Touching offerings to the Gods, a moderate man should observemoderation in what he offers. Now the land and the hearth of the houseof all men is sacred to all Gods; wherefore let no man dedicate them asecond time to the Gods. Gold and silver, whether possessed by privatepersons or in temples, are in other cities provocative of envy, andivory, the product of a dead body, is not a proper offering; brass andiron, again, are instruments of war; but of wood let a man bringwhat offerings he likes, provided it be a single block, and in likemanner of stone, to the public temples; of woven work let him notoffer more than one woman can execute in a month. White is a coloursuitable to the Gods, especially in woven works, but dyes shouldonly be used for the adornments of war. The most divine of gifts arebirds and images, and they should be such as one painter can executein a single day. And let all other offerings follow a similar rule.
Now that the whole city has been divided into parts of which thenature and number have been described, and laws have been givenabout all the most important contracts as far as this was possible,the next thing will be to have justice done. The first of the courtsshall consist of elected judges, who shall be chosen by theplaintiff and the defendant in common: these shall be calledarbiters rather than judges. And in the second court there shall bejudges of the villages and tribes corresponding to the twelvefolddivision of the land, and before these the litigants shall go tocontend for greater damages, if the suit be not decided before thefirst judges; the defendant, if he be defeated the second time,shall pay a fifth more than the damages mentioned in the indictment;and if he find fault with his judges and would try a third time, lethim carry the suit before the select judges, and if he be againdefeated, let him pay the whole of the damages and half as much again.
And the plaintiff, if when defeated before the first judges he persistin going on to the second, shall if he wins receive in addition to thedamages a fifth part more, and if defeated he shall pay a like sum;but if he is not satisfied with the previous decision, and will insiston proceeding to a third court, then if he win he shall receive fromthe defendant the amount of the damages and, as I said before, half asmuch again, and the plaintiff, if he lose, shall pay half of thedamages claimed, Now the assignment by lot of judges to courts and thecompletion of the number of them, and the appointment of servants tothe different magistrates, and the times at which the several causesshould be heard, and the votings and delays, and all the things thatnecessarily concern suits, and the order of causes, and the time inwhich answers have to be put in and parties are to appear-of these andother things akin to these we have indeed already spoken, but there isno harm in repeating what is right twice or thrice:-All lesser andeasier matters which the elder legislator has omitted may besupplied by the younger one. Private courts will be sufficientlyregulated in this way, and the public and state courts, and thosewhich the magistrates must use in the administration of theirseveral offices, exist in many other states. Many very respectableinstitutions of this sort have been framed by good men, and fromthem the guardians of the law may by reflection derive what isnecessary, for the order of our new state, considering andcorrecting them, and bringing them to the test of experience, untilevery detail appears to be satisfactorily determined; and then puttingthe final seal upon them, and making them irreversible, they shall usethem for ever afterwards. As to what relates to the silence ofjudges and the abstinence from words of evil omen and the reverse, andthe different notions of the just and good and honourable whichexist in our: own as compared with other states, they have been partlymentioned already, and another part of them will be mentionedhereafter as we draw near the end. To all these matters he who wouldbe an equal judge, shall justly look, and he shall possess writingsabout them that he may learn them. For of all kinds of knowledge theknowledge of good laws has the greatest power of improving thelearner; otherwise there would be no meaning the divine andadmirable law possessing a name akin to mind (nous, nomos). And of allother words, such as the praises and censures of individuals whichoccur in poetry and also in prose, whether written down or utteredin daily conversation, whether men dispute about them in the spirit ofcontention or weakly assent to them, as is often the case-of all thesethe one sure test is the writings of the legislator, which therighteous judge ought to have in his mind as the antidote of all otherwords, and thus make himself and the city stand upright, procuring forthe good the continuance and increase of justice, and for the bad,on the other hand, a conversion from ignorance and intemperance, andin general from all unrighteousness, as far as their evil minds can behealed, but to those whose web of life is in reality finished,giving death, which is the only remedy for souls in their condition,as I may say truly again and again. And such judges and chiefs ofjudges will be worthy of receiving praise from the whole city.
