Kitap 4
716
Ath. What conduct, then, is dear to God and in his steps? One kind of conduct, expressed in one ancient phrase,Cp. Hom. Od. 17.218:ὡς αἰεὶ τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει θεὸς ὡς τὸν ὁμοῖον. The expression like to like became proverbial, like our Birds of a feather, etc. Usually it was applied more to the bad than to the good (or moderate) to which Plato here restricts it. namely, that like is dear to like when it is moderate, whereas immoderate things are dear neither to one another nor to things moderate. In our eyes God will be the measure of all things in the highest degree—a degree much higher than is any man they talk of.An allusion to the dictum of the sophist Protagoras—Man is the measure of all things, cp. Cratylus 386 A ff.; Theaetetus 152 A. He, then, that is to become dear to such an one must needs become, so far as he possibly can, of a like character; and, according to the present argument, he amongst us that is temperate is dear to God, since he is like him, while he that is not temperate is unlike and at enmity,—as is also he who is unjust, and so likewise with the rest, by parity of reasoning. On this there follows, let us observe, this further rule,—and of all rules it is the noblest and truest,—that to engage in sacrifice and communion with the gods continually, by prayers and offerings and devotions of every kind, is a thing most noble and good and helpful towards the happy life, and superlatively fitting also, for the good man; but for the wicked, the very opposite.
