Note 1 — Chapter II
Reading edition
This has been shown very clearly by Professor Jackson in the article on “Socrates” in the Encyclopoedia Britannica, last edition.
[2] He stated the theological difficulty as to the origin of evil in this form: God either wishes to abolish evil and cannot, or can and will not, or neither can nor will, or both can and will. The first three are unthinkable, if he is a God worthy of the name; therefore the last alternative must be true. Why then does evil exist? The inference is that there is no God, in the sense of a governor of the world.
[3] An admirable appreciation of the poem will be found in R. V. Tyrrell’s Lectures on Latin Poetry.
[4] For the evidence of the Apologists see A. Bouché-Leclercq, Religious Intolerance and Politics (French, 1911) —a valuable review of the whole subject.
[5] This is Gibbon’s translation.