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preventing him out of some envy and not out of foresight for the matters at hand, but if he were to look at those still acting disgracefully by the protraction of their drunkenness amid vomit and headaches and by uttering some things that ought not to be said, he would give thanks to the one who removed him from immoderate satiety before such a condition; if indeed we have understood the example, it would be easy to apply the contemplation grasped by us in this to the thought before us. For what was the subject? For what reason does God, when fathers have a great eagerness to preserve for themselves a successor in life, often allow the child who is born to be snatched away untimely in the imperfection of his age? To whom we will offer that example of the banquet, that since the table of life has a great and varied preparation of foods (and understand for me, according to the experience of cookery, that not all things of life are sweetened with the honey of pleasure, but there are times when life is seasoned even with the harsher of circumstances, just as the craftsmen of pleasures related to the stomach and the feast cleverly stir up the appetites of the diners with things that are more pungent or salty or rather astringent); since, therefore, life is not honey-sweet through all its affairs, but there are cases in which the relish is brine or an acidic astringency, or some biting and 90 pungent quality mixed in with affairs makes the seasoning of life hard to take, and the mixing-bowls of deceit are full of every kind of mixture, of which some produced a flatulent condition in those who drank from them through the arrogance of deceit, others provoked those who drank to madness, and for others they stirred up the vomiting of things wickedly acquired through shameful retribution; in order, then, that one who did not make proper use of the banquet might not linger long at such a provision of the table, he is quickly led away from the company of the diners, gaining by not being among those for whom the immoderation of enjoyment becomes the cause of suffering for the gluttonous. This is what I say is the achievement of perfect providence, not only to heal passions once they have arisen, but also to prevent them before they arise. which indeed we also supposed concerning the death of newborns, that he who does all things by reason, out of love for mankind, takes away the material for wickedness, not giving an opportunity for the choice—known through his foreknowing power—to be shown by its works in the preeminence of wickedness what sort it is, whenever it might have an impulse toward evil.

Often, too, he who arranges the banquet of life refutes the contrived necessity of avarice through such things, so that, I think, the sickness of avarice might appear stripped of its specious veils, not overshadowed by any misleading curtain. For many say that for this reason 91 they broaden out in their desires for more, so that they might make their offspring wealthier; the unexcused greed of the childless refutes that their disease is their own, not arising from necessity; for many, neither having an heir for the many things for which they have toiled nor being in hope of having one, rear many desires in themselves instead of countless children, having no one to whom they might