"Such is the case."
"Does not, then, the soul of the philosopher, in these cases, despise the body, and flee from it, and seek to retire within itself?"
"It appears so."
[27]. "But what as to such things as these, Simmias? Do we say that justice itself is something or nothing?"
"We say it is something, by Jupiter!"
"And that beauty and goodness are something?"
"How not?"
"Now, then, have you ever seen any thing of this kind with your eyes?"
"By no means," he replied.
"Did you ever lay hold of them by any other bodily sense? But I speak generally, as of magnitude, health, strength and, in a word, of the essence of every thing; that is to say, what each is. Is, then, the exact truth of these perceived by means of the body, or is it thus, whoever among us habituates himself to reflect most deeply and accurately on each several thing about which he is considering, he will make the nearest approach to the knowledge of it?"