ve their first origin from others, yet are greater
than those others; and a thing may be greater than that from which it
took its rise, although without that thing to start from it never could
have grown so great. All things greatly outgrow their beginnings. Seeds
are the causes of all things, and yet are the smallest part of the
things which they produce. Look at the Rhine, or the Euphrates, or any
other famous rivers; how small they are, if you only view them at the
place from whence they take their rise? they gain all that makes them
terrible and renowned as they flow along. Look at the trees which are
tallest if you consider their height, and the broadest if you look at
their thickness and the spread of their branches; compared with all
this, how small a part of them is contained in the slender fibres of
the root? Yet take away their roots, and no more groves will arise, nor
great mountains be clothed with trees. Temples and cities are supported
by their foundations; yet what is built as the foundation of the entire
building lies out of sight. So it is in other matters; the subsequent
greatness of a thing ever eclipses its origin. I could never have
obtained anything without having previously received the boon of
existence from my parents; yet it does not follow from this that
whatever I obtain is less than that without which I could not obtain it.
If my nurse had not fed me when I was a child, I should not have been
able to conduct any of those enterprises which I now carry on, both with
my head and with my hand, nor should I ever have obtained the fame which
is due to my labours both in peace and war; would you on that account
argue that the services of a nurse were more valuable than the most
important undertakings? Yet is not the nurse as important as the father,
since without the benefits which I have received from each of them
alike, I should have been alike unable to effect anything? If I owe all
that I now can do to my original beginning, I cannot regard my father or
my grandfather as being this original beginning; there always will be a
spring further back, from which the spring next below is derived. Yet no
one will argue that I owe more to unknown and forgotten ancestors
than to my father; though really I do owe them more, if I owe it to my
ancestors that my father begat me.

XXX. "Whatever I have bestowed upon my father," says my opponent,
"however great it may be, yet is less valuable than what my father