LAWS by Plato - Complete text

Part 5 Page 44

Cle. That is very good Stranger; but I wish you would tell me more clearly what you mean.

Ath. O Cleinias, many things of old time were well said and sung; and the saying about the Fates was one of them.

Cle. What is it?

Ath. The saying that Lachesis or the giver of the lots is the first of them, and that Clotho or the spinster is the second of them, and that Atropos or the unchanging one is the third of them; and that she is the preserver of the things which we have spoken, and which have been compared in a figure to things woven by fire, they both (i.e., Atropos and the fire) producing the quality of unchangeableness. I am speaking of the things which in a state and government give not only health and salvation to the body, but law, or rather preservation of the law, in the soul; and, if I am not mistaken, this seems to be still wanting in our laws: we have still to see how we can implant in them this irreversible nature.

Cle. It will be no small matter if we can only discover how such a nature can be implanted in anything.

Ath. But it certainly can be; so much I clearly see.

Cle. Then let us not think of desisting until we have imparted this quality to our laws; for it is ridiculous, after a great deal of labour has been spent, to place a thing at last on an insecure foundation.

Megillus. I approve of your suggestion, and am quite of the same mind with you.

Cle. Very good: And now what, according to you, is to be the salvation of our government and of our laws, and how is it to be effected?

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