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the opportunities presented to him to show himself just, temperate, obedient
to the gods, and to do this with all simplicity: for the pride which is proud
of its want of pride is the most intolerable of all.
    To those who ask, 'Where have you seen the gods and how do you know they
exist, that you worship them as you do?' I answer: 'In the first place, they
may be seen even with the eyes; in the second place, neither have I seen even
my own soul and yet I honor it. Thus then with respect to the gods, from what
I constantly experience of their power, from this I comprehend that they exist
and I venerate them.'
    The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is
itself, what is its material, what the casual part; and with all your soul to
do justice and to speak the truth. What remains except to enjoy life by
joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the smallest gap
between?
    There is one light of the sun though it is distributed over walls,
mountains, and other things infinite. There is one common substance, though
it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several qualities.
There is one soul, though it is distributed among infinite natures and
individuals. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.
Now in the things which have been mentioned all the other parts, such as those
which are air and substance, are without sensation and have no fellowship: yet
even these parts the intelligent principle holds together and they gravitate
towards the same. But intellect in a peculiar manner tends to that which is
of the same kin, and combines with it, and the feeling for communion is not
interrupted.
    What do you wish? To continue to exist? Well, do you wish to have
sensation, movement, growth? And then again to cease to grow, to use speech,
to think? What is there of all these things which seems to you worth
desiring? But if it is easy to set little value on all these things, turn to
that which remains, which is to follow reason and God. But it is inconsistent

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with honoring reason and God to be troubled because by death a man will be
deprived of the other things.
    How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to
every man! In a moment it is swallowed up in the eternal. And how small a
part of the whole substance, and how small a part of the universal soul! And
on what a small clod of the whole earth you creep! Reflecting on all this,
consider nothing to be great, except to act as your nature leads you and to
endure that which the common nature brings.".
    Anyone who has played the telephone game of whispering a message down a
line of people from one person to the next, will have no problem recognizing
what has happened to God's message that has passed from generation to
generation. Especially, considering the cultural impact of the transfers
between the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Just as when you throw a
rock into a pond, the ripples extend out in concentric circles from the point
of impact, the word is ever expanding. Compound that, if you will with an
additional two rocks entering the pond at the same time but at slightly
different locations and the first rocks' ripples become mixed and confused
with the other ripples, which emanate from a different center. After awhile
the source of the ripple viewed at any given spot is difficult to determine.
The same is true with the lore, or wisdom, passed down through the
generations. The only thing we do know, is that, the point observed has to
reflect the original impact, and the impact point is never a reflection of the
ripple. Did you notice the cross reference to the episode at the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, ("every man's intelligence is a god")?
    The people we have studied in this part, all had one thing lacking, they
lacked guidance from the Holy Spirit. It reflects in their writings, and yet
there is a strange recognition that they are missing something. From the
Greeks to the Romans we see that they recognized a supreme God, they just
didn't know how to describe Him. The gods that they worshipped, we know were
from their environment, the sun, moon, stars, animals, and such. In parts of

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