do you mean?

ATHENIAN: In the first place, my dear friend, these people would say
that the Gods exist not by nature, but by art, and by the laws of
states, which are different in different places, according to the
agreement of those who make them; and that the honourable is one thing
by nature and another thing by law, and that the principles of justice
have no existence at all in nature, but that mankind are always
disputing about them and altering them; and that the alterations which
are made by art and by law have no basis in nature, but are of authority
for the moment and at the time at which they are made. These, my
friends, are the sayings of wise men, poets and prose writers, which
find a way into the minds of youth. They are told by them that the
highest right is might, and in this way the young fall into impieties,
under the idea that the Gods are not such as the law bids them imagine;
and hence arise factions, these philosophers inviting them to lead a
true life according to nature, that is, to live in real dominion over
others, and not in legal subjection to them.

CLEINIAS: What a dreadful picture, Stranger, have you given, and how
great is the injury which is thus inflicted on young men to the ruin
both of states and families!

ATHENIAN: True, Cleinias; but then what should the lawgiver do when
this evil is of long standing? should he only rise up in the state and
threaten all mankind, proclaiming that if they will not say and think
that the Gods are such as the law ordains (and this may be extended
generally to the honourable, the just, and to all the highest things,
and to all that relates to virtue and vice), and if they will not make
their actions conform to the copy which the law gives them, then he
who refuses to obey the law shall die, or suffer stripes and bonds,
or privation of citizenship, or in some cases be punished by loss of
property and exile? Should he not rather, when he is making laws for
men, at the same time infuse the spirit of persuasion into his words,
and mitigate the severity of them as far as he can?

CLEINIAS: Why, Stranger, if such persuasion be at all possible, then a
legislator who has anything in him ought never to weary of persuading
men; he ought to leave nothing unsaid in support of the ancient opinion
that there are Gods, and of all those other truths which you were
just now mentioning; he ought to support the law and also art, and
acknowledge that both alike exist by