The Octavius of Minucius Felix.

 The Octavius of Minucius Felix.

 Chapter II.—Argument:  The Arrival of Octavius at Rome During the Time of the Public Holidays Was Very Agreeable to Minucius.  Both of Them Were Desir

 Chapter III.—Argument:  Octavius, Displeased at the Act of This Superstitious Man, Sharply Reproaches Minucius, on the Ground that the Disgrace of Thi

 Chapter IV.—Argument:  Cæcilius, Somewhat Grieved at This Kind of Rebuke Which for His Sake Minucius Had Had to Bear from Octavius, Begs to Argue with

 Chapter V.—Argument:  Cæcilius Begins His Argument First of All by Reminding Them that in Human Affairs All Things are Doubtful and Uncertain, and tha

 Chapter VI.—Argument:  The Object of All Nations, and Especially of the Romans, in Worshipping Their Divinities, Has Been to Attain for Their Worship

 Chapter VII.—Argument:  That the Roman Auspices and Auguries Have Been Neglected with Ill Consequences, But Have Been Observed with Good Fortune.

 Chapter VIII.—Argument:  The Impious Temerity of Theodorus, Diagoras, and Protagoras is Not at All to Be Acquiesced In, Who Wished Either Altogether t

 Chapter IX.—Argument:  The Religion of the Christians is Foolish, Inasmuch as They Worship a Crucified Man, and Even the Instrument Itself of His Puni

 Chapter X.—Argument:  Whatever the Christians Worship, They Strive in Every Way to Conceal:  They Have No Altars, No Temples, No Acknowledged Images. 

 Chapter XI.—Argument:  Besides Asserting the Future Conflagration of the Whole World, They Promise Afterwards the Resurrection of Our Bodies:  and to

 Chapter XII.—Argument:  Moreover, What Will Happen to the Christians Themselves After Death, May Be Anticipated from the Fact that Even Now They are D

 Chapter XIII.—Argument:  Cæcilius at Length Concludes that the New Religion is to Be Repudiated And that We Must Not Rashly Pronounce Upon Doubtful M

 Chapter XIV.—Argument:  With Something of the Pride of Self-Satisfaction, Cæcilius Urges Octavius to Reply to His Arguments And Minucius with Modesty

 Chapter XV.—Argument:  Cæcilius Retorts Upon Minucius, with Some Little Appearance of Being Hurt, that He is Foregoing the Office of a Religious Umpir

 Chapter XVI.—Argument:  Octavius Arranges His Reply, and Trusts that He Shall Be Able to Dilute the Bitterness of Reproach with the River of Truthful

 Chapter XVII.—Argument:  Man Ought Indeed to Know Himself, But This Knowledge Cannot Be Attained by Him Unless He First of All Acknowledges the Entire

 Chapter XVIII.—Argument:  Moreover, God Not Only Takes Care of the Universal World, But of Its Individual Parts.  That by the Decree of the One God Al

 Chapter XIX.—Argument:  Moreover, the Poets Have Called Him the Parent of Gods and Men, the Creator of All Things, and Their Mind and Spirit.  And, Be

 Chapter XX.—Argument:  But If the World is Ruled by Providence and Governed by the Will of One God, an Ignorant Antipathy Ought Not to Carry Us Away i

 Chapter XXI.—Argument:  Octavius Attests the Fact that Men Were Adopted as Gods, by the Testimony of Euhemerus, Prodicus, Persæus, and Alexander the G

 Chapter XXII.—Argument:  Moreover, These Fables, Which at First Were Invented by Ignorant Men, Were Afterwards Celebrated by Others, and Chiefly by Po

 Chapter XXIII.—Argument:  Although the Heathens Acknowledge Their Kings to Be Mortal, Yet They Feign that They are Gods Even Against Their Own Will, N

 Chapter XXIV.—Argument:  He Briefly Shows, Moreover, What Ridiculous, Obscene, and Cruel Rites Were Observed in Celebrating the Mysteries of Certain G

 Chapter XXV.—Argument:  Then He Shows that Cæcilius Had Been Wrong in Asserting that the Romans Had Gained Their Power Over the Whole World by Means o

 Chapter XXVI.—Argument:  The Weapon that Cæcilius Had Slightly Brandished Against Him, Taken from the Auspices and Auguries of Birds, Octavius Retorts

 Chapter XXVII.—Argument:  Recapitulation.  Doubtless Here is a Source of Error:  Demons Lurk Under the Statues and Images, They Haunt the Fanes, They

 Chapter XXVIII.—Argument:  Nor is It Only Hatred that They Arouse Against the Christians, But They Charge Against Them Horrid Crimes, Which Up to This

 Chapter XXIX.—Argument:  Nor is It More True that a Man Fastened to a Cross on Account of His Crimes is Worshipped by Christians, for They Believe Not

 Chapter XXX.—Argument:  The Story About Christians Drinking the Blood of an Infant that They Have Murdered, is a Barefaced Calumny.  But the Gentiles,

 Chapter XXXI.—Argument:  The Charge of Our Entertainments Being Polluted with Incest, is Entirely Opposed to All Probability, While It is Plain that G

 Chapter XXXII.—Argument:  Nor Can It Be Said that the Christians Conceal What They Worship Because They Have No Temples and No Altars, Inasmuch as The

 Chapter XXXIII.—Argument:  That Even If God Be Said to Have Nothing Availed the Jews, Certainly the Writers of the Jewish Annals are the Most Sufficie

 Chapter XXXIV.—Argument:  Moreover, It is Not at All to Be Wondered at If This World is to Be Consumed by Fire, Since Everything Which Has a Beginning

 Chapter XXXV.—Argument:  Righteous and Pious Men Shall Be Rewarded with Never-Ending Felicity, But Unrighteous Men Shall Be Visited with Eternal Punis

 Chapter XXXVI.—Argument:  Fate is Nothing, Except So Far as Fate is God.  Man’s Mind is Free, and Therefore So is His Action:  His Birth is Not Brough

 Chapter XXXVII.—Argument:  Tortures Most Unjustly Inflicted for the Confession of Christ’s Name are Spectacles Worthy of God.  A Comparison Instituted

 Chapter XXXVIII.—Argument:  Christians Abstain from Things Connected with Idol Sacrifices, Lest Any One Should Think Either that They Yield to Demons,

 Chapter XXXIX.—Argument:  When Octavius Had Finished This Address, Minucius and Cæcilius Sate for Some Time in Attentive and Silent Wonder.  And Minuc

 Chapter XL.—Argument:  Then Cæcilius Exclaims that He is Vanquished by Octavius And That, Being Now Conqueror Over Error, He Professes the Christian

 Chapter XLI.—Argument:  Finally, All are Pleased, and Joyfully Depart:  Cæcilius, that He Had Believed Octavius, that He Had Conquered And Minucius,

Chapter XXXVI.—Argument:  Fate is Nothing, Except So Far as Fate is God.  Man’s Mind is Free, and Therefore So is His Action:  His Birth is Not Brought into Judgment.  It is Not a Matter of Infamy, But of Glory, that Christians are Reproached for Their Poverty; And the Fact that They Suffer Bodily Evils is Not as a Penalty, But as a Discipline.

