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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XVIII: Felicitatem et Fortunam qui deas putant, qua ratione secernunt.

Quid, quod et Felicitas dea est? aedem accepit, aram meruit, sacra congrua persoluta sunt. ipsa ergo sola coleretur. ubi enim ipsa esset, quid boni non esset? sed quid sibi uult, quod et Fortuna dea putatur et colitur? an aliud est felicitas, aliud fortuna? quia fortuna potest esse et mala; felicitas autem si mala fuerit, felicitas non erit. certe omnes deos utriusque sexus - si et sexum habent - nonnisi bonos existimare debemus. hoc Plato dicit, hoc alii philosophi, hoc excellentes reipublicae populorumque rectores. quomodo ergo dea Fortuna aliquando bona est, aliquando mala? an forte quando mala est, dea non est, sed in malignum daemonem repente conuertitur? quot sunt ergo deae istae? profecto quotquot homines fortunati, hoc est bonae fortunae. nam cum sint et alii plurimi simul, hoc est uno tempore, malae fortunae, numquid, si ipsa esset, simul et bona esset et mala; his aliud, illis aliud? an illa, quae dea est, semper est bona? ipsa est ergo Felicitas: cur adhibentur diuersa nomina? sed hoc ferendum est; solet enim et una res duobus nominibus appellari. quid diuersae aedes, diuersae arae, diuersa sacra? est causa, inquiunt, quia felicitas illa est, quam boni habent praecedentibus meritis; fortuna uero, quae dicitur bona, sine ullo examine meritorum fortuito accidit hominibus et bonis et malis, unde etiam Fortuna nominatur. quomodo ergo bona est, quae sine ullo iudicio uenit et ad bonos et ad malos? ut quid autem colitur, quae ita caeca est passim in quoslibet incurrens, ut suos cultores plerumque praetereat et suis contemptoribus haereat? aut si aliquid proficiunt cultores eius, ut ab illa uideantur et amentur, iam merita sequitur, non fortuito uenit. ubi est definitio illa Fortunae? ubi est quod a fortuitis etiam nomen accepit? nihil enim prodest eam colere, si fortuna est. si autem suos cultores discernit, ut prosit, fortuna non est. an et ipsam, quo uoluerit, Iuppiter mittit? colatur ergo ipse solus; non enim potest ei iubenti et eam quo uoluerit mittenti Fortuna resistere. aut certe istam mali colant, qui nolunt habere merita, quibus dea possit Felicitas inuitari.

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The City of God

Chapter 18.--With What Reason They Who Think Felicity and Fortune Goddesses Have Distinguished Them.

What shall we say, besides, of the idea that Felicity also is a goddess? She has received a temple; she has merited an altar; suitable rites of worship are paid to her. She alone, then, should be worshipped. For where she is present, what good thing can be absent? But what does a man wish, that he thinks Fortune also a goddess and worships her? Is felicity one thing, fortune another? Fortune, indeed, may be bad as well as good; but felicity, if it could be bad, would not be felicity. Certainly we ought to think all the gods of either sex (if they also have sex) are only good. This says Plato; this say other philosophers; this say all estimable rulers of the republic and the nations. How is it, then, that the goddess Fortune is sometimes good, sometimes bad? Is it perhaps the case that when she is bad she is not a goddess, but is suddenly changed into a malignant demon? How many Fortunes are there then? Just as many as there are men who are fortunate, that is, of good fortune. But since there must also be very many others who at the very same time are men of bad fortune, could she, being one and the same Fortune, be at the same time both bad and good--the one to these, the other to those? She who is the goddess, is she always good? Then she herself is felicity. Why, then, are two names given her? Yet this is tolerable; for it is customary that one thing should be called by two names. But why different temples, different altars, different rituals? There is a reason, say they, because Felicity is she whom the good have by previous merit; but fortune, which is termed good without any trial of merit, befalls both good and bad men fortuitously, whence also she is named Fortune. How, therefore, is she good, who without any discernment comes--both to the good and to the bad? Why is she worshipped, who is thus blind, running at random on any one whatever, so that for the most part she passes by her worshippers, and cleaves to those who despise her? Or if her worshippers profit somewhat, so that they are seen by her and loved, then she follows merit, and does not come fortuitously. What, then, becomes of that definition of fortune? What becomes of the opinion that she has received her very name from fortuitous events? For it profits one nothing to worship her if she is truly fortune. But if she distinguishes her worshippers, so that she may benefit them, she is not fortune. Or does, Jupiter send her too, whither he pleases? Then let him alone be worshipped; because Fortune is not able to resist him when he commands her, and sends her where he pleases. Or, at least, let the bad worship her, who do not choose to have merit by which the goddess Felicity might be invited.