w, the denial of a
providence, we have already met with in Xenophon in the character of
Aristodemus, and in the sophist Thrasymachus; Euripides, too, sometimes
alludes to it, though it was far from being his own opinion. Whether it
amounted to denial of the gods or not was, in ancient times, the cause of
much dispute; it is, of course, not atheism in our sense, but it is
certainly evidence that belief in the gods is shaken. The first view, on
the other hand, is sheer atheism. Plato consequently reckons with this as
a serious danger to the community; he mentions it as a widespread view
among the youth of his time, and in his legislation he sentences to death
those who fail to be converted. It would seem certain, therefore, that
there was, in reality, something in it after all.

Plato does not confine himself to defining atheism and laying down the
penalty for it; he at the same time, in accordance with a principle which
he generally follows in the _Laws_, discusses it and tries to disprove it.
In this way he happens to give us information--which is of special interest
to us--of the proofs which were adduced by its followers.

The argument is a twofold one. First comes the naturalistic proof; the
heavenly bodies, according to the general (and Plato's own) view the most
certain deities, are inanimate natural objects. It is interesting to note
that in speaking of this doctrine in detail reference is clearly made to
Anaxagoras; this confirms our afore-mentioned conjectures as to the
character of his work. Plato was quite in a position to deal with
Anaxagoras on the strength not only of what he said, but of what he passed
over in silence. The second argument is the well-known sophistic one, that
the gods are _nomoi_, not _physei_, they depend upon convention, which has
nothing to do with reality. In this connexion the argument adds that what
applies to the gods, applies also to right and wrong; _i.e._ we find here
in the _Laws_ the view with which we are familiar from Callicles in the
_Gorgias_, but with the missing link supplied. And Plato's development of
this theme shows clearly just what a general historical consideration
might lead us to expect, namely, that it was naturalism and sophistic that
jointly undermined the belief in the old gods.

CHAPTER V

With Socrates and his successors the whole question of the relation of
Greek thought to popular belief enters upon a new phase. The Socratic
philosophy is in