The Edict to the East: Virtue and Vice

“Victor Constantine, Greatest Augustus, to the people of the Eastern provinces. [a]

“Everything held within the sovereign laws of nature seems to give everyone a sufficient idea of the forethought and intelligence of the divine order. Nor can anyone whose mind is directed along the true path of knowledge toward that goal doubt that the right perceptions of sound reason, and those of natural sight itself, lead to the knowledge of God through the influence of genuine virtue alone. So no wise man will ever be surprised when he sees most of mankind moved by the opposite views. For the beauty of virtue would be useless and unnoticed if vice did not set beside it, by contrast, the course of perversity and folly. That is why the one is crowned with reward, while the most high God himself carries out judgment on the other. [b] “And now I will try to set before you all, as plainly as I can, what my own hopes of future happiness are. [d]