And whether he is the sun, or lord and father of the sun and of the whole perceptible world, it is not right to believe that he would deprive the men of to-day of the help of his utterances, for he is the author and supporter of our life, and the master of our intelligence. Nor is it reasonable to suppose that Providence, which, like a kind and tender mother, has given us all that we possess, should wish to punish us in one single point alone—by taking away from us that prophetic aid which was once given to us. Just as if the wicked were not as numerous when the oracles were firmly established in many parts of the earth! Sit down again, and, in honour of the Pythian games, make a truce for once with vice, which you are always eager to chastise, and help us to find out the cause of the failure of the oracles.’ The only result of my remarks was that Planetiades went out-of-doors in silence.[300] After a brief silence, Ammonius turned to me and said, ‘Come, Lamprias, we must be careful not to deprive the god of all agency in this matter. For if we maintain that the cessation of the oracles is due to any other cause than the will of God, we can hardly escape the conclusion that their foundation also was not His work. If the prophetic power of the oracles is, indeed, the work of God, we can imagine no greater or stronger power than that required to destroy it. Planetiades’ remarks were displeasing to me, particularly on account of the inconstancy which he attributes to God in His attitude towards men’s wickedness, now punishing and now protecting it, as if God were some king or tyrant excluding vicious men at one door while welcoming and rewarding them at another. We ought to start with the principle that God’s action is always marked by an adaptation of means to ends, that He does not furnish an excess of what is not required, and should then observe that Greece has shared in a particular degree that general depopulation which wars and revolutions have effected in all parts of the world, to such an extent, indeed, that the whole of Greece could now barely furnish the 3000 hoplites which were Megara’s contingent to Platæa.[301] If we were to do this we should accurately display our own judgment; for how could the god leave his oracles with us for the mere purpose of marking the desolation of our land? For who would be the better if its ancient oracle were still left to Tegyra, or at Ptoum, where after searching whole days you can hardly find a single herdsman tending his cattle? Even this most ancient and famous oracle at Delphi is related to have been for a long period reduced to a state of desolation and inaccessibility by a terrible monster in the shape of a serpent. But this desolation is not rightly explained. The solitude brought the serpent, not the serpent the solitude. But when, in the great purpose of God, Greece again grew strong in its cities, and the land was replenished with mankind, the temple was served by two