attribute the necessity of this sickness. But if some who fare ill in life, tyrannical and bitter in their choice, enslaved to all forms of licentiousness, crazed with anger, sparing none of the incurable evils, robbers and murderers and traitors of their homelands or if there is anything more accursed than these, such as patricides and matricides and killers of children and those who rage in unlawful unions, if some such people grow old in this wickedness, how will anyone say that this agrees with what has been previously examined? For if that which is snatched away before its time, so that it might not glut itself to the end on the passions of this life according to the example of the banquet, is providentially led away from the banquet of life, for what reason does such a one act with drunken violence at the banquet until old age, scattering a wicked stale mixture of evils for himself and for his fellow drinkers? to whom we will say that no less even in these things the providence of God

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φθόνῳ τινὶ καὶ οὐ προνοίᾳ τῶν προκειμένων ἀπείργοντος, εἰ δὲ πρὸς τοὺς ἔτι ἀσχημονοῦντας τῇ παρατάσει τῆς μέθης βλέποι ἐν ἐμέτοις καὶ καρηβαρίαις καὶ τῷ παραφθέγγεσθαί τι τῶν οὐ δεόντων, χάριν ὁμολογεῖ τῷ πρὸ τοῦ τοιούτου πάθους τῆς ἀμέτρου πλησμονῆς αὐτὸν ἀποστήσαντι· εἰ δὴ νενόηται ἡμῖν τὸ ὑπόδειγμα, ῥᾴδιον ἂν εἴη προσαγαγεῖν τὸ ἐν τούτῳ καταληφθὲν ἡμῖν θεώρημα τῷ προκειμένῳ νοήματι. τί γὰρ τὸ προκείμενον ἦν; ὅτου χάριν ὁ θεός, πολλῆς οὔσης τοῖς πατράσι σπουδῆς φυλαχθῆναι ἑαυτοῖς τὸν τοῦ βίου διάδοχον, ἄωρον πολλάκις ἐν τῷ ἀτελεῖ τῆς ἡλικίας ἐᾷ τὸ τεχθὲν ἀναρπάζεσθαι; πρὸς οὓς ἐροῦμεν τὸ συμποτικὸν ἐκεῖνο ὑπόδειγμα, ὅτι τῆς τοῦ βίου τραπέζης πολλήν τε καὶ παν τοδαπὴν τῶν ἐδωδίμων τὴν παρασκευὴν ἐχούσης (νόει δέ μοι κατὰ τὴν ὀψαρτυτικὴν ἐμπειρίαν μὴ πάντα τῷ τῆς ἡδονῆς μέλιτι τὰ τοῦ βίου καταγλυκαίνεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ὅπου καὶ τοῖς αὐστηροτέροις τῶν συμπτωμάτων τὴν ζωὴν ἐπαρτύεσθαι, οἷα δὴ φιλοτεχνοῦσιν οἱ τῶν περὶ γαστέρα καὶ θοίνην ἡδονῶν τεχνῖται τοῖς δριμυτέροις ἢ ἁλμῶσιν ἢ παραστύφουσιν τὰς ὀρέξεις τῶν δαιτυμόνων ἀναρριπίζοντες)· ἐπεὶ οὖν οὐ διὰ πάντων ἐστὶ τῶν πραγμάτων μελιηδὴς ὁ βίος, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἐν οἷς ἅλμη τὸ ὄψον ἐστὶν ἢ στῦψις [ἢ] ὀξώδης, ἢ δηκτική τις καὶ 90 δριμεῖα ποιότης ἐντριβεῖσα τοῖς πράγμασι δύσληπτον ποιεῖ τὴν καρυκείαν τοῦ βίου, πλήρεις δὲ οἱ τῆς ἀπάτης κρατῆρες παντοδαποῦ κράματος, ὧν οἱ μὲν τὸ φυσῶδες πάθος διὰ τοῦ τύφου τῆς ἀπάτης τοῖς ἐμπιοῦσιν ἐποίησαν, οἱ δὲ εἰς παραφορὰν τοὺς ἐμπιόντας ἐξεκαλέσαντο, ἄλλοις δὲ τῶν πονηρῶς κτηθέντων τὸν ἔμετον διὰ τῆς αἰσχρᾶς ἀποτίσεως ἀνεκίνησαν· ὡς ἂν οὖν μὴ ἐπιχρονίζοι τῇ τοιαύτῃ τῆς τραπέζης παρασκευῇ ὁ μὴ δεόντως τῷ συμποσίῳ χρησάμενος, θᾶττον ὑπεξάγεται τοῦ τῶν δαιτυμόνων πληρώματος, κερδαίνων τὸ μὴ ἐν ἐκείνοις γενέσθαι, ὧν ἡ ἀμετρία τῆς ἀπολαύσεως τοῖς λαιμαργοῦσι πρόξενος γίνεται. τοῦτό ἐστιν ὅ φημι τελείας εἶναι προνοίας κατόρθωμα, τὸ μὴ μόνον συστάν τα θεραπεύειν τὰ πάθη, ἀλλὰ καὶ κωλύειν πρὸ τῆς συστάσεως. ὃ δὴ καὶ περὶ τοῦ θανάτου τῶν ἀρτιτόκων ὑπενοήσαμεν, ὅτι ὁ λόγῳ τὰ πάντα ποιῶν ὑπὸ φιλανθρωπίας ἀφαιρεῖται τῆς κακίας τὴν ὕλην μὴ διδοὺς καιρὸν τῇ προαιρέσει τῇ διὰ τῆς προγνωστικῆς δυνάμεως γνωρισθείσῃ διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἐν κακίας ἐξοχῇ δειχθῆναι οἵα ἐστίν, ὅταν πρὸς τὸ κακὸν τὴν ὁρμὴν ἔχοι.

