第99章 BOOK IX(8)

And he who is disobedient shall be justly liable to the law concerning impiety,which relates to these matters.If any one is so violent in his passion against his parents,that in the madness of his anger he dares to kill one of them,if the murdered person before dying freely forgives the murderer,let him undergo the purification which is assigned to those who have been guilty of involuntary homicide,and do as they do,and he shall be pure.But if he be not acquitted,the perpetrator of such a deed shall be amenable to many laws;-he shall be amenable to the extreme punishments for assault,and impiety,and robbing of temples,for he has robbed his parent of life;and if a man could be slain more than once,most justly would he who in a fit of passion has slain father or mother,undergo many deaths.

How can he,whom,alone of all men,even in defence of his life,and when about to suffer death at the hands of his parents,no law will allow to kill his father or his mother who are the authors of his being,and whom the legislator will command to endure any extremity rather than do this-how can he,I say,lawfully receive any other punishment?Let death then be the appointed punishment of him who in a fit of passion slays his father or his mother.But if brother kills brother in a civil broil,or under other like circumstances,if the other has begun,and he only defends himself,let him be free from guilt,as he would be if he had slain an enemy;and the same rule will apply if a citizen kill a citizen,or a stranger a stranger.Or if a stranger kill a citizen or a citizen a stranger in self-defence,let him be free from guilt in like manner;and so in the case of a slave who has killed a slave;but if a slave have killed a freeman in self-defence,let him be subject to the same law as he who has killed a father;and let the law about the remission of penalties in the case of parricide apply equally to every other remission.Whenever any sufferer of his own accord remits the guilt of homicide to another,under the idea that his act was involuntary,let the perpetrator of the deed undergo a purification and remain in exile for a year,according to law.

Enough has been said of murders violent and involuntary and committed in passion:we have now to speak of voluntary crimes done with injustice of every kind and with premeditation,through the influence of pleasures,and desires,and jealousies.

Cle.Very good.

Ath.Let us first speak,as far as we are able,of their various kinds.The greatest cause of them is lust,which gets the mastery of the soul maddened by desire;and this is most commonly found to exist where the passion reigns which is strongest and most prevalent among mass of mankind:I mean where the power of wealth breeds endless desires of never-to-be-satisfied acquisition,originating in natural disposition,and a miserable want of education.Of this want of education,the false praise of wealth which is bruited about both among Hellenes and barbarians is the cause;they deem that to be the first of goods which in reality is only the third.And in this way they wrong both posterity and themselves,for nothing can be nobler and better than that the truth about wealth should be spoken in all states-namely,that riches are for the sake of the body,as the body is for the sake of the soul.They are good,and wealth is intended by nature to be for the sake of them,and is therefore inferior to them both,and third in order of excellence.This argument teaches us that he who would be happy ought not to seek to be rich,or rather he should seek to be rich justly and temperately,and then there would be no murders in states requiring to be purged away by other murders.But now,as I said at first,avarice is the chiefest cause and source of the worst trials for voluntary homicide.Asecond cause is ambition:this creates jealousies,which are troublesome companions,above all to the jealous man himself,and in a less degree to the chiefs of the state.And a third cause is cowardly and unjust fear,which has been the occasion of many murders.

When a man is doing or has done something which he desires that no one should know him to be doing or to have done,he will take the life of those who are likely to inform of such things,if he have no other means of getting rid of them.Let this be said as a prelude concerning crimes of violence in general;and I must not omit to mention a tradition which is firmly believed by many,and has been received by them from those who are learned in the mysteries:they say that such deeds will be punished in the world below,and also that when the perpetrators return to this world they will pay the natural penalty which is due to the sufferer,and end their lives in like manner by the hand of another.If he who is about to commit murder believes this,and is made by the mere prelude to dread such a penalty,there is no need to proceed with the proclamation of the law.

But if he will not listen,let the following law be declared and registered against him: