Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 3.djvu/85

Rh Benevolent, he warns mankind to good, Urges to toil and prompts the hope of food. He tells where cattle best may graze, and where The soil, deep-furrowed, yellow grain will bear.

What time the husbandman should plant or sow, 'Tis his to tell, 'tis his alone to know."

Who, then, shall we believe: Aratus as here quoted; or Sophocles, when he says:

And Homer, again, does not agree with this, for he says that virtue

And Simonides says:

So, too, Euripides:

And Menander:

And Euripides again:

And Thestius:

And saying numberless things of a like kind, they contradicted themselves. At least Sophocles, who in another place denied Providence, says:

Besides, they both introduced a multitude of gods, and yet spoke of a Unity; and against those who affirmed a Providence they maintained in opposition that there was no Providence. Wherefore Euripides says: