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You put yourself on the same level as divine providence. But if virtue consists only in effort, Eucrites, and in that intense application by which the disciples of Zeno pretend to render themselves equal to the gods, the frog, which swelled itself out to try and become as big as the ox, accomplished a masterpiece of stoicism. EUCRITES. You jest, Nicias, and, as usual, you excel in ridicule.
"I wish," said Eucrites, "that it may find me occupied in correcting my faults, and attentive to all my duties. In the face of death I will raise my pure hands to heaven, and I will say to the gods, 'Your images, gods, that you have placed in the temple of my soul, I have not profaned; I have hung there my thoughts, as well as garlands, fillets, and wreaths.
Nicias shook his head. "Eucrites is no more," he said. "He wished to die as others wish to love. He has, like all of us, obeyed his inexpressible desire. And, lo, now he is like unto the gods, who desire nothing." Cotta struck his forehead. "Die! To want to die when he might still serve the State! What nonsense!"
Evil is an evil not for the world, of which it cannot destroy the indestructible harmony but for the sinner who does it, and cannot help doing it. COTTA. By Jupiter? that is a good argument. EUCRITES. The world is a tragedy by an excellent poet. God, who composed it, has intended each of us to play a part in it.
Hermodorus and Marcus had approached, and stood before him by the side of Nicias; and all four, regardless of the laughter and cries of the drinkers, conversed on things divine. Eucrites expresses himself so wisely and eloquently, that Marcus said "You are worthy to know the true God." Eucrites replied "The true God is in the heart of the wise man." Then they spoke of death.
At these words, drawing from the folds of his robe a naked dagger, he plunged it into his breast. Those who listened to him sprang forward to seize his hand, but the steel point had already penetrated the heart of the sage. Eucrites had already entered into his rest.
Grave and white, he stands in the midst of us like the image of an ancestor. He is solitary amidst a crowd of men, and the words he utters are not heard. EUCRITES. You deceive yourself, Dorion. The philosophy of virtue is not dead. I have numerous disciples in Alexandria, Rome, and Constantinople.
"Nicias, you seem to me like a child playing at knuckle-bones. Take my advice be free! By liberty only can you become a man." "How can a man be free, Eucrites, when he has a body?" "You shall see presently, my son. Presently you will say, 'Eucrites was free." The old man spoke, leaning against a porphyry pillar, his face lighted by the first rays of dawn.
For man, who only sees a part of things, evil is an evil; for God, who understands all things, evil is a good. Doubtless ugliness is ugly, and not beautiful; but if all were beautiful, the whole would not be beautiful. It is, then, well that there should be evil, as the second Plato, far greater than the first, has demonstrated." EUCRITES. Let us talk more morally.
EUCRITES. You distort my thought, Nicias, and change a beautiful young girl into a hideous Gorgon. I am sorry for you, if you are so ignorant of the nature of the gods, of justice, and of the eternal laws. ZENOTHEMIS. For my part, friends, I believe in the reality of good and evil.
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