in which tribes and
phratries share; and in the second degree great when they are committed
against private rites and sepulchres, and in the third degree (not
to repeat the acts formerly mentioned), when insults are offered to
parents; the fourth kind of violence is when any one, regardless of the
authority of the rulers, takes or carries away or makes use of anything
which belongs to them, not having their consent; and the fifth kind
is when the violation of the civil rights of an individual demands
reparation. There should be a common law embracing all these cases. For
we have already said in general terms what shall be the punishment of
sacrilege, whether fraudulent or violent, and now we have to determine
what is to be the punishment of those who speak or act insolently toward
the Gods. But first we must give them an admonition which may be in the
following terms: No one who in obedience to the laws believed that
there were Gods, ever intentionally did any unholy act, or uttered
any unlawful word; but he who did must have supposed one of three
things--either that they did not exist--which is the first possibility,
or secondly, that, if they did, they took no care of man, or thirdly,
that they were easily appeased and turned aside from their purpose by
sacrifices and prayers.

CLEINIAS: What shall we say or do to these persons?

ATHENIAN: My good friend, let us first hear the jests which I suspect
that they in their superiority will utter against us.

CLEINIAS: What jests?

ATHENIAN: They will make some irreverent speech of this sort: 'O
inhabitants of Athens, and Sparta, and Cnosus,' they will reply, 'in
that you speak truly; for some of us deny the very existence of the
Gods, while others, as you say, are of opinion that they do not care
about us; and others that they are turned from their course by gifts.
Now we have a right to claim, as you yourself allowed, in the matter of
laws, that before you are hard upon us and threaten us, you should argue
with us and convince us--you should first attempt to teach and persuade
us that there are Gods by reasonable evidences, and also that they are
too good to be unrighteous, or to be propitiated, or turned from their
course by gifts. For when we hear such things said of them by those who
are esteemed to be the best of poets, and orators, and prophets, and
priests, and by innumerable others, the thoughts of most of us are
not set upon abstaining from unrighteous acts, b