ENIAN: And the one, like other meaner things, is a human quality, but
the Gods have no part in anything of the sort?

CLEINIAS: That again is what everybody will admit.

ATHENIAN: But do we imagine carelessness and idleness and luxury to be
virtues? What do you think?

CLEINIAS: Decidedly not.

ATHENIAN: They rank under the opposite class?

CLEINIAS: Yes.

ATHENIAN: And their opposites, therefore, would fall under the opposite
class?

CLEINIAS: Yes.

ATHENIAN: But are we to suppose that one who possesses all these good
qualities will be luxurious and heedless and idle, like those whom the
poet compares to stingless drones?

CLEINIAS: And the comparison is a most just one.

ATHENIAN: Surely God must not be supposed to have a nature which He
Himself hates? he who dares to say this sort of thing must not be
tolerated for a moment.

CLEINIAS: Of course not. How could he have?

ATHENIAN: Should we not on any principle be entirely mistaken in
praising any one who has some special business entrusted to him, if he
have a mind which takes care of great matters and no care of small ones?
Reflect; he who acts in this way, whether he be God or man, must act
from one of two principles.

CLEINIAS: What are they?

ATHENIAN: Either he must think that the neglect of the small matters
is of no consequence to the whole, or if he knows that they are of
consequence, and he neglects them, his neglect must be attributed to
carelessness and indolence. Is there any other way in which his neglect
can be explained? For surely, when it is impossible for him to take care
of all, he is not negligent if he fails to attend to these things
great or small, which a God or some inferior being might be wanting in
strength or capacity to manage?

CLEINIAS: Certainly not.

ATHENIAN: Now, then, let us examine the offenders, who both alike
confess that there are Gods, but with a difference--the one saying that
they may be appeased, and the other that they have no care of small
matters: there are three of us and two of them, and we will say to
them--In the first place, you both acknowledge that the Gods hear and
see and know all things, and that nothing can escape them which is
matter of sense and knowledge: do you admit this?

CLEINIAS: Yes.

ATHENIAN: And do you admit also that they have all power which mortals
and immortals can have?

CLEINIAS: They will, of course, admit this also.

ATHENIAN: And surely we three and they two--fiv