Satni. Peace! You would have my sorrows crush my will!
High Priest. I shall speak of them no more. But think of the people of Egypt, what evils you would bring on them! If you take away their religion, what will keep them virtuous?
Satni. What you call their virtue, is only their submission.
High Priest. You let loose their vilest instincts, if you remove the fear of the gods.
Satni. The fear of the gods has prevented fewer crimes than were needed to create it.
High Priest. Be it so. But it exists.
Satni. It is your interest to spread the belief, that the fear of the gods is a restraint. And you know that it is not. You do not leave the punishment of crime to the gods. You have the lash, hard labor in the mines; you have scaffolds, you have executioners. No one believes sincerely in the happy life beyond the grave. If we believed, we should kill ourselves, the sooner to reach the Island of the Souls, the fields of Yalou.
High Priest. By what then are the appetites restrained?
Satni. By the laws, by the need of the esteem of others—
High Priest. We have just seen that, in sooth. So then it was virtue that the people showed yesterday, after you made them break their gods? They seemed to care little for the esteem of others, for they stole, they pillaged, they killed. Do you approve of that? Have they gained your esteem, those who have done what they have done?