mortal nature ceased to be or look older, and was then reversed and grew

young and delicate; the white locks of the aged darkened again, and the

cheeks the bearded man became smooth, and recovered their former bloom;

the bodies of youths in their prime grew softer and smaller, continually

by day and night returning and becoming assimilated to the nature of a

newly-born child in mind as well as body; in the succeeding stage they

wasted away and wholly disappeared. And the bodies of those who died by

violence at that time quickly passed through the like changes, and in a

few days were no more seen.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Then how, Stranger, were the animals created in those

days; and in what way were they begotten of one another?

STRANGER: It is evident, Socrates, that there was no such thing in the

then order of nature as the procreation of animals from one another; the

earth-born race, of which we hear in story, was the one which existed

in those days--they rose again from the ground; and of this tradition,

which is now-a-days often unduly discredited, our ancestors, who were

nearest in point of time to the end of the last period and came into

being at the beginning of this, are to us the heralds. And mark how

consistent the sequel of the tale is; after the return of age to youth,

follows the return of the dead, who are lying in the earth, to life;

simultaneously with the reversal of the world the wheel of their

generation has been turned back, and they are put together and rise and

live in the opposite order, unless God has carried any of them away to

some other lot. According to this tradition they of necessity sprang

Statesman