And now having spoken of assaults, let us sum up all acts of violence
under a single law, which shall be as follows: No one shall take or
carry away any of his neighbour's goods, neither shall he use anything
which is his neighbour's without the consent of the owner; for these are
the offences which are and have been, and will ever be, the source
of all the aforesaid evils. The greatest of them are excesses and
insolences of youth, and are offences against the greatest when they are
done against religion; and especially great when in violation of public
and holy rites, or of the partly-common rites in which tribes and
phratries share; and in the second degree great when they are committed
against private rites and sepulchres, and in the third degree (not
to repeat the acts formerly mentioned), when insults are offered to
parents; the fourth kind of violence is when any one, regardless of the
authority of the rulers, takes or carries away or makes use of anything
which belongs to them, not having their consent; and the fifth kind
is when the violation of the civil rights of an individual demands
reparation. There should be a common law embracing all these cases. For
we have already said in general terms what shall be the punishment of
sacrilege, whether fraudulent or violent, and now we have to determine
what is to be the punishment of those who speak or act insolently toward
the Gods. But first we must give them an admonition which may be in the
following terms: No one who in obedience to the laws believed that
there were Gods, ever intentionally did any unholy act, or uttered
any unlawful word; but he who did must have supposed one of three
things--either that they did not exist--which is the first possibility,
or secondly, that, if they did, they took no care of man, or thirdly,
that they were easily appeased and turned aside from their purpose by
sacrifices and prayers.
CLEINIAS: What shall we say or do to these persons?
ATHENIAN: My good friend, let us first hear the jests which I suspect
that they in their superiority will utter against us.
CLEINIAS: What jests?
ATHENIAN: They will make some irreverent speech of this sort: 'O
inhabitants of Athens, and Sparta, and Cnosus,' they will reply, 'in
that you speak truly; for some of us deny the very existence of the
Gods, while others, as you say, are of opinion that they do not care
about us; and others that they are turned from their course by gifts.
Now we have a right to claim, as you yourself allowed, in the matter of
laws, that before you are hard upon us and threaten us, you should argue
with us and convince us--you should first attempt to teach and persuade
us that there are Gods by reasonable evidences, and also that they are
too good to be unrighteous, or to be propitiated, or turned from their
course by gifts. For when we hear such things said of them by those who
are esteemed to be the best of poets, and orators, and prophets, and
priests, and by innumerable others, the thoughts of most of us are
not set upon abstaining from unrighteous acts, but upon doing them and
atoning for them. When lawgivers profess that they are gentle and not
stern, we think that they should first of all use persuasion to us, and
show us the existence of Gods, if not in a better manner than other men,
at any rate in a truer; and who knows but that we shall hearken to you?
If then our request is a fair one, please to accept our challenge.
CLEINIAS: But is there any difficulty in proving the existence of the
Gods?
ATHENIAN: How would you prove it?
CLEINIAS: How? In the first place, the earth and the sun, and the stars
and the universe, and the fair order of the seasons, and the division of
them into years and months, furnish proofs of their existence, and also
there is the fact that all Hellenes and barbarians believe in them.
ATHENIAN: I fear, my sweet friend, though I will not say that I much
regard, the contempt with which the profane will be likely to assail us.
For you do not understand the nature of their complaint, and you fancy
that they rush into impiety only from a love of sensual pleasure.
CLEINIAS: Why, Stranger, what other reason is there?
ATHENIAN: One which you who live in a different atmosphere would never
guess.
CLEINIAS: What is it?
ATHENIAN: A very grievous sort of ignorance which is imagined to be the
greatest wisdom.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: At Athens there are tales preserved in writing which the
virtue of your state, as I am informed, refuses to admit. They speak of
the Gods in prose as well as verse, and the oldest of them tell of the
origin of the heavens and of the world, and not far from the beginning
of their story they proceed to narrate the birth of the Gods, and how
after they were born they behaved to one another. Whether these stories
have in other ways a good or a bad influence, I should not like to be
severe upon them, because they are ancient; but, looking at them with
reference to the duties of children to their parents, I cannot praise
them, or think that they are useful, or at all true. Of the words of the
ancients I have nothing more to say; and I should wish to say of them
only what is pleasing to the Gods. But as to our younger generation and
their wisdom, I cannot let them off when they do mischief. For do but
mark the effect of their words: when you and I argue for the existence
of the Gods, and produce the sun, moon, stars, and earth, claiming for
them a divine being, if we would listen to the aforesaid philosophers we
should say that they are earth and stones only, which can have no care
at all of human affairs, and that all religion is a cooking up of words
and a make-believe.
CLEINIAS: One such teacher, O stranger, would be bad enough, and you
imply that there are many of them, which is worse.
ATHENIAN: Well, then; what shall we say or do? Shall we assume that some
one is accusing us among unholy men, who are trying to escape from the
effect of our legislation; and that they say of us--How dreadful that
you should legislate on the supposition that there are Gods! Shall we
make a defence of ourselves? or shall we leave them and return to
our laws, lest the prelude should become longer than the law? For the
discourse will certainly extend to great length, if we are to treat the
impiously disposed as they desire, partly demonstrating to them at some
length the things of which they demand an explanation, partly making
them afraid or dissatisfied, and then proceed to the requisite
enactments.
CLEINIAS: Yes, Stranger; but then how often have we repeated already
that on the present occasion there is no reason why brevity should be
preferred to length; for who is 'at our heels?' as the saying goes, and
it would be paltry and ridiculous to prefer the shorter to the better.
It is a matter of no small consequence, in some way or other to prove
that there are Gods, and that they are good, and regard justice more
than men do. The demonstration of this would be the best and noblest
prelude of all our laws. And therefore, without impatience, and without
hurry, let us unreservedly consider the whole matter, summoning up all
the power of persuasion which we possess.
