης κοσμήσεως. νῦν δ' ἐστὶ θαυμαστὴ ῥᾳστώνη τῷ τοῦ παντὸς ἐπιμελουμένῳ. 12.52.25 Πῶς αὖ λέγεις; Ὧδε· ἐπειδὴ κατεῖδεν ἡμῶν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐμψύχους οὔσας τὰς πράξεις ἁπάσας καὶ πολλὴν μὲν ἀρετὴν ἐν αὐταῖς οὖσαν, πολλὴν δὲ κακίαν, ἀνώλεθρον δὲ ὂν γενόμενον, ἀλλ' οὐκ αἰώνιον ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα, καθάπερ οἱ κατὰ νόμον ὄντες θεοί γένεσις γὰρ οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἦν ζῴων ἀπολομένου τούτοιν θατέρου καὶ τὸ μὲν ὠφελεῖν ἀεὶ πεφυκός, ὂν ἀγαθὸν ψυχῆς, διενοήθη, τὸ δὲ κακὸν βλάπτειν· ταῦτα πάντα ξυνιδὼν ἐμηχανήσατο, ποῦ κείμενον ἕκαστον τῶν μερῶν νικῶσαν ἀρετήν, ἡττωμένην δὲ κακίαν ἐν τῷ παντὶ παρέχοι μάλιστ' ἂν 12.52.26 καὶ ῥᾷστα καὶ ἄριστα. μεμηχάνηται δὴ πρὸς πᾶν τοῦτο τὸ ποῖον γιγνόμενον ἀεὶ ποίαν ἕδραν δεῖ μεταλαμβάνον οἰκίζεσθαι καὶ τίνας ποτὲ τόπους· τῆς δὲ γενέσεως τοῦ ποίου τινὸς ἀφῆκε ταῖς βουλήσεσιν ἑκάστων ἡμῶν τὰς αἰτίας. ὅπη γὰρ ἂν ἐπιθυμῇ καὶ ὁποῖός τις ὢν τὴν ψυχήν, ταύτη σχεδὸν ἑκάστοτε καὶ τοιοῦτος γίγνεται ἅπας ἡμῶν ὡς τὸ πολύ. Τὸ γοῦν εἰκός. 12.52.27 Μεταβάλλει μὲν τοίνυν πάνθ' ὅσα μέτοχά ἐστι ψυχῆς, ἐν αὑτοῖς κεκτημένα τὴν τῆς μεταβολῆς αἰτίαν· μεταβάλλοντα δὲ φέρεται κατὰ τῆς εἱμαρμένης τάξιν καὶ νόμον. σμικρότερα μὲν τῶν ἠθῶν μεταβάλλοντα ἐλάττω κατὰ τὸ τῆς χώρας ἐπίπεδον μεταπορεύεται, πλείω δὲ καὶ ἀδικώτερα μεταπεσόντα εἰς βάθος τά τε κάτω λεγόμενα τῶν τόπων, ὅσα Ἅιδην τε καὶ τὰ τούτων ἐχόμενα τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐπονομάζοντες σφόδρα φοβοῦνται καὶ ὀνειροπολοῦσι ζῶντες διαλυθέντες τε τῶν σωμάτων. μείζω δὴ ψυχὴ κακίας ἢ ἀρετῆς ὁπόταν μεταβάλλῃ διὰ τὴν αὑτῆς βούλησίν τε καὶ ὁμιλίαν γενομένην ἰσχυράν, ὁπόταν μὲν ἀρετῇ θείᾳ προσμίξασα γίνηται διαφερόντως τοιαῦτα, διαφέροντα καὶ μετέβαλε τόπον ἅγιον ὅλον, μετακομισθεῖσα εἰς ἀμείνω τινὰ τόπον ἕτερον· ὅταν δὲ τἀναντία, ἐπὶ τἀναντία μεθιδρύσατο τὸν αὑτῆς βίον. 12.52.28 αὕτη τοι δίκη ἐστὶ βροτῶν οἳ Ὄλυμπον ἔχουσιν, ὦ παῖ καὶ νεανίσκε ἀμελεῖσθαι δοκῶν ὑπὸ θεῶν, κακίω μὲν γινόμενον πρὸς τὰς κακίους ψυχάς, ἀμείνω δὲ πρὸς τὰς ἀμείνους πορευόμενον ἔν τε ζωῇ καὶ ἐν πᾶσι θανάτοις πάσχειν τε, ἃ προσῆκον δρᾶν ἐστι τοῖς προσφυέσι τοὺς προσ12.52.29 φερεῖς, καὶ ποιεῖν. ταύτης τῆς δίκης οὔτε σὺ μήποτε οὔτε ἄλλος ἀτυχὴς γενόμενος ἐπεύξεται περιγενέσθαι θεῶν, ἣν πασῶν δίκην διαφερόντως ἔταξάν τε οἱ τάξαντες χρεών τε ἐξευλαβεῖσθαι παρὰ τὸ πᾶν. οὐ γὰρ ἀμεληθήσῃ ποτὲ ὑπ' αὐτῆς. οὐχ οὕτω σμικρὸς ὢν δύσῃ κατὰ τὸ τῆς γῆς βάθος οὐδ' ὑψηλὸς γενόμενος εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναπτήσῃ, τίσεις δὲ αὐτῷ τὴν προσήκουσαν τιμωρίαν εἴτ' ἐνθάδε μένων εἴτε καὶ ἐν Ἅιδου διαπορευθεὶς εἴτε καὶ τούτων εἰς 12.52.30 ἁγιώτερον ἔτι διακομισθεὶς τόπον. ὁ αὐτὸς δὲ λόγος σοι καὶ περὶ ἐκείνων ἂν εἴη τῶν οὓς σὺ κατιδὼν ἐκ σμικρῶν μεγάλους γεγονότας ἀνοσιουργήσαντας ἤ τι τοιοῦτον πράξαντας ᾠήθης ἐξ ἀθλίων εὐδαίμονας γεγονέναι καὶ ὡς ἐν κατόπτροις αὐτῶν ταῖς πράξεσιν ἡγήσω καθεωρακέναι τὴν πάντων ἀμέλειαν θεῶν, οὐκ εἰδὼς αὐτῶν τὴν συντέλειαν ὅπη ποτὲ τῷ παντὶ ξυμβάλλεται. γινώσκειν δὲ αὐτήν, ὦ πάντων ἀνδρειότατε, πρὸς οὐδὲν δοκεῖς; ἥν τις μὴ γινώσκων οὐδ' ἂν τύπον ἴδοι ποτὲ οὐδὲ λόγον ξυμβάλλεσθαι περὶ βίου δυνατὸς ἂν γένοιτο εἰς εὐδαιμονίαν τε καὶ δυσδαίμονα τύχην. 12.52.31 ταῦτα εἰ μέν σε πείθει Κλεινίας ὅδε καὶ ξύμπασα ἡμῶν ἥδε ἡ γερουσία,