Laws
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