ance of a fixed and immovable
work. How much takes place in that night which you make use of merely
to mark and count your days! What a mass of events is being prepared in
that silence! What a chain of destiny their unerring path is forming!
Those which you imagine to be merely strewn about for ornament are
really one and all at work. Nor is there any ground for your belief that
only seven stars revolve, and that the rest remain still: we understand
the orbits of a few, but countless divinities, further removed from
our sight, come and go; while the greater part of those whom our sight
reaches move in a mysterious manner and by an unknown path.

XXIV. What then? would you not be captivated by the sight of such a
stupendous work, even though it did not cover you, protect you, cherish
you, bring you into existence and penetrate you with its spirit? Though
these heavenly bodies are of the very first importance to us, and are,
indeed, essential to our life, yet we can think of nothing but
their glorious majesty, and similarly all virtue, especially that of
gratitude, though it confers great advantages upon us, does not wish to
be loved for that reason; it has something more in it than this, and he
who merely reckons it among useful things does not perfectly comprehend
it. A man, you say, is grateful because it is to his advantage to be
so. If this be the case, then his advantage will be the measure of his
gratitude. Virtue will not admit a covetous lover; men must approach her
with open purse. The ungrateful man thinks, "I did wish to be grateful,
but I fear the expense and danger and insults to which I should expose
myself: I will rather consult my own interest." Men cannot be rendered
grateful and ungrateful by the same line of reasoning: their actions
are as distinct as their purposes. The one is ungrateful, although it is
wrong, because it is his interest; the other is grateful, although it is
not his interest, because it is right.

XXV. It is our aim to live in harmony with the scheme of the universe,
and to follow the example of the gods. Yet in all their acts the gods
have no object in view other than the act itself, unless you suppose
that they obtain a reward for their work in the smoke of burnt
sacrifices and the scent of incense. See what great things they do every
day, how much they divide amongst us, with how great crops they fill the
earth, how they move the seas with convenient winds to carry us to all
shore