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reason has the power to obey or not; for it was appointed to be a charioteer and to lead, but not to be led 5.32 and dragged along. He strengthened this argument also in the tenth book of the *Laws*, saying these things: "He has left the causes for our becoming of a certain quality to the will of each one of us; for in whatever way a man desires, and of whatever sort he is in his soul, in that way and of that sort he almost always becomes for the most part." And after a little he also added these things: "But a soul partakes more of evil and of virtue when it has changed through its own will and through powerful association, when it consorts with divine virtue and becomes exceptionally so, it is transferred to an exceptional and holy place, being wholly rearranged into some better, different place; but when 5.33 it does the opposite, it has established its own life in the opposite way." Here too he taught similarly, that the maker assigned the choice of better and worse things to the will of the soul. For the self-determination of the judgment prepares it to incline this way or that, while association and habit produce a strong disposition. When, therefore, having fallen in love with virtue, it has been molded into its form, it passes to another place, both holy and far better than the present ones; but having chosen vice and embraced the shameful life, 5.34 it receives in turn its appropriate region. And in the second book of the *Republic* he wrote things consonant with these; and he says these things: "Then God is good in reality, and must be so described? {-} Of course. {-} And none of the good things is harmful, is it? {-} It does not seem so to me. {-} Does that which is not harmful harm? {-} Not at all. {-} And does that which does not harm do any evil? {-} Not at all. {-} Nor would it be the cause of any evil? {-} How could it be? {-} And what? Is the good beneficial? {-} Yes. {-} A cause, then, of well-being? {-} Yes. {-} The good, then, is not the cause of all things, but of all things that are in a good state, it is not the cause of 5.35 evil things. {-} Entirely so, he said. {-} Then, I said, God, since he is good, would not be the cause of all things, as the many say, but he is the cause of few things for men, and of many things not the cause; for the good things are far fewer for us than the evil, and for the good things we must blame no one else, but for the evil things we must seek some other causes, but not God. {-} You seem to me to speak most truly, he said. {-} Then, I said, we must not accept from Homer or any other poet this error, sinning foolishly concerning the gods and saying that two jars lie on the threshold of Zeus, full of fates, one of good things, the other of evil things; and to whomever Zeus gives a mixture of both, he sometimes meets with evil, and at other times with good." 5.36 And so too with other such things from Homer