O my son, you are young; time and experience will make you change many
of your opinions. Do not be hasty in forming a conclusion about the
divine nature; and let me mention to you a fact which I know. You and
your friends are not the first or the only persons who have had these
notions about the Gods. There are always a considerable number who are
infected by them: I have known many myself, and can assure you that no
one who was an unbeliever in his youth ever persisted till he was old in
denying the existence of the Gods. The two other opinions, first, that
the Gods exist and have no care of men, secondly, that they care for
men, but may be propitiated by sacrifices and prayers, may indeed last
through life in a few instances, but even this is not common. I would
beg of you to be patient, and learn the truth of the legislator and
others; in the mean time abstain from impiety. 'So far, our discourse
has gone well.'
I will now speak of a strange doctrine, which is regarded by many as the
crown of philosophy. They affirm that all things come into being either
by art or nature or chance, and that the greater things are done by
nature and chance, and the lesser things by art, which receiving from
nature the greater creations, moulds and fashions all those lesser works
which are termed works of art. Their meaning is that fire, water, earth,
and air all exist by nature and chance, and not by art; and that out of
these, according to certain chance affinities of opposites, the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the earth have been framed, not by any action of
mind, but by nature and chance only. Thus, in their opinion, the heaven
and earth were created, as well as the animals and plants. Art came
later, and is of mortal birth; by her power were invented certain
images and very partial imitations of the truth, of which kind are the
creations of musicians and painters: but they say that there are
other arts which combine with nature, and have a deeper truth, such as
medicine, husbandry, gymnastic. Also the greater part of politics they
imagine to co-operate with nature, but in a less degree, having more of
art, while legislation is declared by them to be wholly a work of art.
'How do you mean?' In the first place, they say that the Gods exist
neither by nature nor by art, but by the laws of states, which are
different in different countries; and that virtue is one thing by nature
and another by convention; and that justice is altogether conventional,
made by law, and having authority for the moment only. This is repeated
to young men by sages and poets, and leads to impiety, and the pretended
life according to nature and in disobedience to law; for nobody believes
the Gods to be such as the law affirms. 'How true! and oh! how injurious
to states and to families!' But then, what should the lawgiver do?
Should he stand up in the state and threaten mankind with the severest
penalties if they persist in their unbelief, while he makes no attempt