Thus begins the contrast between the religion of the letter, or of the
narrow and unenlightened conscience, and the higher notion of religion
which Socrates vainly endeavours to elicit from him. 'Piety is doing as I
do' is the idea of religion which first occurs to him, and to many others
who do not say what they think with equal frankness. For men are not
easily persuaded that any other religion is better than their own; or that
other nations, e.g. the Greeks in the time of Socrates, were equally
serious in their religious beliefs and difficulties. The chief difference
between us and them is, that they were slowly learning what we are in
process of forgetting. Greek mythology hardly admitted of the distinction
between accidental homicide and murder: that the pollution of blood was
the same in both cases is also the feeling of the Athenian diviner. He had
not as yet learned the lesson, which philosophy was teaching, that Homer
and Hesiod, if not banished from the state, or whipped out of the assembly,
as Heracleitus more rudely proposed, at any rate were not to be appealed to
as authorities in religion; and he is ready to defend his conduct by the
examples of the gods. These are the very tales which Socrates cannot
abide; and his dislike of them, as he suspects, has branded him with the
reputation of impiety. Here is one answer to the question, 'Why Socrates
was put to death,' suggested by the way. Another is conveyed in the words,
'The Athenians do not care about any man being thought wise until he begins
to make other men wise; and then for some reason or other they are angry:'
which may be said to be the rule of popular toleration in most other
countries, and not at Athens only. In the course of the argument Socrates
remarks that the controversial nature of morals and religion arises out of
the difficulty of verifying them. There is no measure or standard to which
they can be referred.

The next definition, 'Piety is that which is loved of the gods,' is
shipwrecked on a refined distinction between the state and the act,