Concerning duty to parents, let the preamble be as follows:—­We honour the Gods in their lifeless images, and believe that we thus propitiate them.  But he who has an aged father or mother has a living image, which if he cherish it will do him far more good than any statue.  ’What do you mean by cherishing them?’ I will tell you.  Oedipus and Amyntor and Theseus cursed their children, and their curses took effect.  This proves that the Gods hear the curses of parents who are wronged; and shall we doubt that they hear and fulfil their blessings too?’ ‘Surely not.’  And, as we were saying, no image is more honoured by the Gods than an aged father and mother, to whom when honour is done, the God who hears their prayers is rejoiced, and their influence is greater than that of the lifeless statue; for they pray that good or evil may come to us in proportion as they are honoured or dishonoured, but the statue is silent.  ‘Excellent.’  Good men are glad when their parents live to extreme old age, or if they depart early, lament their loss; but to bad man their parents are always terrible.  Wherefore let every one honour his parents, and if this preamble fails of influencing him, let him hear the law:—­If any one does not take sufficient care of his parents, let the aggrieved person inform the three eldest guardians of the law and three of the women who are concerned with marriages.  Women up to forty years of age, and men up to thirty, who thus offend, shall be beaten and imprisoned.  After that age they are to be brought before a court composed of the eldest citizens, who may inflict any punishment upon them which they please.  If the injured party cannot inform, let any freeman who hears of the case inform; a slave who does so shall be set free,—­if he be the slave of the one of the parties, by the magistrate,—­if owned by another, at the cost of the state; and let the magistrates, take care that he is not wronged by any one out of revenge.

The injuries which one person does to another by the use of poisons are of two kinds;—­one affects the body by the employment of drugs and potions; the other works on the mind by the practice of sorcery and magic.  Fatal cases of either sort have been already mentioned; and now we must have a law respecting cases which are not fatal.  There is no use in arguing with a man whose mind is disturbed by waxen images placed at his own door, or on the sepulchre of his father or mother, or at a spot where three ways meet.  But to the wizards themselves we must address a solemn preamble, begging them not to treat the world as if they were children, or compel the legislator to expose them, and to show men that the poisoner who is not a physician and the wizard who is not a prophet or diviner are equally ignorant of what they are doing.  Let the law be as follows:—­He who by the use of poison does any injury not fatal to a man or his servants, or any injury whether fatal or not to another’s cattle or bees, is to be punished with death if he be a physician, and if he be not a physician he is to suffer the punishment awarded by the court:  and he who injures another by sorcery, if he be a diviner or prophet, shall be put to death; and, if he be not a diviner, the court shall determine what he ought to pay or suffer.