spectators of these things.
But you take a journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias, and
all of you think it a misfortune to die without having seen such
things. But when there is no need to take a journey, and where a man
is, there he has the works (of God) before him, will you not desire to
see and understand them? Will you not perceive either what you are, or
what you were born for, or what this is for which you have received
the faculty of sight? But you may say, "There are some things
disagreeable and troublesome in life." And are there none in
Olympia? Are you not scorched? Are you not pressed by a crowd? Are you
not without comfortable means of bathing? Are you not wet when it
rains? Have you not abundance of noise, clamour, and other
disagreeable things? But I suppose that setting all these things off
against the magnificence of the spectacle, you bear and endure.
Well, then, and have you not received faculties by which you will be
able to bear all that happens? Have you not received greatness of
soul? Have you not received manliness? Have you not received
endurance? And why do I trouble myself about anything that can
happen if I possess greatness of soul? What shall distract my mind
or disturb me, or appear painful? Shall I not use the power for the
purposes for which I received it, and shall I grieve and lament over
what happens?
"Yes, but my nose runs." For what purpose then, slave, have you
hands? Is it not that you may wipe your nose? "Is it, then, consistent
with reason that there should be running of noses in the world?"
Nay, how much better it is to wipe your nose than to find fault.
What do you think that Hercules would have been if there had not
been such a lion, and hydra, and stag, and boar, and certain unjust
and bestial men, whom Hercules used to drive away and clear out? And
what would he have been doing if there had been nothing of the kind?
Is it not plain that he would have wrapped himself up and have
slept? In the first place, then he would not have been a Hercules,
when he was dreaming away all his life in such luxury and case; and
even if he had been one what would have been the use of him? and
what the use of his arms, and of the strength of the other parts of
his body, and his endurance and noble spirit, if such circumstances
and occasions had not roused and exercised him? "Well, then, must a
man provide for himself such means of exercise, and to introduce a
lion from some place into his country, and a boar and a hydra?" This
would be folly and madness: but as they did exist, and were found,
they were useful for showing what Hercules was and for exercising him.
Come then do you also having observed these things look to the
faculties which you have, and when you have looked at them, say:
"Bring now, O Zeus, any difficulty that Thou pleasest, for I have
means given to me by Thee and powers for honoring myself through the
things which happen." You do not so; but you sit still, trembling
for fear that some things will happen, and weeping, and lamenting
and groaning for what does happen: and then you blame the gods. For
what is the consequence of such meanness of spirit but impiety? And
yet God has not only given us these faculties; by which we shall be