fire from heaven, and gave to each man a share thereof for his
hearth, and to each community for their common altar. And by the
light of this celestial fire they learnt to see those celestial and
eternal bonds between man and man, as of husband to wife, of father
to child, of citizen to his country, and of master to servant,
without which man is but a biped without feathers, and which are in
themselves, being independent of the flux of matter and time, most
truly facts as they are. And since that time, whatsoever household
or nation has allowed these fires to become extinguished, has sunk
down again to the level of the brutes: while those who have passed
them down to their children burning bright and strong, become
partakers of the bliss of the Heroes, in the Happy Islands. It
seems to me then, Phaethon and Alcibiades, that if we find ourselves
in anywise destitute of this heavenly fire, we should pray for the
coming of that day, when Prometheus shall be unbound from Caucasus,
if by any means he may take pity on us and on our children, and
again bring us down from heaven that fire which is the spirit of
truth, that we may see facts as they are. For which, if he were to
ask Zeus humbly and filially, I cannot believe that He would refuse
it. And indeed, I think that the poets, as is their custom, corrupt
the minds of young men by telling them that Zeus chained Prometheus
to Caucasus for his theft; seeing that it befits such a ruler, as I
take the Father of gods and men to be, to know that his subjects can
only do well by means of his bounty, and therefore to bestow it
freely, as the kings of Persia do, on all who are willing to use it
in the service of their sovereign."

"So then," said Alcibiades, laughing, "till Prometheus be unbound
from Caucasus, we who have lost, as you seem to hint, this heavenly
fire, must needs go on upon our own subjective opinions, having