is for that Whole's sake that thou shouldest at one time fall
sick, at another brave the perils of the sea, again, know the
meaning of want and perhaps die an early death. Why then repine?
Knowest thou not that as the foot is no more a foot if detached
from the body, so thou in like case art no longer a Man? For what
is a Man? A part of a City:--first of the City of Gods and Men;
next, of that which ranks nearest it, a minature of the universal
City. . . . In such a body, in such a world enveloping us, among
lives like these, such things must happen to one or another. Thy
part, then, being here, is to speak of these things as is meet,
and to order them as befits the matter.

LVII

That was a good reply which Diogenes made to a man who asked
him for letters of recommendation.--"That you are a man, he will
know when he sees you;--whether a good or bad one, he will know
if he has any skill in discerning the good or bad. But if he has
none, he will never know, though I write him a thousand times."--
It is as though a piece of silver money desired to be recommended
to some one to be tested. If the man be a good judge of silver,
he will know: the coin will tell its own tale.

LVIII

Even as the traveller asks his way of him that he meets,
inclined in no wise to bear to the right rather than to the left
(for he desires only the way leading whither he would go), so
should we come unto God as to a guide; even as we use our eyes
without admonishing them to show us some things rather than
others, but content to receive the images of such things as they
present to us. But as it is we stand anxiously watching the
victim, and with the voice of supplication call upon the augur:--
"Master, have mercy on me: vouchsafe unto me a way of escape!"
Slave, would you then have aught else then what is best? is there
anything better than what is God's good pleasure? Why, as far as
in you lies, would you corrupt your Judge, and lead your
Counsellor astray?

LIX

God is beneficent. But the Good also is beneficent. It
should seem then that where the real nature of God is, there too
is to be found the real nature of the Good. What then is the real
nature of God?--Intelligence, Knowledge, Right Reason. Here then
without more ado seek the real nature of the Good. For surely
thou dost not seek it in a plant or in an animal that reasoneth
not.

LX