38 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. I 
gilding, you would call it no small benefit. 
God has built for you a mansion that fears 
no fire or ruin . . . covered with a roof which | 
glitters in one fashion by day, and in another 
by night. Whence comes the breath which 
you draw; the light by which you perform 
the actions of your life? the blood by which 
your life is maintained? the ‘meat by which 
your hunger is appeased? . . . The true God 
has planted, not a few oxen, but all the herds 
on their pastures throughout the world, and 
furnished food to all the flocks; he has or- 
dained the alternation of summer and winter 
. . . he has invented so many arts and varie- 
ties of voice, so many notes to make music. 
. . . We have implanted in us the seeds of 
all ages, of all arts; and God our Master 
brings forth our intellects from obscurity.” * 
1 Seneca, De Benejiciis. 
