ABSTRACT
You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another,
which the fire throws in the opposite wall of the cave? True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to
move their heads? And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows? Yes, he said. And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were
naming what was actually before them? Very true. And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would
they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?
