for the attack on
Homer and the poets; (3) the preparation which he is also making for the
use of economies in the State; (4) the contemptuous and at the same time
euphemistic manner in which here as below he alludes to the 'Chronique
Scandaleuse' of the gods.

BOOK III. There is another motive in purifying religion, which is to
banish fear; for no man can be courageous who is afraid of death, or who
believes the tales which are repeated by the poets concerning the world
below. They must be gently requested not to abuse hell; they may be
reminded that their stories are both untrue and discouraging. Nor must
they be angry if we expunge obnoxious passages, such as the depressing
words of Achilles--'I would rather be a serving-man than rule over
all the dead;' and the verses which tell of the squalid mansions, the
senseless shadows, the flitting soul mourning over lost strength and
youth, the soul with a gibber going beneath the earth like smoke, or
the souls of the suitors which flutter about like bats. The terrors and
horrors of Cocytus and Styx, ghosts and sapless shades, and the rest
of their Tartarean nomenclature, must vanish. Such tales may have their
use; but they are not the proper food for soldiers. As little can we
admit the sorrows and sympathies of the Homeric heroes:--Achilles, the
son of Thetis, in tears, throwing ashes on his head, or pacing up and
down the sea-shore in distraction; or Priam, the cousin of the gods,
crying aloud, rolling in the mire. A good man is not prostrated at
the loss of children or fortune. Neither is death terrible to him; and
therefore lamentations over the dead should not be practised by men of
note; they should be the concern of inferior persons only, whether women
or men. Still worse is the attribution of such weakness to the gods; as
when the goddesses say, 'Alas! my travail!' and worst of all, when the
king of heaven himself laments his inability to save Hector, or sorrows
over the impending doom of his dear Sarpedon. Such a character of God,
if not ridiculed by our young men, is likely to be imitated by them.
Nor should our citizens be given to excess of laughter--'Such violent
delights' are followed by a violent re-action. The description in the
Iliad of the gods shaking their sides at the clumsiness of Hephaestus
will not be admitted by us. 'Certainly not.'

Truth should have a high place among the virtues, for falsehood, as
we were saying, is useless to the gods, and only