because God is thy Maker, is that why thou carest not of what sort
thou shalt show thyself to be? Yet how different the artists and their
workmanship! What human artist's work, for example, has in it the
faculties that are displayed in fashioning it? Is it aught but marble,
bronze, gold, or ivory? Nay, when the Athena of Phidias has put forth
her hand and received therein a Victory, in that attitude she stands
for evermore. But God's works move and breathe; they use and judge the
things of sense. The workmanship of such an Artist, wilt thou dishonor
Him? Ay, when he not only fashioned thee, but placed thee, like a ward,
in the care and guardianship of thyself alone, wilt thou not only forget
this, but also do dishonour to what is committed to thy care! If God had
entrusted thee with an orphan, wouldst thou have thus neglected him? He
hath delivered thee to thine own care, saying, I had none more faithful
than myself: keep this man for me such as Nature hath made him--modest,
faithful, high-minded, a stranger to fear, to passion, to perturbation.
. . .

Such will I show myself to you all.--"What, exempt from sickness also:
from age, from death?"--Nay, but accepting sickness, accepting death as
becomes a God!




LXII

No labour, according to Diogenes, is good but that which aims at
producing courage and strength of soul rather than of body.