Behold! a woman living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here she have been since her childhood, and had her legs and necks chained so that she cannot move, and can only see before her, being prevented by the chains from turning round her head. Above and behind her a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and her there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

And do you see, people passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of bodies made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

And she sees only her own shadows, or the shadows of another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave.

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner she would only see the shadows.

And if she were able to converse with another, would she not suppose that she was naming what was actually before her?

To her, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the she is released and disabused of her error. At first, when she is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn her neck round and walk and look towards the light, she will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress her, and she will be unable to see the realities of which in her former state she had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to her, that what she saw before was an illusion, but that now, when she is approaching nearer to being and her eye is turned towards more real existence, she has a clearer vision, -what will be her reply?

And you may further imagine that her instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring her to name them, -will she not be perplexed? Will she not fancy that the shadows which she formerly saw are truer than the bodies which are now shown to her?

And if she is compelled to look straight at the light, will she not have a pain in her eyes which will make her turn away to take in the objects of vision which she can see, and which she will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to her?

And suppose once more, that she is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until she’s forced into the presence of the sun itself, is she not likely to be pained and irritated? When she approaches the light her eyes will be dazzled, and she will not be able to see anything at all of her reality.

She will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first she will see the shadows best, next the reflections of people and other bodies in the water, and then the bodies themselves and her own; then she will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and she will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day.

Last of all she will be able to see her sun, and not mere reflections of it in the water, but she will see herself in her own proper place, and not in another; and she will contemplate herself as she is.