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AND does not justice rule the affairs of mortals,—nor
impartiality, nor moderation, nor decorum? But was it
of Fortune and long of Fortune that Aristides remained
obstinate in his poverty, although he could have made
himself master of much wealth? And that Scipio, when
he had taken Carthage, neither received nor so much as
saw any part of the booty ? Was it of Fortune and long
of Fortune that Philocrates, having received a sum of
gold of King Philip, laid it out in whores and fish? And
that Lasthenes and Euthycrates, by measuring their happiness by their bellies and the most abject of follies, lost
Olynthus? Was it of Fortune that Alexander son of
Philip refrained from the captive women himself, and
punished those that offered them any indignity; while
Alexander, son of Priam, long of an evil Daemon and
Fortune, first vitiated his host's wife and then took
her away with him, and filled both the continents
with war and calamities? And if such things as these
can come by Fortune, what hinders but that we may
as well plead that cats, goats, and monkeys are constrained by Fortune to be ravenous, lustful, and ridiculous?
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