To those believers who denounced Sokrates as a freethinker (Plat. Euthyp. p. 6 A) such arguments would probably appear satisfactory. "_Sunt Superis sua jura_" is a general principle, flexible and wide in its application. Of arguments analogous to those of Butler, really used in ancient times by advocates who defended the poets against censures like those of Plato, we find an illustrative specimen in the Scholia on Sophokles. At the beginning of the Elektra (35-50), Orestes comes back with his old attendant or tutor to Argos, bent on avenging the death of his father. He has been stimulated to that enterprise by the Gods (70), having consulted Apollo at Delphi, and having been directed by him to accomplish it not by armed force but by deceits ([Greek: do/loisi kle/psai], 36). Keeping himself concealed, he sends the old attendant into the house of Ægisthus, with orders to communicate a false narrative that he (Orestes) is dead, having perished by an accident in the Pythian chariot-race: and he directs the attendant to certify this falsehood by oath ([Greek: a)/ggelle d' o)/rkô| prostithei/s], 47). Upon which last words the Scholiast observes as follows:--"We must not take captious exception to the poet, as if he were here exhorting men to perjure themselves. For Orestes is bound to obey the God, who commands him to accomplish the whole by deceit; so that while he appears to be impious by swearing a false oath, he by that very act shows his piety, since he does it in obedience to the God"--[Greek: mê\ smikrolo/gôs tis e)pila/bêtai, ô(s keleu/ontos e)piorkei=n tou= poiêtou=; dei= ga\r au)to\n pei/thesthai tô=| theô=|, to\ pa=n do/lô| pra/ssein parakeleuome/nô|; ô(/ste e)n oi(=s dokei= e)piorkô=n dussebei=n, dia\ tou/tôn eu)sebei=, peitho/menos tô=| theô=|.]] [Side-note: Heresies ascribed to Sokrates by his own friends--Unpopularity of his name from this circumstance.] In reviewing the Platonic Republic, I have thought it necessary to appreciate the theological and pædagogic doctrines, not merely with reference to mankind in the abstract, but also as they appeared to the contemporaries among whom they were promulgated. [Side-note: Restrictions imposed by Plato upon musical modes and reciters.]