Search -
The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius, Tr. by T. Taylor
The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius Tr by T Taylor Author:Maximus General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1804 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: DISSERTATION XXV. SINCE DIVINITY PRODUCES GOOD, WHENCE DO EVILS ORIGINATE ? 'IPHEY say that Alexander the Macedonian, when he came to the temple of Jupiter Am- mon, and was called, by Ammon his son, believed in the god conformably to the doctrine of Homer, who denominates Jupiter the father of gods and men; and that, having received the oracle, he did not think fit to interrogate his father about any thing else after this, neither about the flight of Darius, nor the impending battle, nor the calamities of Greece, nor the tumults of Asia; but, as if all his other concerns were in a prosperous condition, he enquired of the god, whence the Nile originating descended into Egypt. Was this one thing, therefore, perfectly necessary to his felicity ; and, having learnt this, would he be sufficiently blessed ? He would not, by Jupiter, though, together with the Nile, he had known the source of the Ister, and could tell whether the ocean itself is a certain river spreading round all the earth, or is the principle and fountain of our sea, or a lake which receives the setting sun and moon, or something else, such as the poets prophetically announce concerning it. At the same time, however, it was permitted him to suffer the rivers to flow whither Jupiter sends them; but he might have betaken himself to Ammon, or to the Threspotian land, and the oak which is there, or to Parnassus and the Pythian oracle, or to Isme- nius , and the divine voice which it contains, or to Delos and its choirs, or to any other prophetic place, either in Greece or the land of the barbarians, and might there have requested Jupiter or Ap...« less