“But why does God suffer any evil to befall the good”? Verily, He does
not suffer it. He wards off from them all evils, crimes and misdeeds and
impure thoughts and avaricious designs and unbridled passions and lust
after other men’s property; He watches over and protects them. Will any
one in addition to this demand of God that He shall also bear the
luggage of good men (as if He were a slave)! They themselves cast this
burden upon God; mere externals they make light of. Democritus threw
away his riches, thinking them a fardel upon his noble soul. Why do you
wonder that God sometimes suffers that to come upon a good man which he
himself desires?
2. “Good men sometimes lose their children.” Why not, when they
sometimes even put them to death? “They are sent into exile.” Why not,
when they sometimes leave their country, voluntarily, never to return?
“They are put to death.” Why not, when they sometimes lay violent hands
on themselves? “Why do they suffer many hardships?” That they may teach
others to suffer patiently; they are born to be examples.
3. Think of God as speaking to them thus: “What right have ye to
complain of me, ye who take pleasure in doing right? Other men I have
encompassed with seductive pleasures and their torpid souls I have
lulled into a long and delusive sleep; gold, silver and ivory I have
lavished upon them; yet at heart they are good for nothing. Those men
whom you look upon as fortunate, if you regard them, not with respect to
what is external but what is concealed, are wretched, unclean, deformed,
adorned on the outside after the similitude of their own walls. Their
good fortune is not substantial and unalloyed; it is a mere crust and a
thin one at that.
4. Accordingly, as long as they are allowed to stand and to show
themselves as they wish to appear, they make a brilliant and imposing
display; but when something occurs that disarranges their plans and
discloses their true character, then it becomes apparent how real and
deep their foulness. To you I have given a genuine, an abiding good; the
more one turns it about and looks at it from every side, the greater and
better it appears. I have given you the strength to contemn what other
men fear; to make of little account what others long for. You do not
shine because of externals; it is the kingdom within you that is your
highest good. Thus does the world disdain what is on the outside because
happy in the contemplation of itself; within you have I placed all real
good; not to need happiness is your happiness.”
5. “But many sad occurrences take place, things from which we shrink in
terror, and which are hard to bear.” “Because I am not able to ward them
off from you, I have armed you against all changes of fortune. Endure
bravely; in this you may surpass God: He is exempt from suffering, you
are superior to it. Contemn poverty; no one lives so poor as he is born.
Contemn pain; either it will end or you. Contemn fortune; I have given
to it no weapon with which to wound the soul. Contemn death; it either
ends your existence or transfers it.
6. Before all things, I took care that no one should keep you here
against your will; the way for your departure is open. If you do not
want to fight, you can run away. Therefore, with all the restrictions I
have placed upon you, I have made nothing easier for you than death.
Only look and you will see how short and easy is the way to liberty. I
have made the way shorter for those who wish to go out of the world than
for those who are entering it; besides, destiny would have had great
power over you, if it were as hard for a man to die as to be born.
7. Every moment of time, every place, can teach you how easy it is to
quit nature’s service and to return to her her gift. At the very foot of
the altar and amid the solemnities of those who are offering sacrifices
for the preservation of life, learn to know death. The huge bodies of
bulls drop from the effects of a little wound, and beasts of enormous
strength are felled by a blow from a human hand; with a little piece of
iron the jointures of the vertabrae are severed, and when the ligature
that binds the head and neck is cut asunder, the huge mass falls dead to
the ground.
8. The breath does not lurk in some secret hiding place, nor must it
necessarily be sought out with the sword; there is no need of piercing
the vitals with a deep wound; death is close at hand. I have not
designated any particular place for the fatal thrust, it may enter
anywhere. What is called death, that time in which the spirit leaves the
body, is so brief that its fleetness cannot be perceived. Whether it be
a noose that strangles you, or water that suffocates you, or a fall upon
the hard earth that dashes the life out of you, or fire drawn in with
the breath that cuts off its return—whatever it be, its effect is
speedy. Are you not ashamed to fear so long what may be done so
quickly?”