Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 3.djvu/85

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THEOPHILUS TO AUTOLYCUS.
73

Benevolent, he warns mankind to good,
Urges to toil and prompts the hope of food.
He tells where cattle best may graze, and where
The soil, deep-furrowed, yellow grain will bear.

What time the husbandman should plant or sow,
'Tis his to tell, 'tis his alone to know."

Who, then, shall we believe: Aratus as here quoted; or Sophocles, when he says:[1]

"And foresight of the future there is none;
'Tis best to live at random, as one can"?

And Homer, again, does not agree with this, for he says[2] that virtue

"Waxes or wanes in men as Jove decrees."

And Simonides says:

"No man nor state has virtue save from God;
Counsel resides in God; and wretched man
Has in himself nought but his wretchedness."

So, too, Euripides:

"Apart from God, there's nothing owned by men."

And Menander:

"Save God alone, there's none for us provides."

And Euripides again:

"For when God wills to save, all things He'll bend
To serve as instruments to work His end."

And Thestius:

"If God design to save you, safe you are,
Though sailing in mid-ocean on a mat."[3]

And saying numberless things of a like kind, they contradicted themselves. At least Sophocles, who in another place denied Providence, says:

"No mortal can evade the stroke of God."

Besides, they both introduced a multitude of gods, and yet spoke of a Unity; and against those who affirmed a Providence they maintained in opposition that there was no Providence. Wherefore Euripides says:

"We labour much and spend our strength in vain,
For empty hope, not foresight, is our guide."

  1. Œdipus Rex. line 978.
  2. Il. xx. 242.
  3. This verse is by Plutarch hesitatingly attributed to Pindar. The expression, "Though you swim in a wicker basket," was proverbial.