Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
To
The Delay of the
Deity
will naturally use to encourage
as
themselves and take
pledges of security in villainy, on the ground that
wrongdoing brings forth early and evident fruit,
while the penalty comes late, and long after the satis
faction (that arises from success in crime)."
3. When Patrocleas had concluded his remarks,
Olympichus spoke up and said, what great ab
surdities do the delays and postponements of the Deity
in such matters lead! Because this tardiness destroys
faith in Providence, and the fact that retribution does
not closely follow each particular act of wrongdoing
but is later, thus making room for chance, men, by
calling it a misfortune, not a penalty, are they in any
wise bettered? Even though they may be grieved at
what has befallen them, do they feel regret
they have done? For just
at what
as the immediate stroke
of the whip or the spur laid quickly to the horse that
makes a false step or stumbles brings it to a sense of
duty, but all the subsequent jerking and tugging at
the reins and shouting seem rather to be done for
some other reason than correction, because they
produce pain but not betterment; so vice, if lashed
and beaten for each act of villainy committed, would
speedily become repentant and humble and fearful of
God who beholds men s acts and sufferings, if He did
not postpone justice. And justice that according to
Euripides procrastinates and with slow pace overtakes
the wicked, seems more like an affair of chance than
of Providence, because there is about it so much un
certainty, delay and lack of system. The result is
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