第35章

And just as there is no league between good and bad men, so also the bad cannot either agree among themselves: nay, with their vices tearing their own consciences asunder, they cannot agree with themselves, and do often perform acts which, when done, they perceive that they should not have done.Wherefore high Providence has thus often shewn her strange wonder, namely, that bad men should make other bad men good.For some find themselves suffering injustice at the hands of evil men, and, burning with hatred of those who have injured them, they have returned to cultivate the fruits of virtue, because their aim is to be unlike those whom they hate.To divine power, and to that alone, are evil things good, when it uses them suitably so as to draw good results therefrom.For a definite order embraces all things, so that even when some subject leaves the true place assigned to it in the order, it returns to an order, though another, it may be, lest aught Page 134in the realm of Providence be left to random chance.But "hard is it for me to set forth all these matters as a god," 1 nor is it right for a man to try to comprehend with his mind all the means of divine working, or to explain them in words.Let it be enough that we have seen that God, the Creator of all nature, directs and disposes all things for good.And while He urges all, that He has made manifest, to keep His own likeness, He drives out by the course of Fate all evil from the bounds of His state.Wherefore if you look to the disposition of Providence, you will reckon naught as bad of all the evils which are held to abound upon earth.

'But I see that now you are weighed down by the burden of the question, and wearied by the length of our reasoning, and waiting for the gentleness of song.Take then your draught, be refreshed thereby and advance further the stronger.

'If thou wouldst diligently behold with unsullied mind the laws of the God of thunder upon high, look to the highest point of heaven above.There, by a fair and equal compact, do the stars keep their ancient peace.The sun is hurried on by its whirl of fire, but impedes not the moon's cool orb.The Bear turns its rushing course around the highest pole of the universe, and dips not in the western depths, 134:1 -- Homer, Iliad , xii.176.Page 135and though it sees the other constellations sink, it never seeks to quench its flames in the ocean stream.In just divisions of time does the evening star foretell the coming of the late shadows, and, as Lucifer, brings back again the warming light of day.Thus does the interchanging bond of love bring round their neverfailing courses; and strife is for ever an exile from the starry realms.This unity rules by fair limits the elements, so that wet yields to dry, its opposite, and it faithfully joins cold to heat.Floating fire rises up on high, and matter by its weight sinks down.From these same causes in warm spring the flowering season breathes its scents; then the hot summer dries the grain; then with its burden of fruits comes autumn again, and winter's falling rain gives moisture.

This mingling of seasons nourishes and brings forth all on earth that has the breath of life; and again snatches them away and hides them, whelming in death all that has arisen.Meanwhile the Creator sits on high, rules all and guides, king and Lord, fount and source of all, Law itself and wise judge of justice.He restrains all that stirs nature to motion, holds it back, and makes firm all that would stray.If He were not to recall them to their true paths, and set them again upon the circles of their courses, they would be torn from their source and so would perish.This is the common bond of love; all seek thus to be restrained by the limit of the good.In no other manner can they endure if this bond of Page 136love be not turned round again, and if the causes, which He has set, return not again.

'Do you see now,' she continued,' what follows upon all that we have said? '

'What is it?' I asked.

'That all fortune is plainly good,' she answered.

'How can that be? ' said I.

'Consider this,' she said: 'all fortune, whether pleasant or difficult, is due to this cause; it is for the sake of rewarding the good or exercising their virtue, and of punishing and correcting bad men:

therefore it is plain that all this fortune which is allowed to be just or expedient, must be good.'