se of Reformation for five years at least,
and not allowed to see any one but members of the Nocturnal Council,
who shall converse with them touching their souls health. If any of the
prisoners come to their right mind, at the end of five years let them be
restored to sane company; but he who again offends shall die. As to
that class of monstrous natures who not only believe that the Gods are
negligent, or may be propitiated, but pretend to practise on the souls
of quick and dead, and promise to charm the Gods, and to effect the ruin
of houses and states--he, I say, who is guilty of these things, shall
be bound in the central prison, and shall have no intercourse with
any freeman, receiving only his daily rations of food from the public
slaves; and when he dies, let him be cast beyond the border; and if any
freeman assist to bury him, he shall be liable to a suit for impiety.
But the sins of the father shall not be visited upon his children, who,
like other orphans, shall be educated by the state. Further, let there
be a general law which will have a tendency to repress impiety. No man
shall have religious services in his house, but he shall go with his
friends to pray and sacrifice in the temples. The reason of this is,
that religious institutions can only be framed by a great intelligence.
But women and weak men are always consecrating the event of the moment;
they are under the influence of dreams and apparitions, and they build
altars and temples in every village and in any place where they have
had a vision. The law is designed to prevent this, and also to deter men
from attempting to propitiate the Gods by secret sacrifices, which
only multiply their sins. Therefore let the law run:--No one shall
have private religious rites; and if a man or woman who has not been
previously noted for any impiety offend in this way, let them be
admonished to remove their rites to a public temple; but if the offender
be one of the obstinate sort, he shall be brought to trial before the
guardians, and if he be found guilty, let him die.

BOOK XI. As to dealings between man and man, the principle of them is
simple--Thou shalt not take what is not thine; and shalt do to others as
thou wouldst that they should do to thee. First, of treasure trove:--May
I never desire to find, or lift, if I find, or be induced by the counsel
of diviners to lift, a treasure which one who was not my ancestor has
laid down; for I shall not gain so much in m