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At the commencement of the sixth book, Plato anticipated his

explanation of the relation of the philosopher to the world in an

allegory, in this, as in other passages, following the order

which he prescribes in education, and proceeding from the

concrete to the abstract. At the commencement of Book VII, under

the figure of a cave having an opening towards a fire and a way

upwards to the true light, he returns to view the divisions of

knowledge, exhibiting familiarly, as in a picture, the result

which had been hardly won by a great effort of thought in the

previous discussion; at the same time casting a glance onward at

the dialectical process, which is represented by the way leading

from darkness to light.