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【正文】 condly, that, if they did, they took no care of man, orthirdly, that they were easily appeased and turned aside from theirpurpose, by sacrifices and prayers.Cleinias. What shall we say or do to these persons?Athenian Stranger. My good friend, let us first hear the jests whichI suspect that they in their superiority will utter against us.Cle. What jests?Ath. They will make some irreverent speech of this sort:Oinhabitants of Athens, and Sparta, and Cnosus, they will reply, inthat you speak truly。 for some of us deny the very existence of theGods, while others, as you say, are of opinion that they do not careabout us。 and others that they are turned from their course bygifts. Now we have a right to claim, as you yourself allowed, in thematter of laws, that before you are hard upon us and threaten us,you should argue with us and convince usyou should first attempt toteach and persuade us that there are Gods by reasonable evidences, andalso that they are too good to be unrighteous, or to be propitiated,or turned from their course by gifts. For when we hear such thingssaid of them by those who are esteemed to be the best of poets, andorators, and prophets, and priests, and by innumerable others, thethoughts of most of us are not set upon abstaining from unrighteousacts, but upon doing them and atoning for them. When lawgivers professthat they are gentle and not stern, we think that they should first ofall use persuasion to us, and show us the existence of Gods, if not ina better manner than other men, at any rate in a truer。 and whoknows but that we shall hearken to you? If then our request is afair one, please to accept our challenge.Cle. But is there any difficulty in proving the existence of theGods?Ath. How would you prove it?Cle. How? In the first place, the earth and the sun, and the starsand the universe, and the fair order of the seasons, and thedivision of them into years and months, furnish proofs of theirexistence。 and also there is the fact that all Hellenes and barbariansbelieve in them.Ath. I fear, my sweet friend, though I will not say that I muchregard, the contempt with which the profane will be likely to assailus. For you do not understand the nature of their plaint, and youfancy that they rush into impiety only from a love of sensualpleasure.Cle. Why, Stranger, what other reason is there?Ath. One which you who live in a different atmosphere would neverguess.Cle. What is it?Ath. A very grievous sort of ignorance which is imagined to be thegreatest wisdom.Cle. What do you mean?Ath. At Athens there are tales preserved in writing which the virtueof your state, as I am informed, refuses to admit. They speak of theGods in prose as well as verse, and the oldest of them tell of theorigin of the heavens and of the world, and not far from the beginningof their story they proceed to narrate the birth of the Gods, andhow after they were born they behaved to one another. Whether thesestories have in other ways a good or a bad influence, I should notlike to be severe upon them, because they are ancient。 but, looking atthem with reference to the duties of children to their parents, Icannot praise them, or think that they are useful, or at all the words of the ancients I have nothing more to say。 and Ishould wish to say of them only what is pleasing to the Gods. But asto our younger generation and their wisdom, I cannot let them off whenthey do mischief. For do but mark the effect of their words: whenyou and I argue for the existence of the Gods, and produce the sun,moon, stars, and earth, claiming for them a divine being, if wewould listen to the aforesaid philosophers we should say that they areearth and stones only, which can have no care at all of human affairs,and that all religion is a cooking up of words and a makebelieve.Cle. One such teacher, O Stranger, would be bad enough, and youimply that there are many of them, which is worse.Ath. Well, then。 what shall we say or do?Shall we assume thatsome one is accusing us among unholy men, who are trying to escapefrom the effect of our legislation。 and that they say of usHowdreadful that you should legislate on the supposition that there areGods! Shall we make a defence of ourselves? or shall we leave them andreturn to our laws, lest the prelude should bee longer than thelaw? For the discourse will certainly extend to great length, if weare to treat the impiously disposed as they desire, partlydemonstrating to them at some length the things of which they demandan explanation, partly making them afraid or dissatisfied, and thenproceed to the requisite enactments.Cle. Yes, Stranger。 but then how often have we repeated already thaton the present occasion there is no reason why brevity should bepreferred to length。 who is at our heels?as the saying goes, and itwould be paltry and ridiculous to prefer the shorter to the better. Itis a matter of no small consequence, in some way or other to provethat there are Gods, and that they are good, and regard justice morethan men do. The demonstration of this would be the best and noblestprelude of all our laws. And therefore, without impatience, andwithout hurry, let us unreservedly consider the whole matter,summoning up all the power of persuasion which we possess.Ath. Seeing you thus in earnest, I would fain offer up a prayer thatI may succeed:but I must proceed at once. Who can be calm when heis called upon to prove the existence of the Gods? Who can avoidhating and abhorring the men who are and have been the cause of thisargument。 I speak of those who will not believe the tales which theyhave heard as babes and sucklings from their mothers and nurses,repeated by them both in jest and earnest, like charms, who havealso heard them in the sacrificial prayers, and seen sightsacpanying themsights and sounds delightful to childrenand theirparents during the sacrifices showing an intense earnestness on behalfof their children and of themselves, and with eag