[380c]
neither younger nor older, neither telling a
story in meter or without meter; for neither would the saying of such
things, if they are said, be holy, nor would they be profitable to us or
concordant with themselves.” “I cast my vote with yours
for this law,” he said, “and am well pleased with
it.” “This, then,” said I, “will be
one of the laws and patterns concerning the gods1 to which speakers and poets will be required
to conform, that God is not the cause of all things, but only of the
good.” “And an entirely satisfactory one,” he
said.
1 Minucius Felix says of Plato's theology, Octav. chap. xix: “Platoni apertior de deo et rebus ipsis et nominibus oratio est et quae tota esset caelestis nisi persuasionis civilis nonnunquam admixtione sordesceret.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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