STRANGER: All these stories, and ten thousand others which are still

more wonderful, have a common origin; many of them have been lost in

the lapse of ages, or are repeated only in a disconnected form; but the

origin of them is what no one has told, and may as well be told now; for

the tale is suited to throw light on the nature of the king.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good; and I hope that you will give the whole

story, and leave out nothing.

STRANGER: Listen, then. There is a time when God himself guides and

helps to roll the world in its course; and there is a time, on the

completion of a certain cycle, when he lets go, and the world being a

living creature, and having originally received intelligence from its

author and creator, turns about and by an inherent necessity revolves in

the opposite direction.

YOUNG SOCRATES: Why is that?

STRANGER: Why, because only the most divine things of all remain ever

unchanged and the same, and body is not included in this class. Heaven

and the universe, as we have termed them, although they have been

endowed by the Creator with many glories, partake of a bodily nature,

and therefore cannot be entirely free from perturbation. But their

motion is, as far as possible, single and in the same place, and of the

same kind; and is therefore only subject to a reversal, which is the

least alteration possible. For the lord of all moving things is alone

Statesman