De Sacrificiis Abelis Et Caini

You see, therefore, that all good things spring up and shoot out from labour as from one general root, and this you must never allow yourself to neglect; for if you do, you will without being aware of it, be also letting slip the collected heap of goods which it brings with it; for the Ruler of the universe, of heaven, and of the world, both himself possesses and bestows on whomsoever he pleases, his good things, with all ease and abundance. Since formerly he created this world, vast as you see it is, without any labour, and how too he never

ceases holding it together, so that it may last for ever. And absence from all labour and fatigue is the most appropriate attribute of God; but nature has not given the acquisition of good things to any mortal without labour, [*](This is not only the same idea, but almost the very language of Horace: Nil sine magno Vita labore dedit mortalibus.—Sat. I. ix. 60. ) in order that in consequence of this arrangement, God alone of existing beings may be called happy and enjoy felicity.