'Let us hear.' My dear friend, how falsely do we and all the Hellenes speak about the sun and moon! 'In what respect ?' We are always saying that they and certain of the other stars do not keep the same path, and we term them planets.

'Yes; and I have seen the morning and evening stars go all manner of ways, and the sun and moon doing what we know that they always do.

But I wish that you would explain your meaning further.' You will easily understand what I have had no difficulty in understanding myself, though we are both of us past the time of learning.

'True; but what is this marvellous knowledge which youth are to acquire, and of which we are ignorant ?' Men say that the sun, moon, and stars are planets or wanderers; but this is the reverse of the fact.
Each of them moves in one orbit only, which is circular, and not in many; nor is the swiftest of them the slowest, as appears to human eyes.
What an insult should we offer to Olympian runners if we were to put the first last and the last first! And if that is a ridiculous error in speaking of men, how much more in speaking of the Gods?
They cannot be pleased at our telling falsehoods about them.

'They cannot.' Then people should at least learn so much about them as will enable them to avoid impiety.
Enough of education.