Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

The Delay of the Deity
in law, if he did not know the intentions of the law
maker, and did not understand the reason for every
single part
of the decrees that have been issued.
What wonder is it then, if, when it is so hard to see
through human purposes, that it is not easy to say
with respect to the gods for what reason they punish
some transgressors later, others sooner.
5. These things are no excuse for shunning an in
vestigation, but a plea for indulgence, so that the
discussion, looking as it were, toward a harbor and
port of refuge, may move forward with the greater
confidence, in the midst of perplexities. Then con
sider first this fact, that according to Plato, God
having placed Himself in the midst of all that is enchantingly
fair, as a sort of model, gives to human
worth, which is in some measure an image of Him
self, an exemplar which all are to follow so far as
they are able. For the universe, being in its natural
state devoid of order, began to change and to be
transformed into a cosmos when it participated in,
and became assimilated to, the divine idea and virtue.
This same man also says that nature kindles in
us the germ of vision so that by beholding the
heavenly bodies borne along in their coursee, and by
admiration of the same, the soul becomes habitu
ated to take pleasure in and to love what is orderly
and systematically arranged, but that it hates all dis
orderly and uncontrolled passion, and shuns the
purposeless and hit=or=miss
vice and discord.
as being the origin of all
It is impossible for man, by his very
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