CHAPTER 11

Certain miscellaneous matters

There are certain penalties fixed as by law for those who disobey the divine administration. Whoever thinks any other thing to be good except those things which depend on the will, let him envy, let him desire, let him flatter, let him be perturbed: whoever considers anything else to be evil, let him grieve, let him lament, let him weep, let him be unhappy. And yet, though so severely punished, we cannot desist.

Remember what the poet says about the stranger:

This, then, may be applied even to a father: “I must not, even if a worse man than you should come, treat a father unworthily-, for all are from paternal Zeus.” And of a brother, “For all are from the Zeus who presides over kindred.” And so in the other relations of life we shall find Zeus to be an inspector.