Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

ON PROVIDENCE, iv. 9-13windows to shield him from a draught, whose feet havebeen kept warm by hot apphcations renewed fromtime to time, whose dining-halls have been temperedbv hot air passing beneath the floor and circulatinground the walls,—this man will run great risk if heis brushed by a gentle breeze. While all excessesare hurtful, the most dangerous is unhmited goodfortune. It excites the brain, it evokes vain fanciesin the mind, and clouds in deep fog the boundarybetween falsehood and truth. Would it not bebetter, summoning virtue's help, to endure everlastingill fortune than to be bursting Avith unhmitedand immoderate blessings ? Death from starvationcomes very gently, but from gorging men explode.And so, in the case of good men the gods followthe same rule that teachers follow with their pupils ;they require most effort from those of whom theyhave the surest hopes. Do you imagine that theLacedaemonians hate their children when they testtheir mettle by lashing them in public ? Their ownfathers call upon them to endure bravely the blowsof the whip, and ask them, though mangled andhalf-dead, to keep offering their wounded bodies tofurther wounds. Why, then, is it strange if God triesnoble spirits with severity ? No proof of \irtue is evermild. If we are lashed and torn by Fortune, let usbear it ; it is not cruelty but a struggle, and theoftener we engage in it, the stronger we shall be.The staunchest member of the body is the one thatis kept in constant use. We should offer ourselvesto Fortune in order that, struggling with her, wemay be hardened by her. Gradually she will makeus a match for herself. Famiharity with exposureto danger will give contempt for danger. ' So the