[591b]
Or is it not true
that he who evades detection becomes a still worse man, while in the one who
is discovered and chastened the brutish part is lulled and tamed and the
gentle part liberated, and the entire soul, returning to its nature at the
best, attains to a much more precious condition in acquiring sobriety and
righteousness together with wisdom, than the body1 does when it
gains strength and beauty conjoined with health, even as the soul is more
precious than the body?” “Most assuredly,” he
said.
1 The a fortiori argument from health of body to health of soul is one of the chief refutations of the immoralists. Cf. 445 D-E f., Gorg. 479 B, Crito 47 D-E. For the supreme importance of the soul cf. on 589 E.
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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