Ath. That when there has been a contest for power, those who gainthe upper hand so entirely monopolize the government, as to refuse allshare to the defeated party and their descendants-they live watchingone another, the ruling class being in perpetual fear that some onewho has a recollection of former wrongs will come into power andrise up against them. Now, according to our view, such governments arenot polities at all, nor are laws right which are passed for thegood of particular classes and not for the good of the whole state.
States which have such laws are not polities but parties, and theirnotions of justice are simply unmeaning. I say this, because I amgoing to assert that we must not entrust the government in yourstate to any one because he is rich, or because he possesses any otheradvantage, such as strength, or stature, or again birth: but he who ismost obedient to the laws of the state, he shall win the palm; andto him who is victorious in the first degree shall be given thehighest office and chief ministry of the gods; and the second to himwho bears the second palm; and on a similar principle shall all theother be assigned to those who come next in order. And when I call therulers servants or ministers of the law, I give them this name not forthe sake of novelty, but because I certainly believe that upon suchservice or ministry depends the well- or ill-being of the state. Forthat state in which the law is subject and has no authority, Iperceive to be on the highway to ruin; but I see that the state inwhich the law is above the rulers, and the rulers are the inferiors ofthe law, has salvation, and every blessing which the Gods can confer.
Cle. Truly, Stranger, you see with the keen vision of age.
Ath. Why, yes; every man when he is young has that sort of visiondullest, and when he is old keenest.
Cle. Very true.
Ath. And now, what is to be the next step? May we not suppose thecolonists to have arrived, and proceed to make our speech to them?
Cle. Certainly.
Ath. "Friends," we say to them,-"God, as the old tradition declares,holding in his hand the beginning, middle, and end of all that is,travels according to his nature in a straight line towards theaccomplishment of his end. Justice always accompanies him, and isthe punisher of those who fall short of the divine law. To justice, hewho would be happy holds fast, and follows in her company with allhumility and order; but he who is lifted up with pride, or elated bywealth or rank, or beauty, who is young and foolish, and has a soulhot with insolence, and thinks that he has no need of any guide orruler, but is able himself to be the guide of others, he, I say, isleft deserted of God; and being thus deserted, he takes to himothers who are like himself, and dances about, throwing all thingsinto confusion, and many think that he is a great man, but in ashort time he pays a penalty which justice cannot but approve, andis utterly destroyed, and his family and city with him. Wherefore,seeing that human things are thus ordered, what should a wise man door think, or not do or think?
Cle. Every man ought to make up his mind that he will be one ofthe followers of God; there can be no doubt of that.
Ath. Then what life is agreeable to God, and becoming in hisfollowers? One only, expressed once for all in the old saying that"like agrees with like, with measure measure," but things which haveno measure agree neither with themselves nor with the things whichhave. Now God ought to be to us the measure of all things, and notman, as men commonly say (Protagoras): the words are far more trueof him. And he who would be dear to God must, as far as is possible,be like him and such as he is. Wherefore the temperate man is thefriend of God, for he is like him; and the intemperate man is unlikehim, and different from him, and unjust. And the same applies to otherthings; and this is the conclusion, which is also the noblest andtruest of all sayings-that for the good man to offer sacrifice tothe Gods, and hold converse with them by means of prayers andofferings and every kind of service, is the noblest and best of allthings, and also the most conducive to a happy life, and very fitand meet. But with the bad man, the opposite of this is true: forthe bad man has an impure soul, whereas the good is pure; and from onewho is polluted, neither good man nor God can without improprietyreceive gifts. Wherefore the unholy do only waste their much serviceupon the Gods, but when offered by any holy man, such service ismost acceptable to them. This is the mark at which we ought to aim.
But what weapons shall we use, and how shall we direct them? In thefirst place, we affirm that next after the Olympian Gods and theGods of the State, honour should be given to the Gods below; theyshould receive everything in even and of the second choice, and illomen, while the odd numbers, and the first choice, and the things oflucky omen, are given to the Gods above, by him who would rightlyhit the mark of piety. Next to these Gods, a wise man will doservice to the demons or spirits, and then to the heroes, and afterthem will follow the private and ancestral Gods, who are worshipped asthe law prescribes in the places which are sacred to them. Nextcomes the honour of living parents, to whom, as is meet, we have topay the first and greatest and oldest of all debts, considering thatall which a man has belongs to those who gave him birth and broughthim up, and that he must do all that he can to minister to them,first, in his property, secondly, in his person, and thirdly, in hissoul, in return for the endless care and travail which they bestowedupon him of old, in the days of his infancy, and which he is now topay back to them when they are old and in the extremity of their need.