Chapter VI.
Moreover, I shall exhibit in discourse the
ill-fortune that most of all prevails among men. While God may
supply a man with all that is according to his mind, and deprive him of
no object which may in any manner appeal to his desires, whether it be
wealth, or honour, or any other of those things for which men distract
themselves; yet the man, while thus prospered in all things, as though
the only ill inflicted on him from heaven were just the inability to
enjoy them, may but husband them for his fellow, and fall without
profit either to himself or to his neighbours. This I reckon to
be a strong proof and clear sign of surpassing evil. The man who
has borne without blame the name of father of very many children, and
spent a long life, and has not had his soul filled with good for so
long time, and has had no experience of death meanwhile,77
| 77
θάνατον
πεῖραν οὐ
λαβών, for which we must read probably
θανάτου, etc. |
—this man I should not
envy either
his numerous
offspring or his length of days; nay, I should say that
the untimely
birth that falls from a
woman’s
womb is better than
he. For as that came in with
vanity, so it also departeth
secretly in oblivion, without having
tasted the ills of
life or looked
on the sun. And this is a lighter
evil than for the
wicked man
not to know what is good, even though he measure his
life by
thousands
of years.
78
| 78 The text
gives, ἤπερ τῷ
πονηρῷ…ἀναμετρησαμένῳ
ἀγαθοτητα μὴ
ἐπιγνῳ, for which we may read
either ἤπερ τῷ
πονηρῷ…ἀναμετρησάμενος…ἐπιγνῷ, or
better,…ἀναμετρησαμένῳ…ἐπιγνῶναι. |
And the end
of both is
death. The
fool is
proved above all things by his
finding no satisfaction in any
lust. But the discreet man is not
held captive by these passions. Yet, for the most part,
righteousness of
life leads a man to
poverty. And the sight of
curious eyes deranges
79
many, inflaming
their mind, and drawing them on to vain pursuits by the empty desire of
show.
80
Moreover, the
things which are now are known already; and it becomes apparent that
man is unable to contend with those that are above him. And,
verily, inanities have their course among men, which only increase the
folly of those who occupy themselves with them.
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