<SPAN name="THE_GOODS_AND_THE_ILLS"></SPAN>
<h2>THE GOODS AND THE ILLS</h2>
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<p>There was a time in the youth of the world when Goods and Ills
entered equally into the concerns of men, so that the Goods did not
prevail to make them altogether blessed, nor the Ills to make them
wholly miserable. But owing to the foolishness of mankind the Ills
multiplied greatly in number and increased in strength, until it
seemed as though they would deprive the Goods of all share in human
affairs, and banish them from the earth. The latter, therefore,
betook themselves to heaven and complained to Jupiter of the
treatment they had received, at the same time praying him to grant
them protection from the Ills, and to advise them concerning the
manner of their intercourse with men. Jupiter granted their request
for protection, and decreed that for the future they should not go
among men openly in a body, and so be liable to attack from the
hostile Ills, but singly and unobserved, and at infrequent and
unexpected intervals. Hence it is that the earth is full of Ills,
for they come and go as they please and are never far away; while
Goods, alas! come one by one only, and have to travel all the way
from heaven, so that they are very seldom seen.</p>
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