Essays by Plutarch

Author:Plutarch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141964898
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2010-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

ON GOD’S SLOWNESS TO PUNISH

[548A] [1] Once our Epicurus1 had finished speaking, Quietus,2 he [B] didn’t give anyone a chance to respond, but since we happened to be at the end of the stoa, he hurried away. We stood still and looked at one another in amazement at his odd behaviour, and then turned and resumed our walk. A little later, Patrocleas broke the silence by saying, ‘Well, do you think we should discontinue the inquiry, or respond to the argument as if its proponent were here, even though he isn’t?’

‘But if he had shot us,’ replied Timon, ‘and then run away, it certainly wouldn’t be right to ignore the missile sticking in us. [C] Brasidas apparently pulled the spear out of his body and used this very weapon to strike and kill the person who had thrown it. In our case, however, if people fire an outrageous or false argument against us, we needn’t bother to repay them in kind, surely: all we need do is deflect the idea before it gets through to us.’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘what was the most effective thing he said, in your opinion? I mean, a lot of it was a confused mishmash, and it was completely disorganized and eclectic: he was coming down hard on the notion of providence as if he were hacking at it in a fit of abusive rage.’

[2] Patrocleas said, ‘I think the slowness and lateness of divinity [D] in retaliating against sinners is particularly awkward. In fact, the points he made about this have renewed and reawakened that idea in me right now: I used to get disturbed a long time ago by Euripides’ line “He is slow – but the gods are by nature like that.”1 And yet God should be sluggish about nothing,2 and least of all about sinners, who are not themselves sluggish or “work-shy”3 in transgressing, but in fact are driven towards immoral behaviour by their emotions at a furious pace. Moreover, to quote Thucydides, “When reprisal comes as soon as possible after the event”,4 it immediately bars the way against [E] people who are strongly inclining towards making use of their badness while it is in full flow. For deferment of the debt of punishment is not only more debilitating to the injured party’s hopes and more depressing than deferment of any other kind of debt, but it is also the best boost to the wrongdoer’s daring and audacity; on the other hand, retaliation which wastes no time in challenging audacity not only deters future crimes, but is inherently the greatest possible consolation to the victim. So, for my part, I am also often troubled by Bias’ statement, when I recall what he said to a certain bad man – which was, apparently, that [F] he had no doubt that he would pay a penalty, but he was worried that he, Bias, would not be around to witness it.

‘I mean, how did the Messenians who had been killed long before gain by Aristocrates

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.