might play or fight, or desired any other thing whose event is uncertain,
and that might be likely to turn to their disadvantage.

When he offered sacrifices he did not believe that his poverty rendered
them despicable in the presence of the gods; and, while he offered
according to his ability, he thought he gave as much as the rich, who
load the altars with costly gifts, for he held that it would be an
injustice in the gods to take more delight in costly sacrifices than in
poorer ones, because it would then follow that the offerings of the
wicked would for the most part be more acceptable to them than the gifts
of the good; and that, if this were so, we ought not to desire to live
one moment longer: he thought, therefore, that nothing was so acceptable
to the Deity as the homage that is paid him by souls truly pious and
innocent. To this purpose he often repeated these verses:--

"Offer to heaven according to thy pow'r:
Th' indulgent gracious gods require no more."

And not only in this, but in all the other occasions of life, he thought
the best advice he could give his friends was to do all things according
to their ability.

When he believed that the gods had admonished him to do anything, it was
as impossible to make him take a contrary resolution as it would have
been to have prevailed with him in a journey to change a guide that was
clear-sighted for one that knew not the way, and was blind likewise. For
this reason he pitied their folly, who, to avoid the derision of men,
live not according to the admonitions and commands of the gods; and he
beheld with contempt all the subtilties of human prudence when he
compared them with divine inspirations.