第36章

'Yes,' I said,' that is a true argument, and when I think of the Providence or Fate about which you have taught me, the conclusion rests upon strong foundations.But if it please you, let us count it among those conclusions which you a little while ago set down as inconceivable.'

'Why?' she asked.

'Because it is a commonplace saying among men -- indeed an especially frequent one -- that some people have bad fortune.'

'Would you then have us approach more nearly the common conversation of men, lest we should seem to withdraw too far from human ways?'

'If you will,' I said.Page 137

'Do you not think that that, which is advantageous, is good?'

'Yes.'

'And that fortune, which exercises or corrects, is advantageous?

'

'I agree,' said I.

'Then it is good, is it not? '

'It must be so.'

'This is the fortune of those who are either firmly set in virtue and struggling against their difficulties, or of those who would leave their vices and take the path of virtue? '

'That is true,' I said.

'But what of that pleasant fortune which is granted as a reward to good men? Do most people perceive that it is bad? No; but, as is true, they esteem it the best.And what of the last kind of fortune, which is hard and which restrains bad men by just punishment? Is that commonly held to be good? '

'No,' said I,' it is held to be the most miserable of all that can be imagined.'

'Beware lest in following the common conception, we come to some truly inconceivable conclusion.'

'What do you mean? '

'From what we have allowed,' she said,' it results that the fortune of those who are in possession of virtue, or are gaining it, or advancing therein, is entirely good, whatever it be, while for those who remain in wickedness, their fortune is the worst.'

'That is true, but who would dare confess it? ' Page 138'For this reason a wise man should never complain, whenever he is brought into strife with fortune; just as a brave man cannot properly be disgusted whenever the noise of battle is heard, since for both of them their very difficulty is their opportunity, for the brave man of increasing his glory, for the wise man of confirming and strengthening his wisdom.

From this is virtue itself so named, 1 because it is so supported by its strength that it is not overcome by adversity.And you who were set in the advance of virtue have not come to this pass of being dissipated by delights, or enervated by pleasure; but you fight too bitterly against all fortune.Keep the middle path of strength and virtue, lest you be overwhelmed by misfortune or corrupted by pleasant fortune.All that falls short or goes too far ahead, has contempt for happiness, and gains not the reward for labour done.It rests in your own hands what shall be the nature of the fortune which you choose to form for yourself.For all fortune which seems difficult, either exercises virtue, or corrects or punishes vice.

'The avenging son of Atreus strove for full ten years before he expiated in the fall of Phrygian Troy the wrong done to his brother's marriage.The same Agamemnon must needs throw off his father's nature, and himself, an unwilling priest, thrust his knife into his unhappy 138:1 -- The Latin word 'virtus' means by its derivation, manly strength.Page 139daughter's throat, and buy the winds at the cost of blood, when he sought to fill the sails of the fleet of Greece.The King of Ithaca wept sore for his lost comrades whom the savage Polyphemus swallowed into his huge maw as he lay in his vast cave; but, when mad for his blinded eye, he paid back with rejoicings for the sad tears he had drawn.Hercules became famous through hard labours.He tamed the haughty Centaurs, and from the fierce lion of Nemea took his spoil.With his sure arrows he smote the birds of Stymphalus; and from the watchful dragon took the apples of the Hesperides, filling his hand with their precious gold; and Cerberus he dragged along with threefold chain.The story tells how he conquered the fierce Diomede and set before his savage mares their master as their food.The Hydra's poison perished in his fire.He took the horn and so disgraced the brow of the river Achelous, who hid below his bank his head ashamed.On the sands of Libya he laid Ant?us lw; Cacus he slew to sate Evander's wrath.

The bristling boar of Erymanthus flecked with his own foam the shoulders which were to bear the height of heaven; for in his last labour he bore with unbending neck the heavens, and so won again his place in heaven, the reward of his last work.

'Go forth then bravely whither leads the lofty path of high example.Why do ye sluggards turn your backs? When the earth is overcome, the stars are yours.