Ath. And, therefore, whether a person says that these things areto the Gods great or small-in either case it would not be naturalfor the Gods who own us, and who are the most careful and the bestof owners to neglect us.-There is also a further consideration.
Cle. What is it?
Ath. Sensation and power are in an inverse ratio to each other inrespect to their case and difficulty.
Cle. What do you mean?
Ath. I mean that there is greater difficulty in seeing and hearingthe small than the great, but more facility in moving andcontrolling and taking care of and unimportant things than of theiropposites.
Cle. Far more.
Ath. Suppose the case of a physician who is willing and able to curesome living thing as a whole-how will the whole fare at his hands ifhe takes care only of the greater and neglects the parts which arelesser?
Cle. Decidedly not well.
Ath. No better would be the result with pilots or generals, orhouseholders or statesmen, or any other such class, if theyneglected the small and regarded only the great;-as the builderssay, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser.
Cle. Of course not.
Ath. Let us not, then, deem God inferior to human workmen, who, inproportion to their skill, finish and perfect their works, small aswell as great, by one and the same art; or that God, the wisest ofbeings, who is both willing and able to take care, is like a lazygood-for-nothing, or a coward, who turns his back upon labour andgives no thought to smaller and easier matters, but to the greateronly.
Cle. Never, Stranger, let us admit a supposition about the Godswhich is both impious and false.
Ath. I think that we have now argued enough with him who delights toaccuse the Gods of neglect.
Cle. Yes.
Ath. He has been forced to acknowledge that he is in error, but hestill seems to me to need some words of consolation.
Cle. What consolation will you offer him?
Ath. Let us say to the youth:-The ruler of the universe hasordered all things with a view to the excellence and preservation ofthe whole, and each part, as far as may be, has an action andpassion appropriate to it. Over these, down to the least fraction ofthem, ministers have been appointed to preside, who have wrought outtheir perfection with infinitesimal exactness. And one of theseportions of the universe is thine own, unhappy man, which, howeverlittle, contributes to the whole; and you do not seem to be aware thatthis and every other creation is for the sake of the whole, and inorder that the life of the whole may be blessed; and that you arecreated for the sake of the whole, and not the whole for the sake ofyou. For every physician and every skilled artist does all thingsfor the sake of the whole, directing his effort towards the commongood, executing the part for the sake of the whole, and not thewhole for the sake of the part. And you are annoyed because you areignorant how what is best for you happens to you and to theuniverse, as far as the laws of the common creation admit. Now, as thesoul combining first with one body and then with another undergoes allsorts of changes, either of herself, or through the influence ofanother soul, all that remains to the player of the game is that heshould shift the pieces; sending the better nature to the betterplace, and the worse to the worse, and so assigning to them theirproper portion.
Cle. In what way do you mean?
Ath. In a way which may be supposed to make the care of all thingseasy to the Gods. If any one were to form or fashion all thingswithout any regard to the whole-if, for example, he formed a livingelement of water out of fire, instead of forming many things out ofone or one out of many in regular order attaining to a first or secondor third birth, the transmutation would have been infinite; but nowthe ruler of the world has a wonderfully easy task.
Cle. How so?
Ath. I will explain:-When the king saw that our actions had life,and that there was much virtue in them and much vice, and that thesoul and body, although not, like the Gods of popular opinion,eternal, yet having once come into existence, were indestructible (forif either of them had been destroyed, there would have been nogeneration of living beings); and when he observed that the good ofthe soul was ever by nature designed to profit men, and the evil toharm them-he, seeing all this, contrived so to place each of the partsthat their position might in the easiest and best manner procure thevictory of good and the defeat of evil in the whole. And hecontrived a general plan by which a thing of a certain nature founda certain seat and room. But the formation of qualities he left to thewills of individuals. For every one of us is made pretty much whathe is by the bent of his desires and the nature of his soul.
Cle. Yes, that is probably true.
Ath. Then all things which have a soul change, and possess inthemselves a principle of change, and in changing move according tolaw and to the order of destiny: natures which have undergone a lesserchange move less and on the earth"s surface, but those which havesuffered more change and have become more criminal sink into theabyss, that is to say, into Hades and other places in the world below,of which the very names terrify men, and which they picture tothemselves as in a dream, both while alive and when released fromthe body. And whenever the soul receives more of good or evil from herown energy and the strong influence of others-when she has communionwith divine virtue and becomes divine, she is carried into another andbetter place, which is perfect in holiness; but when she has communionwith evil, then she also changes the Place of her life.
This is the justice of the Gods who inhabit Olympus.
O youth or young man, who fancy that you are neglected by the Gods,know that if you become worse you shall go to the worse souls, or ifbetter to the better, and in every succession of life and death youwill do and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of like.