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But all the blessings of this present life are as nothing when

compared with those which await good men after death. 'I should

like to hear about them.' Come, then, and I will tell you the

story of Er, the son of Armenius, a valiant man. He was supposed

to have died in battle, but ten days afterwards his body was

found untouched by corruption and sent home for burial. On the

twelfth day he was placed on the funeral pyre and there he came

to life again, and told what he had seen in the world below. He

said that his soul went with a great company to a place, in which

there were two chasms near together in the earth beneath, and two

corresponding chasms in the heaven above. And there were judges

sitting in the intermediate space, bidding the just ascend by the

heavenly way on the right hand, having the seal of their judgment

set upon them before, while the unjust, having the seal behind,

were bidden to descend by the way on the left hand.