ATHENIAN: Seeing you thus in earnest, I would fain offer up a prayer
that I may succeed: but I must proceed at once. Who can be calm when he
is called upon to prove the existence of the Gods? Who can avoid hating
and abhorring the men who are and have been the cause of this argument;
I speak of those who will not believe the tales which they have heard as
babes and sucklings from their mothers and nurses, repeated by them
both in jest and earnest, like charms, who have also heard them in
the sacrificial prayers, and seen sights accompanying them--sights and
sounds delightful to children--and their parents during the sacrifices
showing an intense earnestness on behalf of their children and of
themselves, and with eager interest talking to the Gods, and beseeching
them, as though they were firmly convinced of their existence; who
likewise see and hear the prostrations and invocations which are made by
Hellenes and barbarians at the rising and setting of the sun and moon,
in all the vicissitudes of life, not as if they thought that there were
no Gods, but as if there could be no doubt of their existence, and no
suspicion of their non-existence; when men, knowing all these things,
despise them on no real grounds, as would be admitted by all who have
any particle of intelligence, and when they force us to say what we are
now saying, how can any one in gentle terms remonstrate with the like of
them, when he has to begin by proving to them the very existence of the
Gods? Yet the attempt must be made; for it would be unseemly that one
half of mankind should go mad in their lust of pleasure, and the other
half in their indignation at such persons. Our address to these lost
and perverted natures should not be spoken in passion; let us suppose
ourselves to select some one of them, and gently reason with him,
smothering our anger: O my son, we will say to him, you are young, and
the advance of time will make you reverse many of the opinions which
you now hold. Wait awhile, and do not attempt to judge at present of
the highest things; and that is the highest of which you now think
nothing--to know the Gods rightly and to live accordingly. And in
the first place let me indicate to you one point which is of great
importance, and about which I cannot be deceived: You and your friends
are not the first who have held this opinion about the Gods. There
have always been persons more or less numerous who have had the same
disorder. I have known many of them, and can tell you, that no one who
had taken up in youth this opinion, that the Gods do not exist, ever
continued in the same until he was old; the two other notions certainly
do continue in some cases, but not in many; the notion, I mean, that the
Gods exist, but take no heed of human things, and the other notion that
they do take heed of them, but are easily propitiated with sacrifices
and prayers. As to the opinion about the Gods which may some day become
clear to you, I advise you to wait and consider if it be true or not;
ask of others, and above all of the legislator. In the meantime take
care that you do not offend against the Gods. For the duty of the
legislator is and always will be to teach you the truth of these
matters.
CLEINIAS: Our address, Stranger, thus far, is excellent.
ATHENIAN: Quite true, Megillus and Cleinias, but I am afraid that we
have unconsciously lighted on a strange doctrine.
CLEINIAS: What doctrine do you mean?
ATHENIAN: The wisest of all doctrines, in the opinion of many.
CLEINIAS: I wish that you would speak plainer.
ATHENIAN: The doctrine that all things do become, have become, and will
become, some by nature, some by art, and some by chance.
CLEINIAS: Is not that true?
ATHENIAN: Well, philosophers are probably right; at any rate we may as
well follow in their track, and examine what is the meaning of them and
their disciples.
CLEINIAS: By all means.
ATHENIAN: They say that the greatest and fairest things are the work of
nature and of chance, the lesser of art, which, receiving from nature
the greater and primeval creations, moulds and fashions all those lesser
works which are generally termed artificial.
CLEINIAS: How is that?
ATHENIAN: I will explain my meaning still more clearly. They say that
fire and water, and earth and air, all exist by nature and chance,
and none of them by art, and that as to the bodies which come next in
order--earth, and sun, and moon, and stars--they have been created
by means of these absolutely inanimate existences. The elements are
severally moved by chance and some inherent force according to certain
affinities among them--of hot with cold, or of dry with moist, or of
soft with hard, and according to all the other accidental admixtures of
opposites which have been formed by necessity. After this fashion and
in this manner the whole heaven has been created, and all that is in the
heaven, as well as animals and all plants, and all the seasons come from
these elements, not by the action of mind, as they say, or of any God,
or from art, but as I was saying, by nature and chance only. Art sprang
up afterwards and out of these, mortal and of mortal birth, and produced
in play certain images and very partial imitations of the truth, having
an affinity to one another, such as music and painting create and their
companion arts. And there are other arts which have a serious purpose,
and these co-operate with nature, such, for example, as medicine, and
husbandry, and gymnastic. And they say that politics co-operate
with nature, but in a less degree, and have more of art; also that
legislation is entirely a work of art, and is based on assumptions which
are not true.
CLEINIAS: How do you mean?
ATHENIAN: In the first place, my dear friend, these people would say
that the Gods exist not by nature, but by art, and by the laws of
states, which are different in different places, according to the
agreement of those who make them; and that the honourable is one thing
by nature and another thing by law, and that the principles of justice
have no existence at all in nature, but that mankind are always
disputing about them and altering them; and that the alterations which
are made by art and by law have no basis in nature, but are of authority
for the moment and at the time at which they are made. These, my
friends, are the sayings of wise men, poets and prose writers, which
find a way into the minds of youth. They are told by them that the
highest right is might, and in this way the young fall into impieties,
under the idea that the Gods are not such as the law bids them imagine;
and hence arise factions, these philosophers inviting them to lead a
true life according to nature, that is, to live in real dominion over
others, and not in legal subjection to them.
CLEINIAS: What a dreadful picture, Stranger, have you given, and how
great is the injury which is thus inflicted on young men to the ruin
both of states and families!
ATHENIAN: True, Cleinias; but then what should the lawgiver do when
this evil is of long standing? should he only rise up in the state and
threaten all mankind, proclaiming that if they will not say and think
that the Gods are such as the law ordains (and this may be extended
generally to the honourable, the just, and to all the highest things,
and to all that relates to virtue and vice), and if they will not make
their actions conform to the copy which the law gives them, then he
who refuses to obey the law shall die, or suffer stripes and bonds,
or privation of citizenship, or in some cases be punished by loss of
property and exile? Should he not rather, when he is making laws for
men, at the same time infuse the spirit of persuasion into his words,
and mitigate the severity of them as far as he can?
CLEINIAS: Why, Stranger, if such persuasion be at all possible, then a
legislator who has anything in him ought never to weary of persuading
men; he ought to leave nothing unsaid in support of the ancient opinion
that there are Gods, and of all those other truths which you were
just now mentioning; he ought to support the law and also art, and
acknowledge that both alike exist by nature, and no less than nature, if
they are the creations of mind in accordance with right reason, as
you appear to me to maintain, and I am disposed to agree with you in
thinking.
ATHENIAN: Yes, my enthusiastic Cleinias; but are not these things when
spoken to a multitude hard to be understood, not to mention that they
take up a dismal length of time?
