exploits, which is at once important, easy, and safe, as well as
glorious; that I have loaded him with appointments, wealth, and all
that attracts men's minds; still, even when I surpass all others, I
am inferior to him. Now if you say, "You owe to your father the
power of doing all this," I shall answer, "Quite true, if to do all
this it is only necessary to be born; but if life is merely an
unimportant factor in the art of living well, and if you have
bestowed upon me only that which I have in common with wild beasts
and the smallest, and some of the foulest of creatures, do not
claim for yourself what did not come into being in consequence of
the benefits which you bestowed, even though it could not have come
into being without them."

XXXI. Suppose, father, that I have saved your life, in return for
the life which I received from you: in this case also I have
outdone your benefit, because I have given life to one who
understands what I have done, and because I understood what I was
doing, since I gave you your life not for the sake of, or by the
means of my own pleasure; for just as it is less terrible to die
before one has time to fear death, so it is a much greater boon to
preserve one's life than to receive it. I have given life to one
who will at once enjoy it, you gave it to one who knew not if he
should ever live; I have given life to one who was in fear of
death, your gift of life merely enables me to die; I have given you
a life complete, perfect; you begat me without intelligence, a
burden upon others. Do you wish to know how far from a benefit it
was to give life under such conditions? You should have exposed me
as a child, for you did me a wrong in begetting me. What do I
gather from this? That the cohabitation of a father and mother is
the very least of benefits to their child, unless in addition this