presides over domestic affairs, should be temperate and undefiled. ETHICAL FRAGMENTS OF HIEROCLES, Preserved by Stobaeus. HOW WE OUGHT TO CONDUCT OURSELVES TOWARDS THE GODS. Such particulars, also, as the following, are to be previously assumed concerning the Gods, viz. that they are immutable, and firm in their decrees; so that they never change the conception of what appeared to them to be fit from the beginning. For there is one immutability and firmness of the virtues, which it is reasonable to suppose subsists transcendently with the Gods, and which imparts a never-failing stability to their conceptions. From which it is evident, that there is no probability that the punishments which divinity thinks proper to inflict can be remitted. For it is easy to infer, that if the Gods change their decisions, and omit to punish him whom they had designed to punish, the world can neither be beautifully nor justly governed; nor can any probable reason for [the necessity of] repentance be assigned. Poetry also appears to have asserted such things as the following,—rashly, and without any reason: By incense and libation, gentle vows, And sacrifice and prayer, men bend the Gods, When they transgress, and stray from what is right[36]. And For flexible are e’en the Gods themselves[37]. And in short whatever of a similar nature is to be found in poetry. Nor must we omit to observe, that though the Gods are not the causes of evil, yet they connect certain persons with things of this kind, and surround those who deserve [to be afflicted] with corporeal and external detriments; not through any malignity, or because they think it requisite that men should struggle with difficulties, but for the sake of punishment. For as pestilence and drought, and besides these excessive rain, earthquakes, and every thing of this kind, are for the most part produced through certain other more physical causes, yet sometimes are effected by the Gods, when the times are such that the iniquity of the multitude, publicly, and in common, requires to be punished; after the same manner, also, the Gods sometimes afflict an individual with corporeal and external detriments, in order to punish him, and convert others to what is right. But to be persuaded that the Gods are never the cause of any evil[38], contributes greatly, as it appears to me, to proper conduct towards the Gods. For evils proceed from vice alone, but the Gods are of themselves the causes of good, and of whatever is advantageous; while, in the meantime, we do not admit their beneficence, but surround ourselves with voluntary evils. Hence, on this occasion, it appears to me that it is well said by the poet: ——that mortals blame the Gods, as if they were the causes of their evils! ——though not from Fate, But for their crimes they suffer pain and woe[39].