[Discussion] On the Gods and the World, Ch. XXI

Happy Wednesday! It is with some disappointment that I present this, the final chapter of On the Gods and the World, to you all! To everyone who joined in, please accept my gratitude: I've learned much, and while many of Sallustius' points still elude me, I feel as if I have a much better understanding of the material than when we began. The posts in this series will remain "open:" if anyone in the future has questions or comments about the material, please feel free to add them to any of these posts.

With that said, let us pick back up the puzzle-box for the last time, shall we?

XXI. That the Good are happy, both living and dead.

Souls that have lived in virtue are in general happy,* and when separated from the irrational part of their nature, and made clean from all matter, have communion with the gods and join them in the governing of the whole world. Yet even if none of this happiness fell to their lot, virtue itself, and the joy and glory of virtue, and the life that is subject to no grief and no master are enough to make happy those who have set themselves to live according to virtue and have achieved it.

* Gilbert Murray notes, "εὐδαιμονοῦσι ['eudaimonousi']." Literally, "possessed of a good dæmon:" blessed, fortunate.