NOTES
"Cleon" expresses the approach of Greek thought at the time of
Christ towards the idea of immortality as made known by Cleon, a
Greek poet writing in reply to a Greek patron whose princely gifts
and letter asking comment on the philosophical significance of death
have just reached him. The important conclusions reached by Cleon
in his answer are that the composite mind is greater than the minds
of the past, because it is capable of accomplishing much in many
lines of activity, and of sympathizing with each of those simple
great minds that had reached the highest possible perfection "at one
point." It is, indeed, the necessary next step in development,
though all classes of mind fit into the perfected mosaic of life, no
one achievement blotting out any other. This soul and mind
development he deduces from the physical development he sees about
him. But since with the growth of human consciousness and the
increase of knowledge comes greater capability to the soul for joy
while the failure of physical powers shuts off the possibility of
realizing joy, it would have been better had man been left with
nothing higher than mere sense like the brutes. Dismissing the idea
of immortality through one's works as unsatisfactory to the
individual, he finally concludes that a long and happy life is all
there is to be hoped for, since, had the future life which he has
sometimes dared to hope for been possible, Zeus would long before
have revealed it.
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