CLEINIAS: Why, Stranger, shall we, whose patience failed not when
drinking or music were the themes of discourse, weary now of discoursing
about the Gods, and about divine things? And the greatest help to
rational legislation is that the laws when once written down are always
at rest; they can be put to the test at any future time, and therefore,
if on first hearing they seem difficult, there is no reason for
apprehension about them, because any man however dull can go over them
and consider them again and again; nor if they are tedious but useful,
is there any reason or religion, as it seems to me, in any man refusing
to maintain the principles of them to the utmost of his power.
MEGILLUS: Stranger, I like what Cleinias is saying.
ATHENIAN: Yes, Megillus, and we should do as he proposes; for if impious
discourses were not scattered, as I may say, throughout the world, there
would have been no need for any vindication of the existence of the
Gods--but seeing that they are spread far and wide, such arguments are
needed; and who should come to the rescue of the greatest laws, when
they are being undermined by bad men, but the legislator himself?
MEGILLUS: There is no more proper champion of them.
ATHENIAN: Well, then, tell me, Cleinias--for I must ask you to be my
partner--does not he who talks in this way conceive fire and water and
earth and air to be the first elements of all things? these he calls
nature, and out of these he supposes the soul to be formed afterwards;
and this is not a mere conjecture of ours about his meaning, but is what
he really means.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Then, by Heaven, we have discovered the source of this vain
opinion of all those physical investigators; and I would have you
examine their arguments with the utmost care, for their impiety is
a very serious matter; they not only make a bad and mistaken use of
argument, but they lead away the minds of others: that is my opinion of
them.
CLEINIAS: You are right; but I should like to know how this happens.
ATHENIAN: I fear that the argument may seem singular.
CLEINIAS: Do not hesitate, Stranger; I see that you are afraid of such
a discussion carrying you beyond the limits of legislation. But if there
be no other way of showing our agreement in the belief that there are
Gods, of whom the law is said now to approve, let us take this way, my
good sir.
ATHENIAN: Then I suppose that I must repeat the singular argument of
those who manufacture the soul according to their own impious notions;
they affirm that which is the first cause of the generation and
destruction of all things, to be not first, but last, and that which is
last to be first, and hence they have fallen into error about the true
nature of the Gods.
CLEINIAS: Still I do not understand you.
ATHENIAN: Nearly all of them, my friends, seem to be ignorant of the
nature and power of the soul, especially in what relates to her origin:
they do not know that she is among the first of things, and before all
bodies, and is the chief author of their changes and transpositions. And
if this is true, and if the soul is older than the body, must not the
things which are of the soul's kindred be of necessity prior to those
which appertain to the body?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: Then thought and attention and mind and art and law will be
prior to that which is hard and soft and heavy and light; and the great
and primitive works and actions will be works of art; they will be
the first, and after them will come nature and works of nature, which
however is a wrong term for men to apply to them; these will follow, and
will be under the government of art and mind.
CLEINIAS: But why is the word 'nature' wrong?
ATHENIAN: Because those who use the term mean to say that nature is
the first creative power; but if the soul turn out to be the primeval
element, and not fire or air, then in the truest sense and beyond other
things the soul may be said to exist by nature; and this would be true
if you proved that the soul is older than the body, but not otherwise.
CLEINIAS: You are quite right.
ATHENIAN: Shall we, then, take this as the next point to which our
attention should be directed?
CLEINIAS: By all means.
ATHENIAN: Let us be on our guard lest this most deceptive argument with
its youthful looks, beguiling us old men, give us the slip and make a
laughing-stock of us. Who knows but we may be aiming at the greater, and
fail of attaining the lesser? Suppose that we three have to pass a rapid
river, and I, being the youngest of the three and experienced in rivers,
take upon me the duty of making the attempt first by myself; leaving you
in safety on the bank, I am to examine whether the river is passable
by older men like yourselves, and if such appears to be the case then
I shall invite you to follow, and my experience will help to convey you
across; but if the river is impassable by you, then there will have been
no danger to anybody but myself--would not that seem to be a very fair
proposal? I mean to say that the argument in prospect is likely to be
too much for you, out of your depth and beyond your strength, and I
should be afraid that the stream of my questions might create in you who
are not in the habit of answering, giddiness and confusion of mind,
and hence a feeling of unpleasantness and unsuitableness might arise.
I think therefore that I had better first ask the questions and then
answer them myself while you listen in safety; in that way I can carry
on the argument until I have completed the proof that the soul is prior
to the body.
CLEINIAS: Excellent, Stranger, and I hope that you will do as you
propose.
ATHENIAN: Come, then, and if ever we are to call upon the Gods, let us
call upon them now in all seriousness to come to the demonstration of
their own existence. And so holding fast to the rope we will venture
upon the depths of the argument. When questions of this sort are asked
of me, my safest answer would appear to be as follows: Some one says to
me, 'O Stranger, are all things at rest and nothing in motion, or is the
exact opposite of this true, or are some things in motion and others at
rest?' To this I shall reply that some things are in motion and others
at rest. 'And do not things which move move in a place, and are not the
things which are at rest at rest in a place?' Certainly. 'And some move
or rest in one place and some in more places than one?' You mean to say,
we shall rejoin, that those things which rest at the centre move in one
place, just as the circumference goes round of globes which are said to
be at rest? 'Yes.' And we observe that, in the revolution, the motion
which carries round the larger and the lesser circle at the same time
is proportionally distributed to greater and smaller, and is greater and
smaller in a certain proportion. Here is a wonder which might be thought
an impossibility, that the same motion should impart swiftness and
slowness in due proportion to larger and lesser circles. 'Very true.'
And when you speak of bodies moving in many places, you seem to me to
mean those which move from one place to another, and sometimes have
one centre of motion and sometimes more than one because they turn upon
their axis; and whenever they meet anything, if it be stationary, they
are divided by it; but if they get in the midst between bodies which are
approaching and moving towards the same spot from opposite directions,
they unite with them. 'I admit the truth of what you are saying.'
Also when they unite they grow, and when they are divided they waste
away--that is, supposing the constitution of each to remain, or if that
fails, then there is a second reason of their dissolution. 'And when are
all things created and how?' Clearly, they are created when the first
principle receives increase and attains to the second dimension, and
from this arrives at the one which is neighbour to this, and after
reaching the third becomes perceptible to sense. Everything which is
thus changing and moving is in process of generation; only when at
rest has it real existence, but when passing into another state it is
destroyed utterly. Have we not mentioned all motions that there are,
and comprehended them under their kinds and numbered them with the
exception, my friends, of two?
CLEINIAS: Which are they?
ATHENIAN: Just the two, with which our present enquiry is concerned.
