[330e]
then begin
to torture his soul with the doubt that there may be some truth in them. And
apart from that the man himself1 either from the weakness of old
age or possibly as being now nearer to the things beyond has a somewhat
clearer view of them. Be that as it may, he is filled with doubt, surmises,
and alarms and begins to reckon up and consider whether he has ever wronged
anyone. Now he to whom the ledger of his life shows an account of many evil
deeds starts up2 even from his dreams like children again and
again in affright and his days are haunted by anticipations of worse to
come. But on him who is conscious of no wrong
1 The conclusion logically expected, “is more credulous,” shifts to the alternative preferred by Plato.ὥσπερ marks the figurative sense of “nearer.”καθοπᾷ is not “takes a more careful view of it” (Goodwin) but wins a glimpse, catches sight of those obscure things, as a sailor descries land. So often in Plato. Cf. Epin. 985 C.
2 Polyb. v. 52. 13, and for the thought Iamblichus, Protrepticus 127 A, Job iv. 13-14. Tennyson, Vastness ix.—“Pain, that has crawl'd from the corpse of Pleasure, a worm which writhes all day, and at night/ Stirs up again in the heart of the sleeper, and stings him back to the curse of the light.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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