The triple soul has had a previous existence, in which following in the
train of some god, from whom she derived her character, she beheld
partially and imperfectly the vision of absolute truth. All her after
existence, passed in many forms of men and animals, is spent in regaining
this. The stages of the conflict are many and various; and she is sorely
let and hindered by the animal desires of the inferior or concupiscent
steed. Again and again she beholds the flashing beauty of the beloved.
But before that vision can be finally enjoyed the animal desires must be
subjected.

The moral or spiritual element in man is represented by the immortal steed
which, like thumos in the Republic, always sides with the reason. Both are
dragged out of their course by the furious impulses of desire. In the end
something is conceded to the desires, after they have been finally humbled
and overpowered. And yet the way of philosophy, or perfect love of the
unseen, is total abstinence from bodily delights. 'But all men cannot
receive this saying': in the lower life of ambition they may be taken off
their guard and stoop to folly unawares, and then, although they do not
attain to the highest bliss, yet if they have once conquered they may be
happy enough.

The language of the Meno and the Phaedo as well as of the Phaedrus seems to
show that at one time of his life Plato was quite serious in maintaining a
former state of existence. His mission was to realize the abstract; in
that, all good and truth, all the hopes of this and another life seemed to
centre. To him abstractions, as we call them, were another kind of
knowledge--an inner and unseen world, which seemed to exist far more truly
than the fleeting objects of sense which were without him. When we are
once able to imagine the intense power which abstract ideas exercised over
the mind of Plato, we see that there was no more difficulty to him in