Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Quite exceptional are those who are not punished in this\r\nlife, but only afterwards. Yet that there have been some\r\nwho have reached the decrepitude of age without experiencing\r\neven the slightest sickness, and who have had uninterrupted\r\nenjoyment of life, I know both from report and from my own\r\nobservation. However, the very life we mortals lead is itself\r\nall punishment, for it is all temptation, as the Scriptures\r\ndeclare, where it is written, \"Is not the life of man upon\r\nearth a temptation?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_880_880\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_880_880\">[880]</a> For ignorance is itself no slight\r\npunishment, or want of culture, which it is with justice\r\nthought so necessary to escape, that boys are compelled, under\r\npain of severe punishment, to learn trades or letters; and the\r\nlearning to which they are driven by punishment is itself so\r\nmuch of a punishment to them, that they sometimes prefer the\r\npain that drives them to the pain to which they are driven by\r\nit. And who would not shrink from the alternative, and\r\nelect to die, if it were proposed to him either to suffer death\r\nor to be again an infant? Our infancy, indeed, introducing\r\nus to this life not with laughter but with tears, seems unconsciously\r\nto predict the ills we are to encounter.<a id=\"FNanchor_881_881\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_881_881\">[881]</a> Zoroaster\r\nalone is said to have laughed when he was born, and that\r\nunnatural omen portended no good to him. For he is said to\r\nhave been the inventor of magical arts, though indeed they\r\nwere unable to secure to him even the poor felicity of this\r\npresent life against the assaults of his enemies. For, himself\r\nking of the Bactrians, he was conquered by Ninus king of the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_441\">[Pg 441]</a></span>\r\nAssyrians. In short, the words of Scripture, \"An heavy yoke\r\nis upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of\r\ntheir mother's womb till the day that they return to the\r\nmother of all things,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_882_882\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_882_882\">[882]</a>—these words so infallibly find fulfilment,\r\nthat even the little ones, who by the laver of regeneration\r\nhave been freed from the bond of original sin in which\r\nalone they were held, yet suffer many ills, and in some instances\r\nare even exposed to the assaults of evil spirits. But\r\nlet us not for a moment suppose that this suffering is prejudicial\r\nto their future happiness, even though it has so increased\r\nas to sever soul from body, and to terminate their life\r\nin that early age.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-695"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0ddc8dfba7816c5d0b9049c50e954077876880e805cea47ac177f842ff6a1602","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"SIR","chapter":40,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ecclus. xl. 1","verse":1,"verse_end":1}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_882_882","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_882_882","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_882_882\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_882_882\"><span class=\"label\">[882]</span></a> Ecclus. xl. 1.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_882_882","text_sha256":"368644ef67aa686c771813e9de5b3ec8b78108e67d9f16ff50875f87623697ac","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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