Πολλάκις δὲ τὴν σεσοφισμένην τῆς φιλαργυρίας ἀνάγκην διὰ τῶν τοιούτων ἐλέγχει ὁ συνιστῶν τὸ τοῦ βίου συμπόσιον, ὡς ἄν, οἶμαι, γυμνὸν τῶν εὐπροσώπων προκαλυμμάτων τὸ τῆς φιλαργυρίας ἀρρώστημα φαίνοιτο μηδενὶ παραπετάσματι πεπλανημένῳ συσκιαζόμενον. φασὶ γὰρ οἱ πολλοὶ διὰ τοῦτο 91 ταῖς τοῦ πλείονος ἐπιθυμίαις ἐπιπλατύνεσθαι, ὡς ἂν πλουσιωτέρους τοὺς ἐξ αὐτῶν γεγονότας ποιήσαιεν· ὧν ἐλέγχει τὴν νόσον ἰδίαν οὖσαν, οὐκ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐγγινομένην ἡ ἀπροφάσιστος τῶν ἀτέκνων πλεονεξία· πολλοὶ γὰρ οὔτε ἔχοντες διαδοχὴν ἐπὶ πολλοῖς οἷς ἐμόχθησαν οὔτε ἐν ἐλπίσι τοῦ σχεῖν ὄντες ἀντὶ μυρίων τέκνων πολλὰς ἐπιθυμίας ἐν ἑαυτοῖς παιδοτροφοῦσιν, οὐκ ἔχοντες ποῦ τὴν ἀνάγκην τῆς ἀρ ρωστίας ταύτης ἐπανενέγκωσιν. Εἰ δέ τινες κακῶς ἐπιδημοῦντες τῷ βίῳ, τυραννικοί τε καὶ πικροὶ τὴν προαίρεσιν, πάσαις ἀκολασίαις δεδουλωμένοι, θυμῷ παραπλῆγες, φειδόμενοι τῶν ἀνηκέστων κακῶν οὐδ ενός, λῃσταὶ καὶ ἀνδροφόνοι καὶ πατρίδων προδόται ἢ εἴ τι τούτων ἐστὶν ἐναγέστερον οἶον πατροφόνοι τε καὶ μητρολῷαι καὶ παιδοκτόνοι καὶ ταῖς παρανόμοις μίξεσιν ἐπιλυσσῶντες, εἰ τοιοῦτοί τινες ὄντες ἐν τῇ κακίᾳ ταύτῃ γηράσκουσιν, πῶς ἐρεῖ τις συμβαίνειν ταῦτα τοῖς προεξητασμένοις; εἰ γὰρ τὸ πρὸ ὥρας ἀνάρπαστον, ὡς ἂν μὴ εἰς τέλος κατὰ τὸ ὑπόδειγμα τοῦ συμποσίου τοῖς πάθεσι τῆς ζωῆς ταύτης ἐλλαιμαργήσειεν, προνοητικῶς ὑπεξάγεται τοῦ βιωτικοῦ συμποσίου, τίνος χάριν ὁ τοιοῦτος μέχρι γήρως ἐμπαροινεῖ τῷ συμποσίῳ, πονηρὰν ἑαυτῷ τε καὶ τοῖς συμπόταις τὴν τῶν κακῶν ἑωλοκρασίαν ἐπισκεδάζων; πρὸς οὓς ἐροῦμεν μηδὲν ἔλαττον καὶ ἐπὶ τούτων τὴν προνοητικὴν τοῦ θεοῦ