CLEINIAS: Speak plainer.
ATHENIAN: I suppose that our enquiry has reference to the soul?
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Let us assume that there is a motion able to move other
things, but not to move itself; that is one kind; and there is
another kind which can move itself as well as other things, working in
composition and decomposition, by increase and diminution and generation
and destruction--that is also one of the many kinds of motion.
CLEINIAS: Granted.
ATHENIAN: And we will assume that which moves other, and is changed by
other, to be the ninth, and that which changes itself and others, and
is coincident with every action and every passion, and is the true
principle of change and motion in all that is--that we shall be inclined
to call the tenth.
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: And which of these ten motions ought we to prefer as being the
mightiest and most efficient?
CLEINIAS: I must say that the motion which is able to move itself is ten
thousand times superior to all the others.
ATHENIAN: Very good; but may I make one or two corrections in what I
have been saying?
CLEINIAS: What are they?
ATHENIAN: When I spoke of the tenth sort of motion, that was not quite
correct.
CLEINIAS: What was the error?
ATHENIAN: According to the true order, the tenth was really the first
in generation and power; then follows the second, which was strangely
enough termed the ninth by us.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: I mean this: when one thing changes another, and that another,
of such will there be any primary changing element? How can a thing
which is moved by another ever be the beginning of change? Impossible.
But when the self-moved changes other, and that again other, and thus
thousands upon tens of thousands of bodies are set in motion, must
not the beginning of all this motion be the change of the self-moving
principle?
CLEINIAS: Very true, and I quite agree.
ATHENIAN: Or, to put the question in another way, making answer to
ourselves: If, as most of these philosophers have the audacity
to affirm, all things were at rest in one mass, which of the
above-mentioned principles of motion would first spring up among them?
CLEINIAS: Clearly the self-moving; for there could be no change in them
arising out of any external cause; the change must first take place in
themselves.
ATHENIAN: Then we must say that self-motion being the origin of all
motions, and the first which arises among things at rest as well as
among things in motion, is the eldest and mightiest principle of change,
and that which is changed by another and yet moves other is second.
CLEINIAS: Quite true.
ATHENIAN: At this stage of the argument let us put a question.
CLEINIAS: What question?
ATHENIAN: If we were to see this power existing in any earthy, watery,
or fiery substance, simple or compound--how should we describe it?
CLEINIAS: You mean to ask whether we should call such a self-moving
power life?
ATHENIAN: I do.
CLEINIAS: Certainly we should.
ATHENIAN: And when we see soul in anything, must we not do the
same--must we not admit that this is life?
CLEINIAS: We must.
ATHENIAN: And now, I beseech you, reflect--you would admit that we have
a threefold knowledge of things?
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: I mean that we know the essence, and that we know the
definition of the essence, and the name--these are the three; and there
are two questions which may be raised about anything.
CLEINIAS: How two?
ATHENIAN: Sometimes a person may give the name and ask the definition;
or he may give the definition and ask the name. I may illustrate what I
mean in this way.
CLEINIAS: How?
ATHENIAN: Number like some other things is capable of being divided
into equal parts; when thus divided, number is named 'even,' and the
definition of the name 'even' is 'number divisible into two equal
parts'?
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: I mean, that when we are asked about the definition and
give the name, or when we are asked about the name and give the
definition--in either case, whether we give name or definition, we speak
of the same thing, calling 'even' the number which is divided into two
equal parts.
CLEINIAS: Quite true.
ATHENIAN: And what is the definition of that which is named 'soul'? Can
we conceive of any other than that which has been already given--the
motion which can move itself?
CLEINIAS: You mean to say that the essence which is defined as the
self-moved is the same with that which has the name soul?
ATHENIAN: Yes; and if this is true, do we still maintain that there
is anything wanting in the proof that the soul is the first origin
and moving power of all that is, or has become, or will be, and their
contraries, when she has been clearly shown to be the source of change
and motion in all things?
CLEINIAS: Certainly not; the soul as being the source of motion, has
been most satisfactorily shown to be the oldest of all things.
ATHENIAN: And is not that motion which is produced in another, by reason
of another, but never has any self-moving power at all, being in truth
the change of an inanimate body, to be reckoned second, or by any lower
number which you may prefer?
CLEINIAS: Exactly.
ATHENIAN: Then we are right, and speak the most perfect and absolute
truth, when we say that the soul is prior to the body, and that the body
is second and comes afterwards, and is born to obey the soul, which is
the ruler?
CLEINIAS: Nothing can be more true.
ATHENIAN: Do you remember our old admission, that if the soul was prior
to the body the things of the soul were also prior to those of the body?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: Then characters and manners, and wishes and reasonings, and
true opinions, and reflections, and recollections are prior to length
and breadth and depth and strength of bodies, if the soul is prior to
the body.
CLEINIAS: To be sure.
ATHENIAN: In the next place, we must not of necessity admit that the
soul is the cause of good and evil, base and honourable, just and
unjust, and of all other opposites, if we suppose her to be the cause of
all things?
CLEINIAS: We must.
ATHENIAN: And as the soul orders and inhabits all things that move,
however moving, must we not say that she orders also the heavens?
CLEINIAS: Of course.
ATHENIAN: One soul or more? More than one--I will answer for you; at any
rate, we must not suppose that there are less than two--one the author
of good, and the other of evil.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Yes, very true; the soul then directs all things in heaven,
and earth, and sea by her movements, and these are described by the
terms--will, consideration, attention, deliberation, opinion true and
false, joy and sorrow, confidence, fear, hatred, love, and other primary
motions akin to these; which again receive the secondary motions of
corporeal substances, and guide all things to growth and decay, to
composition and decomposition, and to the qualities which accompany
them, such as heat and cold, heaviness and lightness, hardness and
softness, blackness and whiteness, bitterness and sweetness, and all
those other qualities which the soul uses, herself a goddess, when truly
receiving the divine mind she disciplines all things rightly to their
happiness; but when she is the companion of folly, she does the very
contrary of all this. Shall we assume so much, or do we still entertain
doubts?
CLEINIAS: There is no room at all for doubt.
ATHENIAN: Shall we say then that it is the soul which controls heaven
and earth, and the whole world? that it is a principle of wisdom and
virtue, or a principle which has neither wisdom nor virtue? Suppose that
we make answer as follows:
CLEINIAS: How would you answer?
