'How true! and oh! how injurious to states and to families!' But then, what should the lawgiver do?
Should he stand up in the state and threaten mankind with the severest penalties if they persist in their unbelief, while he makes no attempt to win them by persuasion?
'Nay, Stranger, the legislator ought never to weary of trying to persuade the world that there are Gods; and he should declare that law and art exist by nature.' Yes, Cleinias; but these are difficult and tedious questions.

'And shall our patience, which was not exhausted in the enquiry about music or drink, fail now that we are discoursing about the Gods?
There may be a difficulty in framing laws, but when written down they remain, and time and diligence will make them clear; if they are useful there would be neither reason nor religion in rejecting them on account of their length.' Most true.

And the general spread of unbelief shows that the legislator should do something in vindication of the laws, when they are being undermined by bad men.
'He should.' You agree with me, Cleinias, that the heresy consists in supposing earth, air, fire, and water to be the first of all things.
These the heretics call nature, conceiving them to be prior to the soul.
'I agree.' You would further agree that natural philosophy is the source of this impiety--the study appears to be pursued in a wrong way.

'In what way do you mean ?' The error consists in transposing first and second causes.

They do not see that the soul is before the body, and before all other things, and the author and ruler of them all.