and Hesiod, and indeed Aeschylus. Then he adds: "But that God, being good, is the cause of evils, we must contend in every way, that no one should say these things in his own city, if it is to be well-governed, nor should anyone hear them, neither younger nor older, whether told in meter or without meter, as they would be neither pious if spoken, nor beneficial for us, nor consistent with themselves. I vote with you, he said, for this law, and it pleases me. This, then, I said, would be one of the laws and patterns concerning God, in which it will be necessary for those who speak to speak and for those who create to create, that 5.37 God is not the cause of all things, but of the good." These things Plato taught us to think and believe both concerning God who made us and concerning ourselves, and he ordered us to expel those who say that God is the cause of evils; for he says this argument is impious and unprofitable for us and inconsistent with itself. For if God is good, as indeed he is—for this 5.38 is a common saying—then the good would not be the cause of evils. And if God is not the cause of the evils that happen—and we properly call evils not what are considered so by many, such as poverty and disease and other similar things, which some are fond of calling misfortunes, but vice and licentiousness, and the other transgressions—and these things are dared by us, then we are the cause of these things, and not God who legislated the opposite; for Socrates and Plato 5.39 taught us to think these things. These also the

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πείθεσθαι ἢ μὴ τὴν ἐξουσίαν ὁ λογισμός· ἡνιοχεῖν γὰρ ἐτάχθη καὶ ἄγειν, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἄγεσθαί 5.32 τε καὶ σύρεσθαι. Ἐκράτυνε δὲ τόνδε τὸν λόγον κἀν τῷ δεκάτῳ τῶν Νόμων, ταῦτα εἰπών· "Τῆς δὲ γενέσεως τοῦ ποιοῦ τινος ἀφῆκε ταῖς βουλήσεσιν ἑκάστων ἡμῶν αὐτῶν τὰς αἰτίας· ὅπῃ γὰρ ἂν ἐπιθυμῇ, καὶ ὁποῖος ἂν ὢν τὴν ψυχήν, ταύτῃ σχεδὸν ἑκάστοτε καὶ τοιοῦτος ἡμῶν γίνεται ἅπας ὡς τὸ πολύ." Καὶ μετὰ βραχέα δὲ καὶ ταῦτα προστέθεικεν· "Μείζω δὲ δὴ ψυχὴ κακίας καὶ ἀρε τῆς ὁπόταν μεταλάβῃ διὰ τὴν αὑτῆς βούλησίν τε καὶ ὁμιλίαν γενομένην ἰσχυράν, ὁπόταν μὲν ἀρετῇ θείᾳ προσμίξασα γίνηται διαφερόντως τὰ τοιαῦτα, διαφέροντα καὶ μετέλαβε τόπον ἅγιον, ὅλη μετακοσμηθεῖσα εἰς ἀμείνω τινὰ τόπον ἕτερον· ὅταν δὲ 5.33 τἀναντία, κατὰ τἀναντία μεθιδρύσατο τὸν αὑτῆς βίον." Κἀν ταῦθα παραπλησίως ἐδίδαξεν, ὡς τῇ βουλήσει τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπ ένειμεν ὁ ποιητὴς τῶν κρειττόνων καὶ τῶν χειρόνων τὴν αἵρεσιν. