"Odd," replied he.
"And that which does not admit the just, nor the graceful?"
"The one, ungraceful, and the other, unjust."
"Be it so. But by what name do we call that which does not admit death?"
"Immortal."
"Does the soul, then, not admit death?" (Socrates has already suggested that whatever the soul occupies it brings life to.)
"No."
"Is the soul, therefore, immortal?"
"Immortal."
Socrates' argument drawn from the number 3 brings before us a great host of these older absurdities of scientific thought, embracing many grave conclusions drawn from fanciful considerations of number, everywhere occurring. For briefest example: Aristotle in his book "On the Heavens" proves that the world is perfect by the following complete argument: "The bodies of which the world is composed ... have three dimensions; now 3 is the most perfect number ... for of 1 we do not speak as a number; of 2 we say both; but 3 is the first number of which we say all; moreover, it has a beginning, a middle and an end." You may instructively compare with this the marvelous matters which the school of Pythagoras educed out of their perfect number which was 4, or the tetractys; and Plato's number of the Republic which commentators to this day have not settled.