Add, now, that it is best for all that every good man should, so to
speak, be always under arms and in action. It is the purpose of God,
just as if He were a wise man, to demonstrate that those things which
the average man longs for, which he fears, are neither good nor evil;
but it will be evident that those things are good that are sent upon
good men, and those evil, that fall upon the bad. Blindness would be
dreadful, if nobody had lost his sight except those who deserved to have
their eyes put out. Accordingly, let Appius and Metellus be deprived of
eyesight. Riches are not a good.
2. And so even the procurer Elius is rich in order that money to which
men have given a sacred character in temples may also be found in a
brothel. In no way is God better able to expose to contempt those things
that men covet than by bestowing them upon the vilest and taking them
from the worthiest. “But,” sayst thou, “it is unjust that a good man
should suffer mutilation, or be crucified, or be bound in fetters, while
the bad strut proudly at large and live in luxury.”
3. What then? is it not also unjust when brave men are required to take
up arms, to pass the night in camps and to defend the outposts, though
the bandages are still on their wounds, while in the city, eunuchs and
debauchees by profession go about in security. What further? is it not
unjust that the noblest virgins should be aroused at night to perform
their sacred duties while impure women are enjoying sound sleep? Toil
claims the best men. The senate is often in session during the entire
day, when at the same time all the vilest men are either taking their
ease in the Campus Martius, or loitering in eating-houses, or wasting
their time in idle gossip. It is just so in the world at large—good men
toil, sacrifice themselves or are sacrificed, and willingly at that.
They are not dragged along by destiny, they follow it and keep pace with
it; had they known whither it would lead them, they would have preceded
it.
4. I remember also to have heard these encouraging words from that
noblest of men, Demetrius. “This one complaint,” said he, “I have to
make against you, ye immortal gods: it is that ye did not sooner make
known to me your will; for of my own accord I would have come to those
things to which I am now summoned. Do you wish to take away my children?
For you I have brought them up. Do you wish any portion of my body? Take
it. No great thing it is that I am offering you; soon I shall resign it
entirely to you. Do you wish my life? Why not? I shall not be slow to
give back to you what ye have entrusted to my keeping; ye shall find me
willing to give up anything ye ask. Still I should rather have proferred
it to you than given it up. What need was there to take what you could
have had as a gift. Yet not even now do ye need to constrain me, since
that is not taken from a man which he does not try to retain. I am in no
sense the victim of constraint or violence, nor am I God’s slave, but I
am in accord with Him, and this all the more cheerfully because I know
that everything takes its course in accordance with an immutable law
established from all eternity.”
5. The fates lead us, and our lot is assigned to us from the very hour
of our birth. Cause depends upon cause; an unbroken chain of events
links together public and private affairs. We ought therefore to bear
with fortitude whatever befalls us because everything takes place, not
as we think, by chance, but in its due order. A long time in advance,
all our pleasures and our pains have been determined, and although in
the great diversity of individual lives, one life may seem to stand
apart, it all comes to this: transitory beings ourselves we have entered
into a transitory inheritance.
6. Why then does this disquiet us? Why indulge in complaints? it is the
law of our existence. Let nature use our bodies, which are its own, as
it wishes; let us cheerfully and bravely meet whatever comes, bearing in
mind that what we lose is not our property. What is the duty of a good
man? To resign himself to his destiny. It is a great consolation to
share the fate of the universe. Whatever it be that decrees how we are
to live, how to die, it binds even the gods by the same inexorable law;
an irresistible current bears along terrestrial and celestial things.
The creator and governor of the universe has indeed prescribed the
course of events, but He Himself follows them; He obeys always, He
commanded but once.
7. “But why was God so unjust in the destinies he prescribed for
mortals, as to send upon good men poverty, wounds, and cruel deaths”?
The artisan cannot change matter; it is passive. There are some things
that cannot be separated from others; they are bound together and
indivisible. Sluggish natures and such as are prone to sink into slumber
or into a state closely akin to slumber, are conjoined of inert
elements; to form a man who is really worthy of the name a more heroic
destiny is needed. His path will not be smooth; he must go up-hill and
down-hill, be tossed on the waves, and guide his bark through turbid
waters; in spite of changing fortune, he must hold on his way.
8. He will meet many obstacles hard to remove or surmount, but he will
himself remove them and smooth his path. Gold is tried by fire; brave
men by misfortune. Behold to what heights virtue may climb; thou
shouldst know that it cannot go by ways that are free from dangers.
Hard is the way at first: though drawn by prancing steeds,
Slow, up the sky, the shining car proceeds;—
On land and sea I gaze from heaven’s high crest;
Fear and emotion fill my heaving breast.
Steep is the downward way, and with tight rein
I must the ardor of my steeds restrain;
E’en Tethys, wont to greet me ’neath the waves,
Fears lest we plunge headlong to wat’ry graves.
9. When the high-spirited youth heard these words he said, “I like the
way; I shall ascend it even though I fall forthwith in so doing.” The
sun-god still tries to dissuade him from his rash purpose by exciting
his fears:
Hold straight thy course nor turn for aught aside,
Through Taurus’ horns adverse thy coursers guide,
And Haemon’s bow and Leo’s searching face.
To this he replied, “Yoke the steeds to the chariot; by the very words
which you seek to deter me, you incite me. I long to stand where Sol
himself quakes with fear; it is only ignoble and weak souls that journey
on safe roads; courage ventures on giddy heights.”