ATHENIAN: If, my friend, we say that the whole path and movement of
heaven, and of all that is therein, is by nature akin to the movement
and revolution and calculation of mind, and proceeds by kindred laws,
then, as is plain, we must say that the best soul takes care of the
world and guides it along the good path.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: But if the world moves wildly and irregularly, then the evil
soul guides it.
CLEINIAS: True again.
ATHENIAN: Of what nature is the movement of mind? To this question it is
not easy to give an intelligent answer; and therefore I ought to assist
you in framing one.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Then let us not answer as if we would look straight at the
sun, making ourselves darkness at midday--I mean as if we were under the
impression that we could see with mortal eyes, or know adequately the
nature of mind--it will be safer to look at the image only.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: Let us select of the ten motions the one which mind chiefly
resembles; this I will bring to your recollection, and will then make
the answer on behalf of us all.
CLEINIAS: That will be excellent.
ATHENIAN: You will surely remember our saying that all things were
either at rest or in motion?
CLEINIAS: I do.
ATHENIAN: And that of things in motion some were moving in one place,
and others in more than one?
CLEINIAS: Yes.
ATHENIAN: Of these two kinds of motion, that which moves in one place
must move about a centre like globes made in a lathe, and is most
entirely akin and similar to the circular movement of mind.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: In saying that both mind and the motion which is in one place
move in the same and like manner, in and about the same, and in relation
to the same, and according to one proportion and order, and are like the
motion of a globe, we invented a fair image, which does no discredit to
our ingenuity.
CLEINIAS: It does us great credit.
ATHENIAN: And the motion of the other sort which is not after the same
manner, nor in the same, nor about the same, nor in relation to the
same, nor in one place, nor in order, nor according to any rule or
proportion, may be said to be akin to senselessness and folly?
CLEINIAS: That is most true.
ATHENIAN: Then, after what has been said, there is no difficulty in
distinctly stating, that since soul carries all things round, either the
best soul or the contrary must of necessity carry round and order and
arrange the revolution of the heaven.
CLEINIAS: And judging from what has been said, Stranger, there would be
impiety in asserting that any but the most perfect soul or souls carries
round the heavens.
ATHENIAN: You have understood my meaning right well, Cleinias, and now
let me ask you another question.
CLEINIAS: What are you going to ask?
ATHENIAN: If the soul carries round the sun and moon, and the other
stars, does she not carry round each individual of them?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: Then of one of them let us speak, and the same argument will
apply to all.
CLEINIAS: Which will you take?
ATHENIAN: Every one sees the body of the sun, but no one sees his soul,
nor the soul of any other body living or dead; and yet there is great
reason to believe that this nature, unperceived by any of our senses, is
circumfused around them all, but is perceived by mind; and therefore by
mind and reflection only let us apprehend the following point.
CLEINIAS: What is that?
ATHENIAN: If the soul carries round the sun, we shall not be far wrong
in supposing one of three alternatives.
CLEINIAS: What are they?
ATHENIAN: Either the soul which moves the sun this way and that, resides
within the circular and visible body, like the soul which carries us
about every way; or the soul provides herself with an external body
of fire or air, as some affirm, and violently propels body by body;
or thirdly, she is without such a body, but guides the sun by some
extraordinary and wonderful power.
CLEINIAS: Yes, certainly; the soul can only order all things in one of
these three ways.
ATHENIAN: And this soul of the sun, which is therefore better than the
sun, whether taking the sun about in a chariot to give light to men, or
acting from without, or in whatever way, ought by every man to be deemed
a God.
CLEINIAS: Yes, by every man who has the least particle of sense.
ATHENIAN: And of the stars too, and of the moon, and of the years and
months and seasons, must we not say in like manner, that since a soul
or souls having every sort of excellence are the causes of all of them,
those souls are Gods, whether they are living beings and reside in
bodies, and in this way order the whole heaven, or whatever be the
place and mode of their existence--and will any one who admits all this
venture to deny that all things are full of Gods?
CLEINIAS: No one, Stranger, would be such a madman.
ATHENIAN: And now, Megillus and Cleinias, let us offer terms to him who
has hitherto denied the existence of the Gods, and leave him.
CLEINIAS: What terms?
ATHENIAN: Either he shall teach us that we were wrong in saying that the
soul is the original of all things, and arguing accordingly; or, if he
be not able to say anything better, then he must yield to us and live
for the remainder of his life in the belief that there are Gods. Let us
see, then, whether we have said enough or not enough to those who deny
that there are Gods.
CLEINIAS: Certainly, quite enough, Stranger.
ATHENIAN: Then to them we will say no more. And now we are to address
him who, believing that there are Gods, believes also that they take no
heed of human affairs: To him we say--O thou best of men, in believing
that there are Gods you are led by some affinity to them, which attracts
you towards your kindred and makes you honour and believe in them. But
the fortunes of evil and unrighteous men in private as well as public
life, which, though not really happy, are wrongly counted happy in
the judgment of men, and are celebrated both by poets and prose
writers--these draw you aside from your natural piety. Perhaps you have
seen impious men growing old and leaving their children's children in
high offices, and their prosperity shakes your faith--you have known or
heard or been yourself an eyewitness of many monstrous impieties, and
have beheld men by such criminal means from small beginnings attaining
to sovereignty and the pinnacle of greatness; and considering all these
things you do not like to accuse the Gods of them, because they are your
relatives; and so from some want of reasoning power, and also from an
unwillingness to find fault with them, you have come to believe that
they exist indeed, but have no thought or care of human things. Now,
that your present evil opinion may not grow to still greater impiety,
and that we may if possible use arguments which may conjure away the
evil before it arrives, we will add another argument to that originally
addressed to him who utterly denied the existence of the Gods. And do
you, Megillus and Cleinias, answer for the young man as you did before;
and if any impediment comes in our way, I will take the word out of your
mouths, and carry you over the river as I did just now.
CLEINIAS: Very good; do as you say, and we will help you as well as we
can.
ATHENIAN: There will probably be no difficulty in proving to him that
the Gods care about the small as well as about the great. For he was
present and heard what was said, that they are perfectly good, and that
the care of all things is most entirely natural to them.
CLEINIAS: No doubt he heard that.
ATHENIAN: Let us consider together in the next place what we mean by
this virtue which we ascribe to them. Surely we should say that to be
temperate and to possess mind belongs to virtue, and the contrary to
vice?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: Yes; and courage is a part of virtue, and cowardice of vice?
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: And the one is honourable, and the other dishonourable?
