The Syllogisms of Zeno of Citium

"When these tenets are argued in a richer and more expansive style, as I have it in mind to do, it is easier for them to escape the captious objections of the Academics. But when they are inferred by briefer and closer reasoning, as Zeno used to do, then they are more open to criticism. For just as a river in full flow suffers little or no pollution, but an enclosed body of water is easily contaminated, so the censures of the critic are washed away by a stream of eloquence, but the confinement of a closely reasoned argument affords it no easy self-defence. The ideas we develop at length Zeno used to compress in this fashion: What employs reason is better than what does not employ reason. But nothing is better than the universe. Therefore the universe employs reason. One can similarly bring it about that the universe is wise, is happy, is eternal: for all these are better than those which lack them, nor is anything better than the universe. And from this one can bring it about that the universe is god."