beauty and ordered all things with such loving-kindness for the welfare
of man, have neglected this alone, that the best men--the men who walked
as it were with the Divine Being, and who, by their acts of
righteousness and by their reverent service, dwelt ever in his
presence--should never live again when once they have died? If this be
really true, then be satisfied that it is best that it should be so,
else it would have been otherwise ordained. For whatever is right and
just is possible; and therefore, if it were in accord with the will of
the Divine Being that we should live after death--so it would have been.
But because it is otherwise,--if indeed it be otherwise,--rest thou
satisfied that this also is just and right.

Moreover, is it not manifest to thee that in inquiring so curiously
concerning these things, thou art questioning God himself as to what is
right, and that this thou wouldst not do didst thou not believe in his
supreme goodness and wisdom? Therefore, since in these we believe, we
may also believe that in the government of the Universe nothing that is
right and just has been overlooked or forgotten. (Book xii., § 5.)


THE UNIVERSAL BEAUTY OF THE WORLD

To him who hath a true insight into the real nature of the Universe,
every change in everything therein that is a part thereof seems
appropriate and delightful. The bread that is over-baked so that it
cracks and bursts asunder hath not the form desired by the baker; yet
none the less it hath a beauty of its own, and is most tempting to the
palate. Figs bursting in their ripeness, olives near even unto decay,
have yet in their broken ripeness a distinctive beauty. Shocks of corn
bending down in their fullness, the lion's mane, the wild boar's mouth