Hellenistic Philosophy Introductory

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

52 1-16 to 1-17


there is such and such a number of mortal beings, there is no less a
number of immortal beings, and if there is an innumerable set of forces
which destroy, there ought also to be an infinite set of forces which pre-
serve.
Balbus, you [Stoics] often ask us what the life of the gods is like and
how they pass their time. 51. Well, they spend their time in such a
manner that nothing can be conceived which is more blessed or better
supplied with all kinds of good things. For a god is idle, is entangled
with no serious preoccupations, undertakes no toilsome labour, but simply
rejoices in his own wisdom and virtue, being certain that he will always
be in the midst of pleasures which are both supreme and eternal. 52.
This god we could properly call blessed, but your [i.e., the Stoic] god
is assigned to very hard labour. For if god is the world itself, what can
be less restful than to be revolving around the heaven's axis at amazing
speed, with not even a moment of rest? But nothing is blessed if it is
not at rest. But if there is some god in the world to rule and guide it,
to maintain the orbits of the heavenly bodies, the changes of the seasons
and the ordered variations of [natural] events, to oversee land and sea to
ensure that men have lives full of advantages, then surely that god is
entangled with burdensome and laborious obligations. 53. But we claim
that happiness is a matter of freedom from disturbance in the mind and
leisure from all duties. For the same person who taught us the rest [of
this theory] also taught us that the world was produced by nature and
that there was no need for someone to make it, and that the task which
you say cannot be carried out without divine wisdom is so easy that
nature has produced, is producing and will produce an unlimited number
of worlds. Since you do not see how nature can do so without [the use
of] intelligence, you take refuge like tragedians in [the agency of] god
when you cannot work out the conclusion of the plot. 54. You would
certainly not need the assistance of god if you realized the unlimited
magnitude of space which is unbounded in all directions; the intellect
casts itself into and contemplates this [infinity] and travels so far and
wide that it can see no final boundary at which it might stop. So, in this
immense length, breadth, and height there flies about an infinite quantity
of innumerable atoms, which (despite the interspersal of void) cling to
each other and are linked together by their mutual contacts. From this
are produced those forms and shapes which you think cannot be produced
without the use of a veritable blacksmith's shop! And so you have bur-
dened us with the yoke of an eternal master whom we are to fear by day
and by night; for who would not fear an inquisitive and busy god who
foresees everything, thinks about and notices everything, and supposes
that everything is his own business? 55. This is the origin of that fated

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