Any one who has common sense will remember that
the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and
arise from two causes, either from coming out of the
light or from going into the light, which is true of
the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye.
And he who remembers this when he sees any one whose
vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready
to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man
has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to
see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having
turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by
excess of light.
And he will count the one happy in his condition and
state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if
he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from
below into the light, there will be more reason in
this than in the laugh which greets him who returns
from above out of the light into the den.
Plato (c. 428-348 BC)
_The Republic_, Book VII
