eat and to drink, and to copulate, and to do all the other things which
they severally do. But for us, to whom he has given also the
intellectual faculty, these things are not sufficient; for unless we act
in a proper and orderly manner, and conformably to the nature and
constitution of each thing, we shall never attain our true end. For
where the constitutions of living beings are different, there also the
acts and the ends are different. In those animals then whose
constitution is adapted only to use, use alone is enough; but in an
animal (man), which has also the power of understanding the use, unless
there be the due exercise of the understanding, he will never attain his
proper end. Well then God constitutes every animal, one to be eaten,
another to serve for agriculture, another to supply cheese, and another
for some like use; for which purposes what need is there to understand
appearances and to be able to distinguish them? But God has introduced
man to be a spectator of God and of his works; and not only a spectator
of them, but an interpreter. For this reason it is shameful for man to
begin and to end where irrational animals do; but rather he ought to
begin where they begin, and to end where nature ends in us; and nature
ends in contemplation and understanding, and in a way of life
conformable to nature. Take care then not to die without having been
spectators of these things.

But you take a journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias, and all of
you think it a misfortune to die without having seen such things. But
when there is no need to take a journey, and where a man is, there he
has the works (of God) before him, will you not desire to see and
understand them? Will you not perceive either what you are, or what you
were born for, or what this is for which you have received the faculty
of sight? But you may say, There are some things disagreeable and
troublesome in life. And are there none at Olympia? Are you not