In short, these things being disposed in such order, and with so much care, can you hesitate one moment to determine whether it be an effect of providence or of chance ?" "I doubt not of it in the least," replied Aristodemus, "and the more I fix my thoughts on the contemplation of these things the more I am persuaded that all this is the masterpiece of a great workman, who bears an extreme love to men." "What say you," continued Socrates, "to this, that he gives all animals a desire to engender and propagate their kind; that he inspires the mothers with tenderness and affection to bring up their young; and that, from the very hour of their birth, he infuses into them this great love of life and this mighty aversion to death ?" "I say," replied Aristodemus, "that it is an effect of his great care for their preservation." "This is not all," said Socrates, "answer me yet farther; perhaps you would rather interrogate me.

You are not, I persuade myself, ignorant that you are endowed with understanding; do you then think that there is not elsewhere an intelligent being?
Particularly, if you consider that your body is only a little earth taken from that great mass which you behold.

The moist that composes you is only a small drop of that immense heap of water that makes the sea; in a word, your body contains only a small part of all the elements, which are elsewhere in great quantity.

There is nothing then but your understanding alone, which, by a wonderful piece of good fortune, must have come to you from I know not whence, if there were none in another place; and can it then be said that all this universe and all these so vast and numerous bodies have been disposed in so much order, without the help of an intelligent Being, and by mere chance ?" "I find it very difficult to understand it otherwise," answered Aristodemus, "because I see not the gods, who, you say, make and govern all things, as I see the artificers who do any piece of work amongst us." "Nor do you see your soul neither," answered Socrates, "which governs your body; but, because you do not see it, will you from thence infer you do nothing at all by its direction, but that everything you do is by mere chance ?" Aristodemus now wavering said, "I do not despise the Deity, but I conceive such an idea of his magnificence and self-sufficiency, that I imagine him to have no need of me or my services." "You are quite wrong," said Socrates, "for by how much the gods, who are so magnificent, vouchsafe to regard you, by so much you are bound to praise and adore them." "It is needless for me to tell you," answered Aristodemus, "that, if I believed the gods interested themselves in human affairs, I should not neglect to worship them." "How!" replied Socrates, "you do not believe the gods take care of men, they who have not only given to man, in common with other animals, the senses of seeing, hearing, and taste, but have also given him to walk upright; a privilege which no other animal can boast of, and which is of mighty use to him to look forward, to remote objects, to survey with facility those above him, and to defend himself from any harm?
Besides, although the animals that walk have feet, which serve them for no other use than to walk, yet, herein, have the gods distinguished man, in that, besides feet, they have given him hands, the instruments of a thousand grand and useful actions, on which account he not only excels, but is happier than all animals besides.

And, further, though all animals have tongues, yet none of them can speak, like man's; his tongue only can form words, by which he declares his thoughts, and communicates them to others.