Here, said Hierocles, in terminating his commentaries, is the blissful end of all efforts: here, according to Plato, is the hope which enkindles, which sustains the ardour of him who fights in the career of virtue: here, the inestimable prize which awaits him. b It was the great object of the mysteries, and so to speak, the great work of initiation. c The initiate, said Sophocles, is not only happy during his life, but even after his death he can promise himself an eternal felicity. d His soul purified by virtue, said Pindar, unfolds in those blessed regions where reigns an eternal springtime. e It goes on, said Socrates, attracted by the celestial
This is the veritable aim of the symbolic abstinences that he prescribes, even as Lysis insinuates moreover quite clearly in the lines which make the subject of my preceding Examination, when he said that it is necessary to abstain from the things which are injurious to the development of the soul and to distinguish clearly these things.
Furthermore, Pythagoras believed that there existed celestial goodness proportionate to each degree of virtue, and that there is for the souls, different ranks according to the luminous body with which they are clothed. The supreme happiness, according to him, belongs only to the soul which has learned how to recover itself, by its intimate union with the intelligence, whose essence, changing its nature, has become entirely spiritual. It is necessary that this soul be raised to the knowledge of universal truths, and that it should have found, as far as it is possible for it, the
276:b Hierocl., Aur. Carm., v. 70. 276:c Prod., In Tim., l. v., p. 330 276:d Apud Plutar., De Audiend. Pætis. 276:e Pind., Olymp., iii.; Apud, Plutar., Consol. ad Apoll. 277:a Plat., In Phædon. 277:b Hiérocl., Aur. Carm., v. 68.
