If any one gave you a few acres, you would say that you 

 had received a benefit; can you deny that the boundless 

 extent of the earth is a benefit? If any one gave you 

 money, you would call that a benefit. God has buried 

 countless masses of gold and silver in the earth. If a house 

 were given you, bright with marble, its roof beautifully 

 painted with colours and 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 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 ordained the 

 alternation of summer and winter . . . has invented so 

 many arts and varieties of voice, so many notes to make 

 music. . . . We have implanted in us the seed of all ages, 

 of all arts ; and God our Master brings forth our intellects 

 from obscurity. SENECA. 



