It was the wont of the immortal gods sometimes to grant prosperity and long impunity to men whose crimes they were minded to punish in order that a complete reverse of fortune might make them suffer more bitterly.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.
That the God-man died for his people, and that His death is their life, is an idea which was in some degree foreshadowed by the older mystical sacrifices.
The death of Christ proclaimed the justice and perpetuity of his Father's law in punishing the transgressor, in that he consented to suffer the penalty of the law himself, in order to save fallen man from its curse.
The 'economy' became a god such as never before, and a happy, successful society was one that could please this god - sometimes by sacrificing beautiful things - to keep the deity from getting angry and harming the people by withdrawing favours.
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?
God seeth different abilities and frailties of men, which may move His goodness to be merciful to their different improvements in virtue.
The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.
Fate is never too generous even to its favorites. Rarely do the gods grant a mortal more than one immortal deed.
All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.