To whom Daphnaeus: In the name of all the Gods,
who ever thought otherwise? All those must certainly, replied my father, who believe the care of ploughing, sowing, and planting is an employment becoming the Gods
(and have they not for this purpose certain Nymphs attending them, called Dryads,
Who with the trees they cherish live and die?—
and does not
The joyous Bacchus send increase of fruit,
The chaste autumnal light, to every tree?—
as Pindar sings), and who yet will not allow that the
nourishment and growth of children and young people,
who in the flower of their age are to be formed and shaped
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into several varieties of beauty, is under the care and
tuition of any Deity; or that there is any Divinity to take
care that man, being once born, may be guided and conducted in the true paths of virtue, and to prevent the tender plant from being bowed and bent the wrong way for
want of a good instructor, or by the depraved conversation
of those with whom he lives. For my part, I look upon
it as a heinous piece of indignity and ingratitude thus to
say, while we are all the time enjoying the bounty and
benignity of God, which he is ready to disperse and diffuse
over all, and which never abandons the distresses and
needs of mortals. And yet in many of these needs the
duty to be performed is rather necessary than pleasant.
Thus our being delivered from the mother's womb is no
such delightful thing, as being attended with pain and
issues of blood; and yet there is a celestial midwife and
overseer that takes particular care of that necessity, which
is Lucina. And indeed a man had better never be born,
than to be made bad and wicked for want of a good tutor
and guardian. Nay, we find that the divine power does
not desert us in our sickness, nor after we are dead; there
being still some Deity or other who claims some certain
peculiar employment or function, even upon those occasions. Among the rest, there is one that helps to convey
the souls of such as have ended this life into the other
world, and lays them asleep, according to this of the poet:
For shady night ne'er brought me forth to play
With artful touch upon the tuneful lyre,
Nor to be mistress of prophetic fire,
Nor pains of rude distempers to allay;
But to convey the souls of the deceased
Each one to their appointed place of rest.
1
Nevertheless these ministerial functions have many difficulties and troubles which attend them; whereas we cannot imagine any employment more holy, any exercise more
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sacred, or any contention for prize and glory more becoming a Deity, than to direct and assist the lawful endeavors
and pursuits of lovers in their prime of years and beauty.
There is nothing dishonorable, nothing of forced necessity
in this; but gentle persuasion and alluring grace, rendering labor delightful, leads to virtue and friendship, which
never attains the true accomplishment of the end it aims
at without some divine assistance, nor can have any other
conductor and master than Cupid himself, who is the friend
and companion of the Muses, the, Graces, and Venus his
own mother. For, according to Melannippides,
Great Love it is, that in the heart of man
Sows the sweet harvest of unstained desire;
and he always mingles those things that are sweetest with
those that are fairest. What do you say, Zeuxippus? Can
we believe it to be otherwise?
