he resolveth to change his customs, and whiles he feareth to
lose his prosperity, he forsaketh wickedness. The increase of honour
undeservedly obtained hath thrown some headlong into their deserved
destruction. Others are permitted to have authority to punish others,
that they may exercise the good and punish the bad. For as there is no
league between virtuous and wicked men, so neither can the wicked agree
among themselves. Why not? Since they disagree within themselves by
reason of their vices which tear their conscience, so that they many
times do that which afterwards they wish undone. From whence that
highest Providence often worketh that wonderful miracle, that evil men
make those which are evil good. For some, considering the injustice done
them by most wicked men, inflamed with hatred of evildoers have returned
to the practice of virtue, procuring to be contrary to them whom they
hate. For it is only a divine strength to which even evil things are
good, when, by using them in due sort, it draweth some good effect out
of them. For a certain order embraceth all things, so that even that
which departeth from the order appointed to it, though it falleth into
another, yet that is order also, lest confused rashness should bear any
sway in the kingdom of Providence. 'But it is hard for me to rehearse
all this as if I were a God.'[160] For it is impossible for any man
either to comprehend by his wit or to explicate in speech all the frame
of God's work. Be it sufficient that we have seen thus much, that God,
the author of all natures, directeth and disposeth all things to
goodness, and while He endeavoureth to retain in His own likeness those
things which He hath produced, He banisheth all evil from the bounds of
His commonwealth, by the course of fatal necessity. So that if thou
considerest the disposition of Providence, thou wilt perceive that evil,
which is thought so to abound upon earth, hath no place left for it at
all. But I see that long since burdened with so weighty a question, and
wearied with my long discourse, thou expectest the delight of verses;
wherefore take a draught, that, being refreshed, thou mayest be able to
go forward.

[158] _Pharsal_. i. 126.

[159] Source unknown.

[160] Homer, _Il._ xii. 176.

VI.

Si uis celsi iura tonantis
Pura sollers cernere mente,
Aspice summi culmina caeli.
Illic iusto foedere rerum
Vet