Ch. 17
On Providence.
WHEN you make any charge against Providence, consider,
and you will learn that the thing has happened according
to reason.Yes, but the unjust man has the advantage.
In what?In money.Yes, for he is superior to you in
this, that he flatters, is free from shame, and is watchful.
What is the wonder? But see if he has the advantage
over you in being faithful, in being modest: for you
will not find it to be so; but wherein you are superior,
there you will find that you have the advantage. And I
once said to a man who was vexed because Philostorgus
was fortunate: Would you choose to lie with Sura?514
[p. 239]
May it never happen, he replied, that this day should
come? Why then are you vexed, if he receives something
in return for that which he sells; or how can you consider
him happy who acquires those things by such means as you
abominate; or what wrong does Providence, if he gives
the better things to the better men? Is it not better to be
modest than to be rich?He admitted thisWhy are you
vexed then, man, when you possess the better thing?
Remember then always and have in readiness the truth,
that this is a law of nature, that the superior has an ad-
vantage over the inferior in that in which he is superior;
and you will never be vexed.
But my wife treats me badly.Well, if any man asks
you what this is, say, my wife treats me badlyIs there
then nothing more? Nothing.My father gives me
nothing[What is this? my father gives me nothingIs
there nothing else then?Nothing]515 : but to say that this
is an evil is something which must be added to it externally, and falsely added. For this reason we must not get
rid of poverty, but of the opinion about poverty, and then
we shall be happy.