But you take a journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias, and all of you think it a misfortune to die without having seen such things.  But when there is no need to take a journey, and where a man is, there he has the works (of God) before him, will you not desire to see and understand them?  Will you not perceive either what you are, or what you were born for, or what this is for which you have received the faculty of sight?  But you may say, There are some things disagreeable and troublesome in life.  And are there none at Olympia?  Are you not scorched?  Are you not pressed by a crowd?  Are you not without comfortable means of bathing?  Are you not wet when it rains?  Have you not abundance of noise, clamor, and other disagreeable things?  But I suppose that setting all these things off against the magnificence of the spectacle, you bear and endure.  Well then and have you not received faculties by which you will be able to bear all that happens?  Have you not received greatness of soul?  Have you not received manliness?  Have you not received endurance?  And why do I trouble myself about anything that can happen if I possess greatness of soul?  What shall distract my mind, or disturb me, or appear painful?  Shall I not use the power for the purposes for which I received it, and shall I grieve and lament over what happens?

Come, then, do you also having observed these things look to the faculties which you have, and when you have looked at them, say:  Bring now, O Zeus, any difficulty that thou pleasest, for I have means given to me by thee and powers for honoring myself through the things which happen.  You do not so; but you sit still, trembling for fear that some things will happen, and weeping, and lamenting, and groaning for what does happen; and then you blame the gods.  For what is the consequence of such meanness of spirit but impiety?  And yet God has not only given us these faculties, by which we shall be able to bear everything that happens without being depressed or broken by it; but, like a good king and a true father, He has given us these faculties free from hindrance, subject to no compulsion, unimpeded, and has put them entirely in our own power, without even having reserved to Himself any power of hindering or impeding.  You, who have received these powers free and as your own, use them not; you do not even see what you have received, and from whom; some of you being blinded to the giver, and not even acknowledging your benefactor, and others, through meanness of spirit, betaking yourselves to fault-finding and making charges against God.  Yet I will show to you that you have powers and means for greatness of soul and manliness; but what powers you have for finding fault making accusations, do you show me.

* * * * *