they need a currier for their wallet,
and a weaver for their mantle, and a wood-cutter for their staff,
and the rich,490
490 They need
the rich to invite them to banquets.
and a cook also for
their gluttony. O man competing with the dog,491
491 The Cynic.
you know not God, and so have
turned to the imitation of an irrational animal. You cry out in public
with an assumption of authority, and take upon you to avenge your own
self; and if you receive nothing, you indulge in abuse, and philosophy
is with you the art of getting money. You follow the doctrines of Plato,
and a disciple of Epicurus lifts up his voice to oppose you. Again, you
wish to be a disciple of Aristotle, and a follower of Democritus rails
at you. Pythagoras says that he was Euphorbus, and he is the heir of the
doctrine of Pherecydes; but Aristotle
impugns the immortality of the soul. You who receive from your
predecessors doctrines which clash with one another, you the inharmonious,
are fighting against the harmonious. One of you asserts that God is body,
but I assert that He is without body; that the world is indestructible,
but I say that it is to be destroyed; that a conflagration will take place
at various times, but I say that it will come to pass once for all; that
Minos and Rhadamanthus are judges, but I say that God Himself is Judge;
that the soul alone is endowed with immortality, but I say that the flesh
also is endowed with it.492
492
[The vigor of this passage, and the impact of its truths upon heathenidols, are noble specimens of our author’s power.]
What
injury do we inflict upon you, O Greeks? Why do you hate those who follow
the word of God, as if they were the vilest of mankind? It is not we who
eat human flesh493
—they among you who assert such a thing
have been suborned as false witnesses; it is among you that Pelops is
made a supper for the gods, although beloved by Poseidon, and Kronos
devours his children, and Zeus swallows Metis.
