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." l 



1 Seneca, De Beneficiis. 



