MATHETΩN

Marvel not that the animals other than man have furnished them, ready prepared by nature, what pertains to their bodily needs — not merely food and drink, but also a bed to lie on — and that they have no need of shoes or bedding or clothing, while we are in need of all these things. Why, consider what it would be for us to have to take thought not merely for ourselves, but also for them! But, as it is, we first forbear to give thanks for these beasts because we do not have to bestow on them the same care we require ourselves, and then we proceed to complain against God on our own account! Yet, by Zeus and the gods, one single gift of nature would suffice to make a man who is reverent and grateful perceive the providence of God. Do not talk to me now of great matters: Take the mere facts that milk is produced from grass, and cheese from milk, and that wool grows from skin — who is it that has created or devised these things? ‘No one,’ somebody says. O the depth of man’s stupidity and shamelessness!

Why, if we had sense, ought we to be doing anything else, publicly and privately, than hymning and praising the Deity and rehearsing his benefits? Ought we not, as we dig and plow and eat, to sing the praise of God? ‘Great is God, who has furnished us these instruments to till the earth. Great is God, who has given us hands, and power to swallow, and a belly, and power to grow unconsciously, and to breathe while asleep.’ Thus we ought to sing on every occasion, and above all to sing the greatest and divinest hymn: that God has given us the faculty to comprehend these things and to follow the path of reason. If I were a nightingale, I would sing as a nightingale; if a swan, as a swan. I must be singing hymns of praise to God. This is my task; I do it; I will not desert this post, and I invite you to join me in the same song.