rs to succeed; some move and
some abide: yet all is full of friends--first God, then Men, whom Nature
hath bound by ties of kindred each to each.
CXXIV
Nor did the hero weep and lament at leaving his children orphans. For he
knew that no man is an orphan, but it is the Father that careth for all
continually and for evermore. Not by mere report had he heard that
the Supreme God is the Father of men: seeing that he called Him Father
believing Him so to be, and in all that he did had ever his eyes fixed
upon Him. Wherefore in whatsoever place he was, there is was given him
to live happily.
CXXV
Know you not that the thing is a warfare? one man's duty is to mount
guard, another must go out to reconnoitre, a third to battle; all cannot
be in one place, nor would it even be expedient. But you, instead of
executing you Commander's orders, complain if aught harsher than usual
is enjoined; not understanding to what condition you are bringing the
army, so far as in you lies. If all were to follow your example, none
would dig a trench, none would cast a rampart around the camp, none
would keep watch, or expose himself to danger; but all turn out useless
for the service of war. . . . Thus it is here also. Every life is a
warfare, and that long and various. You must fulfil a soldier's duty,
and obey each order at your commander's nod: aye, if it be possible,
divine what he would have done; for between that Command and this, there
is no comparison, either in might or in excellence.
CXXVI
Have you again forgotten? Know you not that a good man does nothing for
appearance' sake, but for the sake of having done right? . . .
"Is there no reward then?"
Reward! do you seek any greater reward for a good man than doing what is
right and just? Yet at the Great Games you look for nothing else; there
the victor's crown you deem enough. Seems it to you so small a thing and
worthless, to be a good man, and happy therein?
CXXVII
It befits thee not to be unhappy by reason of any, but rather to be
happy by reason of all men, and especially by reason of God, who formed
us to this end.
CXXVIII
What, did Diogenes love no man, he that was so gentle, so true a friend
to men as cheerfully to endure such bodily hardships for the common
weal of all mankind? But how loved he them? As behoved a minister of the
Supreme God, alike caring for men and subject unto God.
CXXIX
I am by Nature made for my
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