fact that ingratitude is to be avoided for itself, because no vice
more powerfully rends asunder and destroys the union of the human
race. To what do we trust for safety, if not in mutual good offices
one to another? It is by the interchange of benefits alone that we
gain some measure of protection for our lives, and of safety
against sudden disasters. Taken singly, what should we be? a prey
and quarry for wild beasts, a luscious and easy banquet; for while
all other animals have sufficient strength to protect themselves,
and those which are born to a wandering solitary life are armed,
man is covered by a soft skin, has no powerful teeth or claws with
which to terrify other creatures, but weak and naked by himself is
made strong by union.

God has bestowed upon him two gifts, reason and union, which raise
him from weakness to the highest power; and so he, who if taken
alone would be inferior to every other creature, possesses supreme
dominion. Union has given him sovereignty over all animals; union
has enabled a being born upon the earth to assume power over a
foreign element, and bids him be lord of the sea also; it is union
which has checked the inroads of disease, provided supports for our
old age, and given us relief from pain; it is union which makes us
strong, and to which we look for protection against the caprices of
fortune. Take away union, and you will rend asunder the association
by which the human race preserves its existence; yet you will take
it away if you succeed in proving that ingratitude is not to be
avoided for itself, but because something is to be feared for it;
for how many are there who can with safety be ungrateful? In fine,
I call every man ungrateful who is merely made grateful by fear.

XIX. No sane man fears the gods; for it is madness to fear what is