IMMORTALITY
From this tale, Callicles, which I have heard and
believe, I draw the following inferences :—Death, if I am
right, is in the first place the separation from one another
of two things, soul and body; nothing else. And after they
are separated they retain their several natures, as in life;
the body keeps the same habit, and the results of treatment
or accident are distinctly visible in it: for example, he who
by nature or training or both was a tall man while he was
alive, will remain as he was, after he is dead; and the
fat will remain fat; and soon; and the dead man who in life
had a fancy to have flowing hair, will have flowing hair.
And if he was marked with the whip and had the prints of
the scourge, or of wounds in him when he was alive, you
might see the same in the dead body; and if his limbs were
broken or misshapen when he was alive, the same appear-
ance would be visible in the dead. And in a word, whatever
was the habit of the body during life would be distinguish-
able after death, either perfectly, or in a great measure and
for a certain time. And I should imagine that this is equally
true of the soul, Callicles; when a man is stripped of the
body, all the natural or acquired affections of the soul are
laid open to view.—PLaTo, Gorgias.
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