2.3
But imagine, pray, that such a work had been completed and made evident to men’s eyes. Is there anyone who could look upon it and suppose that the form, the arrangement, and the appearance were created by Fortune and Accident? No one, I think. What of Apelles’ Wielder of the Thunderbolt? Cf. 335 a, supra, Moralia 360 d. What of the statue which takes its name from the Spear? Cf. 335 a, supra, Moralia, 360 d. Shall we admit, then, that greatness in a statue cannot, without the help of Art, Cf.Moralia, 99 b-c. be created by Fortune’s profuse provision of gold and bronze and ivory and much rich material, but is it possible that a great man, or rather the greatest man of all that have ever lived, without the help of Virtue, was perfected through Fortunes supplying him with arms and money, foot and horse? But for him who has not learned how to use these things they are a danger, not a strength and enrichment, but a means of proving his weakness and pettiness. For Antisthenes was right when he said, Cf. Stobaeus, Florilegium, lix. 41 (Hense, vol. iv. p. 362). We should pray that our enemies be provided with all good things, except courage; for thus these good things will belong, not to their owners, but to those that conquer them. Therefore they say that Nature also for defence has caused horns, wonderful for their size and jagged points, to grow upon the deer, the most cowardly of all animals; and therein does Nature teach us that strength and arms are of no benefit to such as have not the courage to stand their ground. Thus also Fortune, by frequently bestowing on cowards and fools military forces and dominions, in which they disgrace themselves, emblazons and commends Virtue as the one quality that constitutes the greatness and beauty of man. For if indeed, as EpicharmusAn oft-quoted line. Cf. G. Kaibel, Comicorum Graec. Frag. i. 137, Epicharmus, no. 249; Moralia, 98 c, with the note; also Cicero, Tusculan Disp. i. 20 (46); Maximus Tyrius, xi. 10. says, Mind has sight and Mind has hearing; but All things else are deaf and blind; then it happens that these are really lacking in reason. For our perceptive faculties seem to respond to their own special stimuli; but the fact that it is mind which aids us and mind which emblazons our deeds, and it is mind that conquers and overpowers and plays the monarch, and that all things else, since they are blind and deaf and soulless, mislead and burden and disgrace their possessors, if Virtue be not present, Cf. Plato, Menexenus, 246 e. is a truth which may be gleaned from history.
