the creation could not be perfect, and evil was necessarily mingled with
good."

NICIAS. What is "good," and what is "evil"?

There was a moment's silence, during which Hermodorus, his arm extended
on the cloth, pointed to a little ass in Corinthian metal which bore two
baskets--the one containing white olives, the other black olives.

"You see these olives," he said. "The contrast between the colours is
pleasant to the eye, and we are content that these should be light
and those should be dark. But, if they were endowed with thought and
knowledge, the white would say, It is good for an olive to be white,
it is bad for it to be black; and the black olives would hate the white
olives. We judge better, for we are as much above them as the gods are
above us. For man, who only sees a part of things, evil is an evil; for
God, who understands all things, evil is a good. Doubtless ugliness is
ugly, and not beautiful; but if all were beautiful, the whole would not
be beautiful. It is, then, well that there should be evil, as the second
Plato, far greater than the first, has demonstrated."

EUCRITES. Let us talk more morally. Evil is an evil--not for the world,
of which it cannot destroy the indestructible harmony but for the sinner
who does it, and cannot help doing it.

COTTA. By Jupiter? that is a good argument.

EUCRITES. The world is a tragedy by an excellent poet. God, who composed
it, has intended each of us to play a part in it. If he wills that you
shall be a beggar, a prince, or a cripple, make the best of the part
assigned you.

NICIAS. Assuredly it would be well that the cripple should limp like
Hephaistos: it would be well that the madman should indulge in all the
fury of Ajax, that the incestuous woman should repeat the crimes of
Phaedra, that the traitor should betray, that the rascal should lie, and
the murderer kill, and when the piece was played, all the actor--kings,
just men, bloody tyrants, pious virgins, immodest wives, noble-minded
citizens, and cowardly assassins--should receive from the poet an equal
share in the felicitations.

EUCRITES. You distort my thought, Nicias, and change a beautiful young
girl into a hideous Gorgon. I am sorry for you, if you are so ignorant
of the nature of the gods, of justice, and of the eternal laws.

ZENOTHEMIS. For my part, friends, I believe in the reality of good and
evil. But I am convinced that there is not a single human action--were
it even the kiss of Jud