Note 6 — Chapter II · Theory of Love

Besides paraphrasing “Phædo,” 110–111 in ll. 111–136, Drummond repeats the argument given in that dialogue to prove the probable existence of such a world. Cf. ll. 141–170 with “Phædo,” 109.—“But we who live in these hollows [of earth] are deceived into the notion that we are dwelling on the surface of the earth; which is just as if a creature who was at the bottom of the sea were to fancy that he was on the surface of the water and that the sea was the heaven through which he saw the sun and the other stars, he having never come to the surface by reason of his feebleness and sluggishness, and having never lifted up his head and seen, nor ever heard from one who had seen, how much purer and fairer the world above is than his own.... [But] if any man could arrive at the exterior limit [of the atmosphere], or take the wings of a bird and come to the top, then like a fish who puts his head out of water and sees this world, he would see a world beyond.”