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CHAPTER XI, 126-149.
185
owing to that practice; (140) yet it becomes grievous sin for them?, through anxiety. 141. If they say that those physicians and the remedies which they offer, and also those who give something to the poor and suffering, all exist by the will of the sacred being, (142) it is easier, more reasonable, and more adapted to divinity, when the sacred being is without an adversary and without an opponent, for him not to create that disease and poverty (143) than that, as to those that he himself is to make sick and poor, he should have commanded mankind thus: ‘Ye shall make them healthy and free from want. 144. If they say that his desire is this, that he may occasion the happiness of those physicians and givers by the recompense for it, (145) and make them proceed to the eternal happiness of heaven (vahist); (146) you should observe, as to that, since he acts injudiciously and incapably when, on account of the existence of a complete desire for happiness and prosperity: among others, he is an attainer of misery for multitudes of the innocent who are distressed, poor, necessitous, and sick, (147) this may also be said, that if it be not possible for him to occasion happiness and prosperity* as regards one, except by the distress, pain, and vexation of some other, (148) that shows that his absolute power and freedom from opposition are not adapted for effectual operation. 149. If they say
* Probably the poor, but the original text is ambiguous.
* Assuming that Paz. gâmined stands for Pahl. gâmînêd. The old MS. AK ends with this section, and the remaining half of the extant text has been found only in modern copies, having been formerly separated from AK and lost
8 So in JE, but JJ has 'nobility,' and MH19 has pleasure.' * JJ has 'nobility:
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