Hortatory Address to the Greeks

And let no one be surprised that Plato should believe Moses regarding the eternity of God. For you will find him mystically attributing the true knowledge of realities to the prophets, next in order after the truly existent God. In the Timæus, when discussing certain first principles, he wrote: “This we establish as the first principle of fire and the other bodies, proceeding according to probability and necessity.

But God above knows the first principles of these, and whoever among men is favored by Him.” And who does he consider favored by God, but Moses and the other prophets? For he read their prophecies, and, having learned from them the doctrine of judgment, he presents it in the first book of the Republic: “When a man begins to think he is soon to die, fear overtakes him, and concerns arise about matters that had never before crossed his mind.

Those stories about what happens in Hades, which say that the unjust man here must be punished there, once mocked, now haunt his soul with the fear that they might be true. And he, whether due to the weakness of age, or because he is closer to the things of the other world, observes them more keenly. He becomes, therefore, filled with apprehension and dread, and starts to examine himself, considering whether he has wronged anyone. And the man who finds many sins in his life, and who often awakes from sleep as children do, lives in terror, facing a bleak outlook.

But for him who is aware of no wrongdoing, sweet hope is the constant companion and kind nurturer of old age, as Pindar says. For this, Socrates, he has gracefully expressed, that ‘whoever leads a life of holiness and justice, sweet hope, the nurturer of age, accompanies, comforting his heart, for she powerfully influences the changeful mind of mortals.’” This is what Plato wrote in the first book of the Republic.