into metre since his imprisonment, and he asks, for the satisfaction of
the poet Evenus, what has induced him to do so. Socrates explains his
reason, and concludes by bidding him tell Evenus to follow him as soon
as he can. Simmias expresses his surprise at this message, on which
Socrates asks, "Is not Evenus a philosopher?" and on the question being
answered in the affirmative, he says that he or any philosopher would be
willing to die, though perhaps he would not commit violence on himself.
This, again, seems a contradiction to Simmias; but Socrates explains it
by showing that our souls are placed in the body by God, and may not
leave it without his permission. Whereupon Cebes objects that in that
case foolish men only would wish to die, and quit the service of the
best of masters, to which Simmias agrees. Socrates, therefore, proposes
to plead his cause before them, and to show that there is a great
probability that after this life he shall go into the presence of God
and good men, and be happy in proportion to the purity of his own mind.

He begins[12] by stating that philosophy itself is nothing else than a
preparation for and meditation on death. Death and philosophy have this
in common: death separates the soul from the body; philosophy draws off
the mind from bodily things to the contemplation of truth and virtue:
for he is not a true philosopher who is led away by bodily pleasures,
since the senses are the source of ignorance and all evil. The mind,
therefore, is entirely occupied in meditating on death, and freeing
itself as much as possible from the body. How, then, can such a man be
afraid of death? He who grieves at the approach of death can not be a
true lover of wisdom, but is a lover of his body. And, indeed, most men
are temperate through intemperance; that is to say, they abstain from
some pleasures that they may the more easily and permanently enjoy
others. They embrace only a shadow of virtue, not virtue itself, since
they estimate the value of all things by the pleasures they afford.