[119] And, since nothing sacred is censurable, but wholly of good report, it follows that the Olympic contest is the only one that can rightly be called sacred; not the one which the inhabitants of Elis hold, but the contest for the winning of the virtues which are divine and really Olympian. For this contest those who are very weaklings in their bodies but stalwarts in their souls all enter, and proceed to strip and rub dust over them and do everything that skill and strength enables them to do, omitting nothing that can help them to victory.
[120] So these athletes prevail over their opponents, but they are also competing among themselves for the highest place. For they do not all win the victory in the same way, though all deserve honour for overthrowing and bringing down most troublesome and doughty opponents.
[121] Most worthy of admiration is the one who excels among these, and, as he receives the first prizes, no one can grudge them to him. Nor let those be downcast who have been held worthy of the second or third prize. For these, like the first, are prizes offered with a view to the acquisition of virtue, and those who cannot reach the topmost virtues are gainers by the acquisition of the less lofty ones, and theirs is actually, as is often said, a more secure gain since it escapes the envy which ever attaches itself to preeminence.
[122] There is, then, a very instructive purpose in the words, “the horseman shall fall,” namely, that if a man fall off from evil things, he may get up supporting himself upon good things and be set upright. Another point full of teaching is his speaking of falling not forwards, but backwards, since to be behindhand in vice and passion is always most to our advantage;
[123] for we ought to be beforehand when doing noble deeds, but on the contrary to be tardy about doing base deeds: we should go to meet the former, but be late for the latter, and fall short of them by the greatest possible distance; for he, whose happiness it is to be late for sinful deeds and passion’s promptings, abides in freedom from soul-sickness. You see, it says that he is “waiting for the salvation that comes from God.” He looks out for it, to the end that he may run as far to meet right-doing as he was late for wrongdoing.