, never!' He who charges
the Gods with neglect has been forced to admit his error; but I should
like further to persuade him that the author of all has made every part
for the sake of the whole, and that the smallest part has an appointed
state of action or passion, and that the least action or passion of any
part has a presiding minister. You, we say to him, are a minute fraction
of this universe, created with a view to the whole; the world is not
made for you, but you for the world; for the good artist considers the
whole first, and afterwards the parts. And you are annoyed at not seeing
how you and the universe are all working together for the best, so
far as the laws of the common creation admit. The soul undergoes many
changes from her contact with bodies; and all that the player does is to
put the pieces into their right places. 'What do you mean?' I mean that
God acts in the way which is simplest and easiest. Had each thing been
formed without any regard to the rest, the transposition of the Cosmos
would have been endless; but now there is not much trouble in the
government of the world. For when the king saw the actions of the living
souls and bodies, and the virtue and vice which were in them, and the
indestructibility of the soul and body (although they were not eternal),
he contrived so to arrange them that virtue might conquer and vice be
overcome as far as possible; giving them a seat and room adapted to
them, but leaving the direction of their separate actions to men's own
wills, which make our characters to be what they are. 'That is very
probable.' All things which have a soul possess in themselves the
principle of change, and in changing move according to fate and law;
natures which have undergone lesser changes move on the surface; but
those which have changed utterly for the worse, sink into Hades and the
infernal world. And in all great changes for good and evil which are
produced either by the will of the soul or the influence of others,
there is a change of place. The good soul, which has intercourse with
the divine nature, passes into a holier and better place; and the evil
soul, as she grows worse, changes her place for the worse. This,--as we
declare to the youth who fancies that he is neglected of the Gods,--is
the law of divine justice--the worse to the worse, the better to the
better, like to like, in life and in death. And from this law no man
will ever boast that he has escaped. Even if you s