Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

The Delay of the Deity
to what is probable
as well as what is reasonable:
this at least is clear and well established, that even in
those things which we ourselves do, we cannot al
ways give the reason. For example, why do we
direct the children of those who have died of con
sumption or dropsy to sit with both feet in the
water until the corpse
is buried? for it is believed
that in this way the disease will not pass to them or
come near them. Again, for what reason does a
whole herd of goats stand still if one of their number
gets eryngo in its mouth, until the herdsman comes
up and takes it out? And there are other forces in
nature that interact among each other and pass back
and forth with incredible swiftness through a great ex
tent of space. Yet we are surprised
at intervals of
time, but not those of space. With all that, it is
more wonderful if Athens is infected with a. disease
that had its origin in
Ethiopia and of which Pericles
died and from which Thucydides suffered than if
the
penalty for the crimes committed by the Delphians or
Sybarites should be carried down to and visited upon
their children. The forces of nature have certain
connections, and inter-relations
tending from their farthest endings to
with each other ex
their very be
ginnings, the cause of which, though unknown by us,
silently produce their
proper effects.
15. And, in truth, the wrath of the gods, when it
falls upon a whole city, has its justification.
For a city
is a unit and an entirety, just like an animal, that
does not lose its identity with the passing of the years,
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