Very true.

  And the worse is from the better, and the more just is from the more
unjust.

  Of course.

  And is this true of all opposites? and are we convinced that all
of them are generated out of opposites?

  Yes.

  And in this universal opposition of all things, are there not also
two intermediate processes which are ever going on, from one to the
other, and back again; where there is a greater and a less there is
also an intermediate process of increase and diminution, and that
which grows is said to wax, and that which decays to wane?

  Yes, he said.

  And there are many other processes, such as division and
composition, cooling and heating, which equally involve a passage into
and out of one another. And this holds of all opposites, even though
not always expressed in words-they are generated out of one another,
and there is a passing or process from one to the other of them?

  Very true, he replied.

  Well, and is there not an opposite of life, as sleep is the opposite
of waking?

  True, he said.

  And what is that?

  Death, he answered.

  And these, then, are generated, if they are opposites, the one
from the other, and have there their two intermediate processes also?

  Of course.

  Now, said Socrates, I will analyze one of the two pairs of opposites
which I have mentioned to you, and also its intermediate processes,
and you shall analyze the other to me. The state of sleep is opposed
to the state of waking, and out of sleeping waking is generated, and
out of waking, sleeping, and the process of generation is in the one
case falling asleep, and in the other waking up. Are you agreed
about that?

  Quite agreed.

  Then suppose that you analyze life and death to me in the same
manner. Is not death opposed to life?

  Yes.

  And they are generated one from the other?

  Yes.

  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