Laws: Book X
Book X
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.