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The
Common Nature and Its Reason
by Chrysippus
The slightest thing that happens takes place in
accordance with nature and its reason.
Common nature is spread throughout all things.
Therefore whatever happens in the universe is in
accordance with common nature and its reason, and
therefore proceeds in an unhindered fashion. There
is nothing outside the universe to oppose its
working, nor can any of its parts be moved or
conditioned in a fashion other than that which is
agreeable to common nature.
Sometimes good men suffer misfortunes, not as
punishment for wickedness, but in accordance with
some other lines of administration.
Just as states which have a surplus population
send great numbers of their people out to the
colonies, and stir up wars against their neighbor,
so God provides occasion for our destruction.
It is unreasonable to say that the deity is the
cause of base deeds. Just as law cannot be the
cause for misdemeanor, so God cannot be the cause
of impiety.
Homer correctly stated: "The will of Zeus is
done"; referring to the fate and nature of the
universe by which all things are governed.
Excerpted from The Common
Nature and Its Reason, by Chrysippus
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