Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

De Providentia
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 up
on cause; an unbroken chain of events links
together
public and private affairs. We ought therefore to
bear with fortitude whatever befalls us because every
thing takes place, not as we think, by chance, but in
its due order. A long time in advance, all our pleas
ures and our pains have been determined, and al
though in the great diversity of individual lives,
life may seem to stand apart,
transitory beings
transitory inheritance.
one
it all comes to this:
ourselves we have entered into a
6. Why then does this disquiet us? Why in
dulge 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 re
sign 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 celes
tial things.
The creator and governor of the universe has in
deed prescribed the course of events, but He Himself
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