Produced by Turgut Dincer, Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Notes: Words in italics in the original are surrounded with _underscores_. In the main body of the text, words in mixed case and all cap small caps are in capital letters. A Table of Contents has been added by the transcriber. Synopsis. Introduction. Plutarch on the Delay of the Divine Justice. Index. A complete list of corrections as well as other notes follows the text. PLUTARCH ON THE DELAY OF THE DIVINE JUSTICE. TRANSLATED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. BY ANDREW P. PEABODY. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1885. _Copyright, 1885_, By Andrew P. Peabody. University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. SYNOPSIS. § 1. The dialogue opens with comments on the cavils against the Divine Providence by a person who is supposed to have just departed. 2. The alleged encouragement to the guilty by the delay of punishment, while the sufferers by the guilt of others are disheartened by failing to see the wrong-doers duly punished. 3. The guilty themselves, it is said, do not recognize punishment when it comes late, but think it mere misfortune. 4. Plutarch answers the objections to the course of Providence. In the first place, man must not be too confident of his ability to pass judgment on things divine. There are many things in human legislation undoubtedly reasonable, yet with no obvious reason. How much more in the administration of the universe by the Supreme Being! 5. God by the delay of punishment gives man the example of forbearance, and rebukes his yielding to the first impulses of anger and of a vindictive temper. 6. God has reference, in the delay of punishment, to the possible reformation of the guilty, and to the services which, when reformed, they may render to their country or their race. Instances cited. 7. The wicked often have their punishment postponed till after they have rendered some important service in which they are essential agents, and sometimes that, before their own punishment, they may serve as executioners for other guilty persons or communities. 8. There is frequently a peculiar timeliness and appropriateness in delayed punishment.