11. Lastly, if the gods drive away sorrow and grief, if they bestow joy and pleasure, how1575    Lit., “whence.” are there in the world so many1576    Lit., “so innumerable.” and so wretched men, whence come so many unhappy ones, who lead a life of tears in the meanest condition? Why are not those free from calamity who every moment, every instant, load and heap up the altars with sacrifices? Do we not see that some of them, say the learned, are the seats of diseases, the light of their eves quenched, and their ears stopped, that they cannot move with their feet, that they live mere trunks without the use of their hands, that they are swallowed up, overwhelmed, and destroyed by conflagrations, shipwrecks, and disasters;1577    Lit., “ruins.” that, having been stripped of immense fortunes, they support themselves by labouring for hire, and beg for alms at last; that they are exiled, proscribed, always in the midst of sorrow, overcome by the loss of children, and harassed by other misfortunes, the kinds and forms of which no enumeration can comprehend? But assuredly this would not occur if the gods, who had been laid under obligation, were able to ward off, to turn aside, those evils from those who merited this favour. But now, because in these mishaps there is no room for the interference of the gods, but all things are brought about1578    So Canterus suggests conf-iuntfor the ms. confic-—“bring about,” by inevitable necessity, the appointed course of events goes on and accomplishes that which has been once determined.

XI. Postremo si tristia atque importuna dii pellunt: 1230B si ea, quae sunt laeta atque amica, largiuntur: unde sunt mundo tanti, tamque innumerabiles miseri? unde tot infelices lacrymabilem vitam in extrema sorte ducentes? cur immunes a calamitatibus non sunt, qui momenta per singula, qui per puncta sacrificiis onerant atque accumulant aras? Nonne alios, inquiunt, videmus ex illis domicilia esse morborum; extinctis luminibus, atque auribus obseratis, pedum carere processu, truncos sine manibus degere, incendiis, naufragiis, et ruinis mergi, obrui, confici: patrimoniis ab ingentibus evolutos mercenario sese labore fulcire: stipes emendicare supremas, exterminari, proscribi, semper esse in luctibus liberorum orbitatibus fractos: vexari per infortunia caetera, 1230C quorum species et formas nulla potest enumeratio definire? Quod utique non fieret, si propulsare, si flectere mala ista dii possent sacrorum meritis obligati. 1231A Nunc vero quia casibus nullus est in his locus, sed ineluctabili omnia necessitate confiunt, agit sese ordo praescriptus , et quod semel decretum est, perficit.