Then I answered: “These inferences do indeed follow from what we lately concluded; but tell me,” said I, “dost thou take no account of the punishment of the soul after the death of the body?”

“Nay, truly,” said she, “great are these penalties, some of them inflicted, I imagine, in the severity of retribution, others in the mercy of purification. But it is not my present purpose to speak of these. So far, my aim hath been to make thee recognise that the power of the bad which shocked thee so exceedingly is no power; to make thee see that those of whose freedom from punishment thou didst complain are never without the proper penalties of their unrighteousness; to teach thee that the license which thou prayedst might soon come to an end is not long-enduring; that it would be more unhappy if it lasted longer, most unhappy of all if it lasted forever; thereafter that the unrighteous are more wretched if unjustly let go without punishment than if punished by a just retribution⁠—from which point of view it follows that the wicked are afflicted with more severe penalties just when they are supposed to escape punishment.”