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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De Providentia<br />
may gain real strength."<br />
Animals that are being<br />
fattened grow languid by their inactivity, <strong>and</strong> by the<br />
weight <strong>of</strong> their own bodies become incapable not only<br />
<strong>of</strong> work, but <strong>of</strong> movement. Unalloyed felicity cannot<br />
withst<strong>and</strong> any shock, but a constant struggle against<br />
obstacles hardens a man against injuries, <strong>and</strong> he does<br />
not succumb to any disaster, for even if he falls, he<br />
fights on his knees.<br />
5. Are you surprised<br />
if God, who is a most de<br />
voted friend <strong>of</strong> the good, <strong>and</strong> who wishes them to<br />
attain the highest degree <strong>of</strong><br />
perfection, assigns them<br />
a place in which they are to be disciplined? Verily,<br />
I am not surprised that sometimes a desire seizes the<br />
the gods to behold great men struggling against some<br />
misfortune. To us mortals it at times affords pleas<br />
ure to see a courageous youth await with the hunting<br />
spear, the onset <strong>of</strong> some wild beast, or if with unblanched<br />
cheek he thrusts back the attack <strong>of</strong> a lion;<br />
<strong>and</strong> the spectacle is agreeable in proportion to the<br />
rank <strong>of</strong> him who exhibits it.<br />
6. These are not the sights that attract the at<br />
tention <strong>of</strong> the gods, but childish pastimes <strong>and</strong> the<br />
pleasures<br />
<strong>of</strong> men who have no serious aims. Behold<br />
a spectacle worthy <strong>of</strong> a god who is intensely inter<br />
ested in his work; behold a pair <strong>of</strong> champions worthy<br />
<strong>of</strong> god, a brave man pitted<br />
against adverse fortune,<br />
especially if he himself be the challenging party.<br />
I do not see, I say, what more agreeable sight on<br />
earth Jupiter can look upon,<br />
if he turns his attention<br />
thither, than to behold Cato, after his party had been<br />
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