Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
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The Delay <strong>of</strong> the Deity<br />
medicines are not adapted to certain patients, though<br />
helpful to others who are not actually sick, <strong>and</strong> yet<br />
in a worse condition than the former. For this<br />
reason the gods do not turn all the transgressions <strong>of</strong><br />
the parents upon their <strong>of</strong>fspring, but if a virtuous son<br />
is begotten by a wicked father, as it were, a sound<br />
man, by one who is diseased, he averts the penalty<br />
from the house, the <strong>of</strong>fspring <strong>of</strong> one being, so to<br />
speak, adopted into another. But it is fitting that a<br />
young man who conforms himself to the likeness <strong>of</strong><br />
a corrupt family should also share the chastisement<br />
<strong>of</strong> its villainies as a debt incurred by inheritance.<br />
Antigonus was not punished on account <strong>of</strong> Demetrius,<br />
any more than the heroes <strong>of</strong> the olden time,<br />
Phyleus <strong>and</strong> Nestor, for the sake <strong>of</strong> Augeas <strong>and</strong> Neleus ;<br />
since these men, though sprung from wicked fathers,<br />
were themselves good men. But those who cherish<br />
<strong>and</strong> take naturally to the baseness that is born in<br />
them must also expect to be pursued to the end by<br />
that justice which the likeness <strong>of</strong> vice dem<strong>and</strong>s. For<br />
just as warts <strong>and</strong> livid spots <strong>and</strong> freckles that fathers<br />
sometimes have, are not on their sons, but afterwards<br />
reappear on the gr<strong>and</strong>sons, <strong>and</strong> gr<strong>and</strong>daughters; <strong>and</strong><br />
a certain Greek woman who had given birth to a<br />
black child for which she was charged with adultery<br />
until she proved that she was descended from an<br />
Ethiopian in the fourth generation; <strong>and</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
sons <strong>of</strong> Pytho <strong>of</strong> Nisibis, who recently died, <strong>and</strong> who<br />
was said to be sprung from the Sparti, was born with<br />
the print <strong>of</strong> a spear on his body in which case the<br />
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