our ears, and our minds? whence the plenty which provides us even
with luxury--for it is not our bare necessities alone against which
provision is made; we are loved so much as actually to be pampered--
whence so many trees bearing various fruits, so many wholesome
herbs, so many different sorts of food distributed throughout the
year, so that even the slothful may find sustenance in the chance
produce of the earth? Then, too, whence come the living creatures
of all kinds, some inhabiting the dry land, others the waters,
others alighting from the sky, that every part of nature may pay us
some tribute; the rivers which encircle our meadows with most
beauteous bends, the others which afford a passage to merchant
fleets as they flow on, wide and navigable, some of which in summer
time are subject to extraordinary overflowings in order that lands
lying parched under a glowing sun may suddenly be watered by the
rush of a midsummer torrent?

What of the fountains of medicinal waters? What of the bursting
forth of warm waters upon the seashore itself? Shall I

"Tell of the seas round Italy that flow,
Which laves her shore above, and which below;
Or of her lakes, unrivalled Larius, thee,
Or thee, Benacus, roaring like a sea?"

VI. 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, and filled your
chest, since you think that so important, you would call that a
benefit. God has buried countless mines in the earth, has poured
out from the earth countless rivers, rolling sands of gold; He has