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ τῆς γνώμης αὐθαίρετον τῇδε ῥέπειν ἢ ἐκεῖσε παρα σκευάζει, ἡ δὲ ὁμιλία καὶ τὸ ἔθος ἰσχυρὰν τὴν ἕξιν ἐργάζεται. Ὅταν οὖν ἀρετῆς ἐρασθεῖσα τὴν ταύτης ἰδέαν ἐκμάξηται, εἰς ἕτερόν τινα μεταβαίνει τόπον ἅγιόν τε καὶ πολλῷ τῶν παρόντων ἀμείνονα· τὴν δὲ κακίαν ἑλομένη καὶ τὸν ἐπονείδιστον βίον 5.34 ἀσπασαμένη, λαγχάνει πάλιν τὸν κατάλληλον χῶρον. Κἀν τῷ δευτέρῳ δὲ τῆς Πολιτείας ξυνῳδὰ τούτοις ξυνέγραψε· λέγει δὲ ταῦτα· "Οὐκοῦν ἀγαθὸς ὁ θεὸς τῷ ὄντι γε, καὶ λεκτέον οὕτω; {-} Τί μήν; {-} Οὐδὲν δὲ τῶν ἀγαθῶν βλαβερόν· ἦ γάρ; {-} Οὔ μοι δοκεῖ. {-} Ἆρα τὸ μὴ βλαβερὸν βλάπτει; {-} Οὐδαμῶς. {-} Ὃ δὲ μὴ βλάπτει κακόν τι ποιεῖ; {-} Οὐδαμῶς. {-} Οὐδ' ἄν τινος εἴη κακοῦ αἴτιον; {-} Πῶς γάρ; {-} Τί δέ; ὠφέλιμον τὸ ἀγαθόν; {-} Ναί. {-} Αἴτιον ἄρα εὐπραγίας; {-} Ναί. {-} Οὐκ ἄρα γε πάντων αἴτιον τὸ ἀγαθόν, ἀλλὰ τῶν μὲν εὖ ἐχόντων πάντων, τῶν δὲ 5.35 κακῶν ἀναίτιον. {-} Παντελῶς γε, ἔφη. {-} Οὐκ ἄρα, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, ὁ θεός, ἐπεὶ ἀγαθός, πάντων ἂν εἴη αἴτιος, ὡς οἱ πολλοὶ λέ γουσιν, ἀλλ' ὀλίγων μὲν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις αἴτιος, πολλῶν δὲ ἀναί τιος· πολὺ γὰρ ἐλάττω τὰ ἀγαθὰ τῶν κακῶν ἡμῖν, καὶ τῶν μὲν ἀγαθῶν οὐδένα ἄλλον αἰτιατέον, τῶν δὲ κακῶν ἄλλα ἄττα δεῖ ζητεῖν αἴτια, ἀλλ' οὐ τὸν θεόν. {-} Ἀληθέστατα, ἔφη, δοκεῖς μοι λέγειν. {-} Οὐκ ἄρα, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, ἀποδεκτέον οὔτε Ὁμήρου οὔτε ἄλλου ποιητοῦ ταύτην τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἀνοήτως περὶ τοὺς θεοὺς ἁμαρτάνοντος καὶ λέγοντος, ὡς δύο πίθοι κατακείαται ἐν ∆ιὸς οὔδει κηρῶν ἔμπλειοι, ὁ μὲν ἐσθλῶν, αὐτὰρ ὁ δειλῶν· καὶ ᾧ μὲν ἂν μίξας ὁ Ζεὺς ἀμφότερα δῷ, ἄλλοτε μέν τε κακῷ ὅ γε κύρεται, ἄλλοτε δ' ἐσθλῷ." 5.36 Οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τὰ τοιαῦτα καὶ Ὁμήρου καὶ Ἡσιόδου καὶ μέντοι καὶ Αἰσχύλου. Εἶτα ἐπάγει· "Κακῶν δὲ αἴτιον φάναι τὸν θεόν, ἀγαθὸν ὄντα, διαμαχητέον παντὶ τρόπῳ, μήτε τινὰ λέ γειν ταῦτα ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ πόλει, εἰ μέλλει εὐνομήσεσθαι, μήτε τινὰ ἀκούειν, μήτε νεώτερον μήτε πρεσβύτερον, μήτε ἐν μέτρῳ μήτε ἄνευ μέτρου μυθολογοῦντα, ὡς οὔτε ὅσια ἂν λεγόμενα, εἰ λέ γοιτο, οὔτε ξύμφορα ἡμῖν οὔτε ξύμφωνα αὑτοῖς. Ξύμψηφός σού εἰμι, ἔφη, τούτου τοῦ νόμου, καί μοι ἀρέσκει. Οὗτος μέντοι, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, εἷς ἂν εἴη τῶν περὶ θεοῦ νόμων τε καὶ τύπων, ἐν οἷς δεήσει τούς τε λέγοντας λέγειν καὶ τοὺς ποιοῦντας ποιεῖν, μὴ 5.37 πάντων αἴτιον τὸν θεόν, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀγαθῶν." Ταῦτα καὶ περὶ τοῦ πεποιηκότος ἡμᾶς Θεοῦ καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν δέ γε αὐτῶν καὶ φρονεῖν καὶ δοξάζειν ὁ Πλάτων ἐδίδαξε καὶ τοὺς κακῶν αἴτιον εἶναι τὸν Θεὸν λέγοντας ἐξελαύνειν ἐκέλευσε· καὶ γὰρ ἀνόσιον εἶναι τόνδε τὸν λόγον φησὶ καὶ ἀξύμφορον ἡμῖν καὶ ἀξύμφωνον ἑαυτῷ. Εἰ γὰρ ἀγαθὸς ὁ Θεός, ὥσπερ οὖν ἀγαθός-κοινὸς γὰρ 5.38 οὗτος ὁ λόγος-οὐκ ἄρα κακῶν αἴτιος ὁ ἀγαθὸς γένοιτ' ἄν. Εἰ δὲ ἀναίτιος ὁ Θεὸς τῶν γινομένων κακῶν-κακὰ δὲ κυρίως ὀνομάζομεν οὐ τὰ παρὰ πολλῶν νομιζόμενα, πενίαν καὶ νόσον καὶ τἄλλα, ὅσα τούτοις ἐστὶ παραπλήσια, ἃς ξυμφορὰς ὀνομάζειν φίλον τισίν, ἀλλὰ κακίαν καὶ ἀκολασίαν, καὶ τὰς ἄλλας παρανο μίας-ὑφ' ἡμῶν δὲ ταῦτα τολμᾶται, ἡμεῖς ἄρα τούτων αἴτιοι, καὶ οὐχ ὁ τἀναντία νομοθετήσας Θεός· ταῦτα γὰρ ἡμᾶς φρονεῖν 5.39 καὶ Σωκράτης καὶ Πλάτων ἐδίδαξαν. Οὗτοι καὶ τὸ