11. Lastly, if the gods
drive away sorrow and grief, if they bestow joy and pleasure,
how4814
are there in
the
world so many
4815
and so
wretched men, whence
come so many unhappy ones, who lead a
life
of
tears in the meanest condition? Why are not those free from
calamity who every moment, every instant, load and heap up the
altars
with sacrifices? Do we not see that some of them, say
the
learned, are the seats of
diseases, the
light of their eves
quenched, and their
ears stopped, that they cannot move with their
feet, that they
live mere trunks without
the use of their
hands, that they are
swallowed up, overwhelmed,
and destroyed by
conflagrations, shipwrecks, and disasters;
4816
that, having been stripped of immense
fortunes, they support themselves by labouring for
hire,
and beg
for
alms at last; that they are exiled, proscribed, always in the midst
of sorrow, overcome by the loss of children,
and harassed
by other misfortunes, the
kinds and forms of which no enumeration can comprehend? But
assuredly this would not occur if the gods, who had been laid under
obligation, were able to ward off, to turn aside, those evils from
those who merited
this favour. But now, because in these
mishaps there is no room
for the interference of the gods, but
all things are brought about
4817
| 4817
So Canterus suggests conf-iuntfor the ms. confic-—“bring
about,” |
by inevitable necessity, the
appointed course of events goes on and accomplishes that which has been
once determined.
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