igible to others? And to
show that the gods have had regard to his very _pleasures_, they have
not limited them, like those of other animals, to _times_ and seasons,
but man is left to indulge in them whenever not hurtful to him.

"But it is not with respect to the body alone that the gods have shown
themselves thus bountiful to man! Their most excellent gift is that
_soul_ they have infused into him, which so far surpasses what is
elsewhere to be found. For, by what animal, except man, is even the
_existence_ of those gods discovered, who have _produced_, and still
_uphold_, in such regular order, this beautiful and stupendous frame
of the universe? What other species of creatures are to be found that
can serve, that can adore them? What other animal is able, like man,
to provide against the assaults of heat and cold, of thirst and
hunger? That can lay up remedies for the time of sickness and improve
the strength nature hath given by a well-proportioned exercise? That
can receive, like him, information and instruction, or so happily keep
in memory what he hath seen, and heard, and learnt? These things being
so, who seeth not that man is, as it were, _a god_ in the midst of
this visible creation; so far doth he surpass, whether in the
endowments of soul or body, all animals whatsoever that have been
produced therein! For, if the _body_ of the _ox_ had been joined to
the _mind_ of _man_, the acuteness of the latter would have stood him
in small stead, while unable to execute the well-designed plan; nor
would the _human_ form have been of more use to the brute, so long as
it remained destitute of understanding! But in thee, Aristodemus, hath
been joined to a wonderful _soul_, a body no less wonderful, and
sayest thou, after _this_, 'the gods take no thought for me!' What
wouldst thou, then, more to convince thee of their care?"

"I would they should send, and inform me," said Aristodemus, "what
things I _ought_ or _ought not_ to do in like manner as thou sayest
they frequently do to thee."

"And what then, Aristodemus! Supposest thou, that when the gods give
out some oracle to _all_ the Athenians, they mean it not for _thee_?
If, by their prodigies, they declare aloud to all Greece--to _all_
mankind--the things which shall befall them, are they dumb to _thee_
alone? And art _thou_ the only person whom they have placed beyond
their care? Believest thou they would have wrought into the mind of
man a persuasion of their b