then think that there is not elsewhere an intelligent being?
Particularly, if you consider that your body is only a little earth taken
from that great mass which you behold. The moist that composes you is
only a small drop of that immense heap of water that makes the sea; in a
word, your body contains only a small part of all the elements, which are
elsewhere in great quantity. There is nothing then but your
understanding alone, which, by a wonderful piece of good fortune, must
have come to you from I know not whence, if there were none in another
place; and can it then be said that all this universe and all these so
vast and numerous bodies have been disposed in so much order, without the
help of an intelligent Being, and by mere chance?" "I find it very
difficult to understand it otherwise," answered Aristodemus, "because I
see not the gods, who, you say, make and govern all things, as I see the
artificers who do any piece of work amongst us." "Nor do you see your
soul neither," answered Socrates, "which governs your body; but, because
you do not see it, will you from thence infer you do nothing at all by
its direction, but that everything you do is by mere chance?" Aristodemus
now wavering said, "I do not despise the Deity, but I conceive such an
idea of his magnificence and self-sufficiency, that I imagine him to have
no need of me or my services." "You are quite wrong," said Socrates,
"for by how much the gods, who are so magnificent, vouchsafe to regard
you, by so much you are bound to praise and adore them." "It is needless
for me to tell you," answered Aristodemus, "that, if I believed the gods
interested themselves in human affairs, I should not neglect to worship
them." "How!" replied Socrates, "you do not believe the gods take care
of men, they who have not only given to man, in common with other
animals, the senses of seeing, hearing, and taste, but have also given
him to walk upright; a privilege which no other animal can boast of, and
which is of mighty use to him to look forward, to remote objects, to
survey with facility those above him, and to defend himself from any
harm? Besides, although the animals that walk have feet, which serve
them for no other use than to walk, yet, herein, have the gods
distinguished man, in that, besides feet, they have given him hands, the
instruments of a thousand grand and useful actions, on which account he
not only excels, but is happier than all animals besides.