neration has been turned back, and they are put together and rise and
live in the opposite order, unless God has carried any of them away to
some other lot. According to this tradition they of necessity sprang
from the earth and have the name of earth-born, and so the above legend
clings to them.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly that is quite consistent with what has
preceded; but tell me, was the life which you said existed in the reign
of Cronos in that cycle of the world, or in this? For the change in the
course of the stars and the sun must have occurred in both.

STRANGER: I see that you enter into my meaning;--no, that blessed and
spontaneous life does not belong to the present cycle of the world, but
to the previous one, in which God superintended the whole revolution of
the universe; and the several parts the universe were distributed under
the rule of certain inferior deities, as is the way in some places
still. There were demigods, who were the shepherds of the various
species and herds of animals, and each one was in all respects
sufficient for those of whom he was the shepherd; neither was there any
violence, or devouring of one another, or war or quarrel among them;
and I might tell of ten thousand other blessings, which belonged to that
dispensation. The reason why the life of man was, as tradition says,
spontaneous, is as follows: In those days God himself was their
shepherd, and ruled over them, just as man, who is by comparison a
divine being, still rules over the lower animals. Under him there were
no forms of government or separate possession of women and children;
for all men rose again from the earth, having no memory of the past. And
although they had nothing of this sort, the earth gave them fruits in
abundance, which grew on trees and shrubs unbidden, and were not planted
by the hand of man. And they dwelt naked, and mostly in the open air,
for the temperature of their seasons was mild; and they had no beds, but
lay on soft couches of grass, which grew plentifully out of the earth.
Such was the life of man in the days of Cronos, Socrates; the character
of our present life, which is said to be under Zeus, you know from your
own experience. Can you, and will you, determine which of them you deem
the happier?

YOUNG SOCRATES: Impossible.

STRANGER: Then shall I determine for you as well as I can?

YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means.

STRANGER: Suppose that the nurslings of Cronos, having this boundless
l