CLEINIAS: To be sure.
ATHENIAN: And the one, like other meaner things, is a human quality, but
the Gods have no part in anything of the sort?
CLEINIAS: That again is what everybody will admit.
ATHENIAN: But do we imagine carelessness and idleness and luxury to be
virtues? What do you think?
CLEINIAS: Decidedly not.
ATHENIAN: They rank under the opposite class?
CLEINIAS: Yes.
ATHENIAN: And their opposites, therefore, would fall under the opposite
class?
CLEINIAS: Yes.
ATHENIAN: But are we to suppose that one who possesses all these good
qualities will be luxurious and heedless and idle, like those whom the
poet compares to stingless drones?
CLEINIAS: And the comparison is a most just one.
ATHENIAN: Surely God must not be supposed to have a nature which He
Himself hates? he who dares to say this sort of thing must not be
tolerated for a moment.
CLEINIAS: Of course not. How could he have?
ATHENIAN: Should we not on any principle be entirely mistaken in
praising any one who has some special business entrusted to him, if he
have a mind which takes care of great matters and no care of small ones?
Reflect; he who acts in this way, whether he be God or man, must act
from one of two principles.
CLEINIAS: What are they?
ATHENIAN: Either he must think that the neglect of the small matters
is of no consequence to the whole, or if he knows that they are of
consequence, and he neglects them, his neglect must be attributed to
carelessness and indolence. Is there any other way in which his neglect
can be explained? For surely, when it is impossible for him to take care
of all, he is not negligent if he fails to attend to these things
great or small, which a God or some inferior being might be wanting in
strength or capacity to manage?
CLEINIAS: Certainly not.
ATHENIAN: Now, then, let us examine the offenders, who both alike
confess that there are Gods, but with a difference--the one saying that
they may be appeased, and the other that they have no care of small
matters: there are three of us and two of them, and we will say to
them--In the first place, you both acknowledge that the Gods hear and
see and know all things, and that nothing can escape them which is
matter of sense and knowledge: do you admit this?
CLEINIAS: Yes.
ATHENIAN: And do you admit also that they have all power which mortals
and immortals can have?
CLEINIAS: They will, of course, admit this also.
ATHENIAN: And surely we three and they two--five in all--have
acknowledged that they are good and perfect?
CLEINIAS: Assuredly.
ATHENIAN: But, if they are such as we conceive them to be, can we
possibly suppose that they ever act in the spirit of carelessness
and indolence? For in us inactivity is the child of cowardice, and
carelessness of inactivity and indolence.
CLEINIAS: Most true.
ATHENIAN: Then not from inactivity and carelessness is any God ever
negligent; for there is no cowardice in them.
CLEINIAS: That is very true.
ATHENIAN: Then the alternative which remains is, that if the Gods
neglect the lighter and lesser concerns of the universe, they
neglect them because they know that they ought not to care about such
matters--what other alternative is there but the opposite of their
knowing?
CLEINIAS: There is none.
ATHENIAN: And, O most excellent and best of men, do I understand you to
mean that they are careless because they are ignorant, and do not
know that they ought to take care, or that they know, and yet like the
meanest sort of men, knowing the better, choose the worse because they
are overcome by pleasures and pains?
CLEINIAS: Impossible.
ATHENIAN: Do not all human things partake of the nature of soul? And is
not man the most religious of all animals?
CLEINIAS: That is not to be denied.
ATHENIAN: And we acknowledge that all mortal creatures are the property
of the Gods, to whom also the whole of heaven belongs?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: And, therefore, whether a person says that these things are to
the Gods great or small--in either case it would not be natural for the
Gods who own us, and who are the most careful and the best of owners, to
neglect us. There is also a further consideration.
CLEINIAS: What is it?
ATHENIAN: Sensation and power are in an inverse ratio to each other in
respect to their ease and difficulty.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: I mean that there is greater difficulty in seeing and hearing
the small than the great, but more facility in moving and controlling
and taking care of small and unimportant things than of their opposites.
CLEINIAS: Far more.
ATHENIAN: Suppose the case of a physician who is willing and able to
cure some living thing as a whole--how will the whole fare at his hands
if he takes care only of the greater and neglects the parts which are
lesser?
CLEINIAS: Decidedly not well.
ATHENIAN: No better would be the result with pilots or generals, or
householders or statesmen, or any other such class, if they neglected
the small and regarded only the great--as the builders say, the larger
stones do not lie well without the lesser.
CLEINIAS: Of course not.
ATHENIAN: Let us not, then, deem God inferior to human workmen, who, in
proportion to their skill, finish and perfect their works, small as well
as great, by one and the same art; or that God, the wisest of
beings, who is both willing and able to take care, is like a lazy
good-for-nothing, or a coward, who turns his back upon labour and gives
no thought to smaller and easier matters, but to the greater only.
CLEINIAS: Never, Stranger, let us admit a supposition about the Gods
which is both impious and false.
ATHENIAN: I think that we have now argued enough with him who delights
to accuse the Gods of neglect.
CLEINIAS: Yes.
ATHENIAN: He has been forced to acknowledge that he is in error, but he
still seems to me to need some words of consolation.
CLEINIAS: What consolation will you offer him?
ATHENIAN: Let us say to the youth: The ruler of the universe has ordered
all things with a view to the excellence and preservation of the whole,
and each part, as far as may be, has an action and passion appropriate
to it. Over these, down to the least fraction of them, ministers have
been appointed to preside, who have wrought out their perfection with
infinitesimal exactness. And one of these portions of the universe is
thine own, unhappy man, which, however little, contributes to the whole;
and you do not seem to be aware that this and every other creation is
for the sake of the whole, and in order that the life of the whole may
be blessed; and that you are created for the sake of the whole, and not
the whole for the sake of you. For every physician and every skilled
artist does all things for the sake of the whole, directing his effort
towards the common good, executing the part for the sake of the whole,
and not the whole for the sake of the part. And you are annoyed because
you are ignorant how what is best for you happens to you and to the
universe, as far as the laws of the common creation admit. Now, as the
soul combining first with one body and then with another undergoes all
sorts of changes, either of herself, or through the influence of another
soul, all that remains to the player of the game is that he should shift
the pieces; sending the better nature to the better place, and the worse
to the worse, and so assigning to them their proper portion.
CLEINIAS: In what way do you mean?
