{xxxv} And our first principle is, that God must be represented as he is;
not as the author of all things, but of good only. We will not suffer the
poets to say that he is the steward of good and evil, or that he has two
casks full of destinies;--or that Athene and Zeus incited Pandarus to
break the treaty; or that *380* God caused the sufferings of Niobe, or of
Pelops, or the Trojan war; or that he makes men sin when he wishes to
destroy them. Either these were not the actions of the gods, or God was
just, and men were the better for being punished. But that the deed was
evil, and God the author, is a wicked, suicidal fiction which we will
allow no one, old or young, to utter. This is our first and great
principle--God is the author of good only.
And the second principle is like unto it:--With God is no variableness or
change of form. Reason teaches us this; for if we suppose a change in God,
he must be changed either by another or by himself. By another?--but the
best works of nature and art *381* and the noblest qualities of mind are
least liable to be changed by any external force. By himself?--but he
cannot change for the better; he will hardly change for the worse. He
remains for ever fairest and best in his own image. Therefore we refuse to
listen to the poets who tell us of Here begging in the likeness of a
priestess or of other deities who prowl about at night in strange
disguises; all that blasphemous nonsense with which mothers fool the
manhood out of their children must be suppressed. *382* But some one will
say that God, who is himself unchangeable, may take a form in relation to
us. Why should he? For gods as well as men hate the lie in the soul, or
principle of falsehood; and as for any other form of lying which is used
for a purpose and is regarded as innocent in certain exceptional
cases--what need have the gods of this? For they are not ignorant of
antiquity like the poets, nor are they afraid of their enemies, nor is any
madman a friend of theirs. *383* God then is true, he is absolutely true;
he changes not, he deceives not, by day or night, by word or sign. This is
our second great principle--God is true. Away with the lying dream of
Agamemnon in Homer, and the accusation of Thetis against Apollo in
Aeschylus....
[Sidenote: _Republic II._ Introduction.]