Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

De Provldenda
to thee when thou wert offering consolation to others;
then should I have seen thee when thou wert thyself
in need of consolation; when thou wert trying to
restrain thyself from sorrowing. Do not, I beseech
thee, shrink from these things which the immortal
gods send upon thee as stimuli to thy courage. A
disaster is an occasion of virtue. Those persons one
can rightly call wretched who grow effeminate in
superabounding prosperity; whom a dead calm bears
along, as it were, in a motionless sea.
7. No matter what befalls them, they are unpre
pared for it.
Hardships bear heaviest on those who
have never known them; heavy lies the yoke on the
neck that has not felt it. The mere thought of a
wound makes the raw recruit turn pale; the veteran
looks without blanching upon his own blood because
he knows that he has often gained a victory at the
price of it. Then it is that God trains and hardens
those whom he has chosen, whom he loves and
wishes well to; but those whom he seems to treat
with indulgence, whom he spares, he keeps tender
for the evils to come. For you are mistaken if
you
conclude that any one is exempt; he who has long
basked in the sunshine of fortune will have his
turn.
Every one that thinks he is discharged
has been
placed among the reserves. (You ask) why does
God afflict every good man with ill health or sor
row or other misfortune? Because in camp life the
most perilous duties are also laid on the bravest; the