of adversity 論困厄

it was an high speech of seneca (after the manner of the stoics) that the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired. bona rerum secudarum optabilia; adversarum mirabilia.

“幸運底好處是應當希望的;但是厄運底好處是應當驚奇嘆賞的”，這是塞奈喀仿畫廊派的高論。

certainly if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. it is yet a higher speech of his than the other (much too high for a heathen): it is true greatness to have in one the fragility of a man and the security of a god. vere magnum habere fragilitaterm hominis securitatem da. this would have done better in poesy; where transcendencies are more allowed. and the poets indeed, have been busy with it; for it is, in effect, the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery; nay, and to have some approach to the state of a christian: that hercules when he went to unbind prometheus (by whom human nature is represented) sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher: lively describing christian resolution; that saileth, in the frail barque of the flesh, through the waves of the world.

無疑地，如果奇跡底意思是“超越自然”，那么奇跡多是在厄運中出現的。塞氏還有一句比這更高的話(這話由一個異教徒說出，幾乎是太高了)：“一個人有凡人底脆弱而又有神仙底自在無憂，那就是真正的偉大”。這句話如果是一句詩，也許更好一點，因為在詩里頭，高夸的說法，好象是更為可許似的。詩人們也真的常說這句話，因為這句話實際就是古詩人常述的那個奇談中所表現的——而這個奇談又似乎非無深義的;不特如此，它所描寫的還很有點接近基督徒底情形呢——那就是當赫扣力斯去解放普羅密修斯的時候(普羅密修斯是象征人性的)他坐在一個瓦盆或瓦罐里渡過了大海。基督徒以血肉之軀的輕舟渡過世間底波濤的決心，這故事很生動地描寫出來了。