ATHENIAN: In a way which may be supposed to make the care of all things
easy to the Gods. If any one were to form or fashion all things without
any regard to the whole--if, for example, he formed a living element of
water out of fire, instead of forming many things out of one or one out
of many in regular order attaining to a first or second or third birth,
the transmutation would have been infinite; but now the ruler of the
world has a wonderfully easy task.
CLEINIAS: How so?
ATHENIAN: I will explain: When the king saw that our actions had life,
and that there was much virtue in them and much vice, and that the soul
and body, although not, like the Gods of popular opinion, eternal, yet
having once come into existence, were indestructible (for if either of
them had been destroyed, there would have been no generation of living
beings); and when he observed that the good of the soul was ever by
nature designed to profit men, and the evil to harm them--he, seeing all
this, contrived so to place each of the parts that their position might
in the easiest and best manner procure the victory of good and the
defeat of evil in the whole. And he contrived a general plan by which
a thing of a certain nature found a certain seat and room. But the
formation of qualities he left to the wills of individuals. For every
one of us is made pretty much what he is by the bent of his desires and
the nature of his soul.
CLEINIAS: Yes, that is probably true.
ATHENIAN: Then all things which have a soul change, and possess in
themselves a principle of change, and in changing move according to
law and to the order of destiny: natures which have undergone a lesser
change move less and on the earth's surface, but those which have
suffered more change and have become more criminal sink into the abyss,
that is to say, into Hades and other places in the world below, of which
the very names terrify men, and which they picture to themselves as in
a dream, both while alive and when released from the body. And whenever
the soul receives more of good or evil from her own energy and the
strong influence of others--when she has communion with divine virtue
and becomes divine, she is carried into another and better place, which
is perfect in holiness; but when she has communion with evil, then she
also changes the place of her life.
'This is the justice of the Gods who inhabit Olympus.'
O youth or young man, who fancy that you are neglected by the Gods, know
that if you become worse you shall go to the worse souls, or if better
to the better, and in every succession of life and death you will do
and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of like. This is the
justice of heaven, which neither you nor any other unfortunate will
ever glory in escaping, and which the ordaining powers have specially
ordained; take good heed thereof, for it will be sure to take heed of
you. If you say: I am small and will creep into the depths of the earth,
or I am high and will fly up to heaven, you are not so small or so high
but that you shall pay the fitting penalty, either here or in the world
below or in some still more savage place whither you shall be conveyed.
This is also the explanation of the fate of those whom you saw, who had
done unholy and evil deeds, and from small beginnings had grown great,
and you fancied that from being miserable they had become happy; and in
their actions, as in a mirror, you seemed to see the universal neglect
of the Gods, not knowing how they make all things work together and
contribute to the great whole. And thinkest thou, bold man, that thou
needest not to know this? he who knows it not can never form any true
idea of the happiness or unhappiness of life or hold any rational
discourse respecting either. If Cleinias and this our reverend company
succeed in proving to you that you know not what you say of the Gods,
then will God help you; but should you desire to hear more, listen
to what we say to the third opponent, if you have any understanding
whatsoever. For I think that we have sufficiently proved the existence
of the Gods, and that they care for men: The other notion that they are
appeased by the wicked, and take gifts, is what we must not concede to
any one, and what every man should disprove to the utmost of his power.
CLEINIAS: Very good; let us do as you say.
ATHENIAN: Well, then, by the Gods themselves I conjure you to tell
me--if they are to be propitiated, how are they to be propitiated? Who
are they, and what is their nature? Must they not be at least rulers who
have to order unceasingly the whole heaven?
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: And to what earthly rulers can they be compared, or who to
them? How in the less can we find an image of the greater? Are they
charioteers of contending pairs of steeds, or pilots of vessels? Perhaps
they might be compared to the generals of armies, or they might be
likened to physicians providing against the diseases which make war
upon the body, or to husbandmen observing anxiously the effects of the
seasons on the growth of plants; or perhaps to shepherds of flocks. For
as we acknowledge the world to be full of many goods and also of evils,
and of more evils than goods, there is, as we affirm, an immortal
conflict going on among us, which requires marvellous watchfulness; and
in that conflict the Gods and demigods are our allies, and we are their
property. Injustice and insolence and folly are the destruction of us,
and justice and temperance and wisdom are our salvation; and the place
of these latter is in the life of the Gods, although some vestige of
them may occasionally be discerned among mankind. But upon this earth
we know that there dwell souls possessing an unjust spirit, who may be
compared to brute animals, which fawn upon their keepers, whether dogs
or shepherds, or the best and most perfect masters; for they in like
manner, as the voices of the wicked declare, prevail by flattery and
prayers and incantations, and are allowed to make their gains with
impunity. And this sin, which is termed dishonesty, is an evil of the
same kind as what is termed disease in living bodies or pestilence in
years or seasons of the year, and in cities and governments has another
name, which is injustice.
CLEINIAS: Quite true.
ATHENIAN: What else can he say who declares that the Gods are always
lenient to the doers of unjust acts, if they divide the spoil with them?
As if wolves were to toss a portion of their prey to the dogs, and they,
mollified by the gift, suffered them to tear the flocks. Must not he who
maintains that the Gods can be propitiated argue thus?
CLEINIAS: Precisely so.
ATHENIAN: And to which of the above-mentioned classes of guardians would
any man compare the Gods without absurdity? Will he say that they
are like pilots, who are themselves turned away from their duty by
'libations of wine and the savour of fat,' and at last overturn both
ship and sailors?
CLEINIAS: Assuredly not.
ATHENIAN: And surely they are not like charioteers who are bribed to
give up the victory to other chariots?
CLEINIAS: That would be a fearful image of the Gods.
ATHENIAN: Nor are they like generals, or physicians, or husbandmen, or
shepherds; and no one would compare them to dogs who have been silenced
by wolves.
CLEINIAS: A thing not to be spoken of.
ATHENIAN: And are not all the Gods the chiefest of all guardians, and do
they not guard our highest interests?
CLEINIAS: Yes; the chiefest.
ATHENIAN: And shall we say that those who guard our noblest interests,
and are the best of guardians, are inferior in virtue to dogs, and to
men even of moderate excellence, who would never betray justice for the
sake of gifts which unjust men impiously offer them?
CLEINIAS: Certainly not; nor is such a notion to be endured, and he who
holds this opinion may be fairly singled out and characterized as of all
impious men the wickedest and most impious.
ATHENIAN: Then are the three assertions--that the Gods exist, and
that they take care of men, and that they can never be persuaded to do
injustice, now sufficiently demonstrated? May we say that they are?
