And all his life long he ought never to utter, or to have uttered,an unbecoming word to them; for of light and fleeting words thepenalty is most severe; Nemesis, the messenger of justice, isappointed to watch over all such matters. When they are angry and wantto satisfy their feelings in word or deed, he should give way to them;for a father who thinks that he has been wronged by his son may bereasonably expected to be very angry. At their death, the mostmoderate funeral is best, neither exceeding the customary expense, noryet falling short of the honour which has been usually shown by theformer generation to their parents. And let a man not forget to paythe yearly tribute of respect to the dead, honouring them chiefly byomitting nothing that conduces to a perpetual remembrance of them, andgiving a reasonable portion of his fortune to the dead. Doing this,and living after this manner, we shall receive our reward from theGods and those who are above us [i.e., the demons]; and we shall spendour days for the most part in good hope. And how a man ought toorder what relates to his descendants and his kindred and friendsand fellow-citizens, and the rites of hospitality taught by Heaven,and the intercourse which arises out of all these duties, with aview to the embellishment and orderly regulation of his own life-thesethings, I say, the laws, as we proceed with them, will accomplish,partly persuading, and partly when natures do not yield to thepersuasion of custom, chastising them by might and right, and willthus render our state, if the Gods co-operate with us, prosperousand happy. But of what has to be said, and must be said by thelegislator who is of my way of thinking, and yet, if said in theform of law, would be out of place-of this I think that he may givea sample for the instruction of himself and of those for whom he islegislating; and then when, as far as he is able, he has gonethrough all the preliminaries, he may proceed to the work oflegislation. Now, what will be the form of such prefaces? There may bea difficulty in including or describing them all under a singleform, but I think that we may get some notion of them if we canguarantee one thing.
Cle. What is that?
Ath. I should wish the citizens to be as readily persuaded to virtueas possible; this will surely be the aim of the legislator in allhis laws.
Cle. Certainly.
Ath. The proposal appears to me to be of some value; and I thinkthat a person will listen with more gentleness and good-will to theprecepts addressed to him by the legislator, when his soul is notaltogether unprepared to receive them. Even a little done in the wayof conciliation gains his ear, and is always worth having. For thereis no great inclination or readiness on the part of mankind to be madeas good, or as quickly good, as possible. The case of the manyproves the wisdom of Hesiod, who says that the road to wickedness issmooth and can be travelled without perspiring, because it is sovery short:
But before virtue the immortal Gods have placed the sweat of labour,and long and steep is the way thither, and rugged at first; but whenyou have reached the top, although difficult before, it is then easy.
Cle. Yes; and he certainly speaks well.
Ath. Very true: and now let me tell you the effect which thepreceding discourse has had upon me.
Cle. Proceed.
Ath. Suppose that we have a little conversation with the legislator,and say to him-"O, legislator, speak; if you know what we ought to sayand do, you can surely tell."Cle. Of course he can.
Ath. "Did we not hear you just now saying, that the legislator oughtnot to allow the poets to do what they liked? For that they wouldnot know in which of their words they went against the laws, to thehurt of the state."Cle. That is true.
Ath. May we not fairly make answer to him on behalf of the poets?
Cle. What answer shall we make to him?
Ath. That the poet, according to the tradition which has everprevailed among us, and is accepted of all men, when he sits down onthe tripod of the muse, is not in his right mind; like a fountain,he allows to flow out freely whatever comes in, and his art beingimitative, he is often compelled to represent men of oppositedispositions, and thus to contradict himself; neither can he tellwhether there is more truth in one thing that he has said than inanother. this is not the case in a law; the legislator must give nottwo rules about the same thing, but one only. Take an example fromwhat you have just been saying. Of three kinds of funerals, there isone which is too extravagant, another is too niggardly, the third is amean; and you choose and approve and order the last withoutqualification. But if I had an extremely rich wife, and she bade mebury her and describe her burial in a poem, I should praise theextravagant sort; and a poor miserly man, who had not much money tospend, would approve of the niggardly; and the man of moderatemeans, who was himself moderate, would praise a moderate funeral.
Now you in the capacity of legislator must not barely say "amoderate funeral," but you must define what moderation is, and howmuch; unless you are definite, you must not suppose that you arespeaking a language that can become law.
Cle. Certainly not.
Ath. And is our legislator to have no preface to his laws, but tosay at once Do this, avoid that-and then holding the penalty interrorem to go on to another law; offering never a word of advice orexhortation to those for whom he is legislating, after the manner ofsome doctors? For of doctors, as I may remind you, some have agentler, others a ruder method of cure; and as children ask the doctorto be gentle with them, so we will ask the legislator to cure ourdisorders with the gentlest remedies. What I mean to say is, thatbesides doctors there are doctors" servants, who are also styleddoctors.
Cle. Very true.
Ath. And whether they are slaves or freemen makes no difference;they acquire their knowledge of medicine by obeying and observingtheir masters; empirically and not according to the natural way oflearning, as the manner of freemen is, who have learned scientificallythemselves the art which they impart scientifically to their pupils.
You are aware that there are these two classes of doctors?
Cle. To be sure.