“Neither let any one either take comfort from, or apologize for what happens from fate.  Let what happens be of the disposition of fortune, yet the mind is free; and therefore man’s doing, not his dignity, is judged.  For what else is fate than what God has spoken115    Fatus. of each one of us? who, since He can foresee our constitution, determines also the fates for us, according to the deserts and the qualities of individuals.  Thus in our case it is not the star under which we are born that is punished, but the particular nature of our disposition is blamed.  And about fate enough is said; or if, in consideration of the time, we have spoken too little, we shall argue the matter at another time more abundantly116    Otherwise read, “both more truly.” and more fully.  But that many of us are called poor, this is not our disgrace, but our glory; for as our mind is relaxed by luxury, so it is strengthened by frugality.  And yet who can be poor if he does not want, if he does not crave for the possessions of others, if he is rich towards God?  He rather is poor, who, although he has much, desires more.  Yet I will speak117    Some read, “I will speak at length.” according as I feel.  No one can be so poor as he is born.  Birds live without any patrimony, and day by day the cattle are fed; and yet these creatures are born for us—all of which things, if we do not lust after, we possess.  Therefore, as he who treads a road is the happier the lighter he walks, so happier is he in this journey of life who lifts himself along in poverty, and does not breathe heavily under the burden of riches.  And yet even if we thought wealth useful to us, we should ask it of God.  Assuredly He might be able to indulge us in some measure, whose is the whole; but we would rather despise riches than possess them:118    Probably a better reading is “strive for them.”  we desire rather innocency, we rather entreat for patience, we prefer being good to being prodigal; and that we feel and suffer the human mischiefs of the body is not punishment—it is warfare.  For fortitude is strengthened by infirmities, and calamity is very often the discipline of virtue; in addition, strength both of mind and of body grows torpid without the exercise of labour.  Therefore all your mighty men whom you announce as an example have flourished illustriously by their afflictions.  And thus God is neither unable to aid us, nor does He despise us, since He is both the ruler of all men and the lover of His own people.  But in adversity He looks into and searches out each one; He weighs the disposition of every individual in dangers, even to death at last; He investigates the will of man, certain that to Him nothing can perish.  Therefore, as gold by the fires, so are we declared by critical moments.

CAPUT XXXVI.

ARGUMENTUM.---Nec minus perspicue docet fatum nihil aliud esse quam quod fatum est Deus. Mens libera est, et ideo actus hominis, non nativitas judicatur. Posthaec manifestissimam facit, exprobratam Christianis pauperiem, non infamiam esse, sed gloriam; et quod corporis mala patiantur, non esse poenam, sed militiam.

Nec de fato quisquam aut solatium captet, aut excuset eventum. Sit sortis fortunae, mens tamen libera est: et ideo actus hominis, non dignitas judicatur. Quid enim aliud est fatum quam quod de unoquoque 0350B nostrum Deus fatum est? qui quum possit praescire materiam, pro meritis et qualitatibus singulorum 0351A etiam fata determinat. Ita in nobis non genitura plectitur, sed ingenii natura punitur. Ac de fato satis: vel si pauca pro tempore, disputaturi alias et uberius et plenius. Caeterum, quod plerique pauperes dicimur, non est infamia nostra, sed gloria: animus enim, ut luxu solvitur, ita frugalitate firmatur: et tamen, quis potest pauper esse, qui non eget, qui non inhiat alieno, qui Deo dives est? magis pauper ille est qui, quum multa habeat, plura desiderat. Dicam tamen, quemadmodum sentio: nemo tam pauper potest esse, quam natus est. Aves sine patrimonio vivunt, et in diem pascua pascuntur: et haec nobis tamen nata sunt: quae omnia, si non concupiscimus, possidemus. Igitur, ut qui viam terit, eo felicior quo levior incedit, ita beatior in hoc itinere vivendi, qui paupertate se sublevat, non sub divitiarum onere suspirat. Et tamen facultates, si 0351B utiles putaremus, a Deo posceremus: utique indulgere posset aliquantum, cujus est totum. Sed nos contemnere malumus opes quam continere; innocentiam magis cupimus, magis patientiam flagitamus; malumus nos bonos esse quam prodigos. Et, quod corporis humana vitia sentimus et patimur, non est poena, militia est. Fortitudo enim infirmitatibus roboratur, et calamitas 0352A saepius disciplina virtutis est. Vires denique et mentis et corporis sine laboris exercitatione torpescunt: omnes adeo vestri viri fortes, quos in exemplum praedicatis, aerumnis suis incluti floruerunt. Itaque et nobis Deus nec non potest subvenire, nec despicit, quum sit et omnium rector et amator suorum; sed in adversis unumquemque explorat et examinat: ingenium singolorum periculis pensitat; usque ad extremam mortem, voluntatem hominis sciscitatur, nihil sibi posse perire securus. Itaque, ut aurum ignibus, sic nos discriminibus arguimur.