The proof that there are Gods who are good, and the friends of justice, is the best preamble of all our laws.' Come, let us talk with the impious, who have been brought up from their infancy in the belief of religion, and have heard their own fathers and mothers praying for them and talking with the Gods as if they were absolutely convinced of their existence; who have seen mankind prostrate in prayer at the rising and setting of the sun and moon and at every turn of fortune, and have dared to despise and disbelieve all this.

Can we keep our temper with them, when they compel us to argue on such a theme?
We must; or like them we shall go mad, though with more reason.

Let us select one of them and address him as follows: O my son, you are young; time and experience will make you change many of your opinions.

Do not be hasty in forming a conclusion about the divine nature; and let me mention to you a fact which I know.

You and your friends are not the first or the only persons who have had these notions about the Gods.