CLEINIAS: You have our entire assent to your words.
ATHENIAN: I have spoken with vehemence because I am zealous against evil
men; and I will tell you, dear Cleinias, why I am so. I would not have
the wicked think that, having the superiority in argument, they may do
as they please and act according to their various imaginations about the
Gods; and this zeal has led me to speak too vehemently; but if we have
at all succeeded in persuading the men to hate themselves and love their
opposites, the prelude of our laws about impiety will not have been
spoken in vain.
CLEINIAS: So let us hope; and even if we have failed, the style of our
argument will not discredit the lawgiver.
ATHENIAN: After the prelude shall follow a discourse, which will be the
interpreter of the law; this shall proclaim to all impious persons that
they must depart from their ways and go over to the pious. And to those
who disobey, let the law about impiety be as follows: If a man is guilty
of any impiety in word or deed, any one who happens to be present shall
give information to the magistrates, in aid of the law; and let the
magistrates who first receive the information bring him before the
appointed court according to the law; and if a magistrate, after
receiving information, refuses to act, he shall be tried for impiety at
the instance of any one who is willing to vindicate the laws; and if
any one be cast, the court shall estimate the punishment of each act of
impiety; and let all such criminals be imprisoned. There shall be three
prisons in the state: the first of them is to be the common prison in
the neighbourhood of the agora for the safe-keeping of the generality
of offenders; another is to be in the neighbourhood of the nocturnal
council, and is to be called the 'House of Reformation'; another, to be
situated in some wild and desolate region in the centre of the country,
shall be called by some name expressive of retribution. Now, men fall
into impiety from three causes, which have been already mentioned, and
from each of these causes arise two sorts of impiety, in all six, which
are worth distinguishing, and should not all have the same punishment.
For he who does not believe in the Gods, and yet has a righteous nature,
hates the wicked and dislikes and refuses to do injustice, and avoids
unrighteous men, and loves the righteous. But they who besides believing
that the world is devoid of Gods are intemperate, and have at the same
time good memories and quick wits, are worse; although both of them are
unbelievers, much less injury is done by the one than by the other. The
one may talk loosely about the Gods and about sacrifices and oaths, and
perhaps by laughing at other men he may make them like himself, if he be
not punished. But the other who holds the same opinions and is called a
clever man, is full of stratagem and deceit--men of this class deal in
prophecy and jugglery of all kinds, and out of their ranks sometimes
come tyrants and demagogues and generals and hierophants of private
mysteries and the Sophists, as they are termed, with their ingenious
devices. There are many kinds of unbelievers, but two only for whom
legislation is required; one the hypocritical sort, whose crime is
deserving of death many times over, while the other needs only bonds and
admonition. In like manner also the notion that the Gods take no thought
of men produces two other sorts of crimes, and the notion that they may
be propitiated produces two more. Assuming these divisions, let those
who have been made what they are only from want of understanding, and
not from malice or an evil nature, be placed by the judge in the House
of Reformation, and ordered to suffer imprisonment during a period
of not less than five years. And in the meantime let them have no
intercourse with the other citizens, except with members of the
nocturnal council, and with them let them converse with a view to
the improvement of their soul's health. And when the time of their
imprisonment has expired, if any of them be of sound mind let him be
restored to sane company, but if not, and if he be condemned a second
time, let him be punished with death. As to that class of monstrous
natures who not only believe that there are no Gods, or that they are
negligent, or to be propitiated, but in contempt of mankind conjure the
souls of the living and say that they can conjure the dead and promise
to charm the Gods with sacrifices and prayers, and will utterly
overthrow individuals and whole houses and states for the sake of
money--let him who is guilty of any of these things be condemned by the
court to be bound according to law in the prison which is in the centre
of the land, and let no freeman ever approach him, but let him receive
the rations of food appointed by the guardians of the law from the hands
of the public slaves; and when he is dead let him be cast beyond the
borders unburied, and if any freeman assist in burying him, let him pay
the penalty of impiety to any one who is willing to bring a suit against
him. But if he leaves behind him children who are fit to be citizens,
let the guardians of orphans take care of them, just as they would of
any other orphans, from the day on which their father is convicted.
In all these cases there should be one law, which will make men in
general less liable to transgress in word or deed, and less foolish,
because they will not be allowed to practise religious rites contrary
to law. And let this be the simple form of the law: No man shall have
sacred rites in a private house. When he would sacrifice, let him go to
the temples and hand over his offerings to the priests and priestesses,
who see to the sanctity of such things, and let him pray himself, and
let any one who pleases join with him in prayer. The reason of this is
as follows: Gods and temples are not easily instituted, and to establish
them rightly is the work of a mighty intellect. And women especially,
and men too, when they are sick or in danger, or in any sort of
difficulty, or again on their receiving any good fortune, have a way of
consecrating the occasion, vowing sacrifices, and promising shrines to
Gods, demigods, and sons of Gods; and when they are awakened by terrible
apparitions and dreams or remember visions, they find in altars and
temples the remedies of them, and will fill every house and village with
them, placing them in the open air, or wherever they may have had such
visions; and with a view to all these cases we should obey the law. The
law has also regard to the impious, and would not have them fancy that
by the secret performance of these actions--by raising temples and by
building altars in private houses, they can propitiate the God secretly
with sacrifices and prayers, while they are really multiplying their
crimes infinitely, bringing guilt from heaven upon themselves, and also
upon those who permit them, and who are better men than they are;
and the consequence is that the whole state reaps the fruit of their
impiety, which, in a certain sense, is deserved. Assuredly God will not
blame the legislator, who will enact the following law: No one shall
possess shrines of the Gods in private houses, and he who is found
to possess them, and perform any sacred rites not publicly
authorised--supposing the offender to be some man or woman who is not
guilty of any other great and impious crime--shall be informed against
by him who is acquainted with the fact, which shall be announced by him
to the guardians of the law; and let them issue orders that he or she
shall carry away their private rites to the public temples, and if they
do not persuade them, let them inflict a penalty on them until they
comply. And if a person be proven guilty of impiety, not merely from
childish levity, but such as grown-up men may be guilty of, whether he
have sacrificed publicly or privately to any Gods, let him be punished
with death, for his sacrifice is impure. Whether the deed has been done
in earnest, or only from childish levity, let the guardians of the law
determine, before they bring the matter into court and prosecute the
offender for impiety.