Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

De Providentia
prove by these things? I would have all men know
that those vicissitudes of which Cato was deemed
worthy, cannot be regarded as evils.
IV.
Prosperity comes to ordinary people and to men of
mean abilities, but it is the prerogative of a great
man to overcome the calamities and terrors that
frighten mortals. In truth, to be always happy and
to pass one s life without mental anxiety, is to be
ignorant of half of man s destiny. Thou art a great
man; yet how am I to know it unless fate gives thee
an opportunity to show thy worth?
2. Thou didst enter the Olympian games as a con
testant; if there was none beside thyself, thou hast
the crown, thou hast not the victory. I congratulate
thee, not as a brave man, but as one who has gained
the consulship or the praetership: thou hast won
political honors. I can say the same thing to a good
man, unless some more than ordinary emergency has
given him an opportunity to show his strength of
soul.
3.
Unhappy do I adjudge thee, if thou hast never
been unhappy; thou hast passed thy life without an
adversary. No one knows what thou mightest have
done; thou dost not even know it thyself. We need
to be tried that we may find out what we are; what a
man can do can be ascertained only by trial. For
this reason men have sometimes voluntarily encoun=
tered obstacles that seemed to evade them and sought
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