Nicht Schmerz ist Unglueck, Glueck nicht immer Freude;
Wer sein Geschick erfuellt, dem laecheln beide.
"Is it possible," says one of them, "that this scourge, this affliction,
is sent to us not for our correction and improvement, but for our
destruction and annihilation? O Merciful Lord, let this chastisement
with which thou hast visited us, thy people, be as those which a father
or mother inflicts on their children, not out of anger, but to the end
that they may be free from follies and vices." Another formula, used
when a chief was elected to some important position, reads: "O Lord,
open his eyes and give him light, sharpen his ears and give him
understanding, not that he may use them to his own advantage, but for
the good of the people he rules. Lead him to know and to do thy will,
let him be as a trumpet which sounds thy words. Keep him from the
commission of injustice and oppression."[300-1]
At first, good and evil are identical with pleasure and pain, luck and
ill-luck.
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