the part of virtue to bestow those benefits which we are now
discussing, and it is most disgraceful to bestow benefits for any other
purpose than that they should be free gifts. If we give with the hope of
receiving a return, we should give to the richest men, not to the most
deserving: whereas we prefer a virtuous poor man to an unmannerly rich
one. That is not a benefit, which takes into consideration the fortune
of the receiver. Moreover, if our only motive for benefiting others was
our own advantage, those who could most easily distribute benefits, such
as rich and powerful men, or kings, and persons who do not stand in need
of the help of others, ought never to do so at all; the gods would
not bestow upon us the countless blessings which they pour upon us
unceasingly by night and by day, for their own nature suffices them in
all respects, and renders them complete, safe, and beyond the reach of
harm; they will, therefore, never bestow a benefit upon any one, if self
and self interest be the only cause for the bestowal of benefits. To
take thought, not where your benefit will be best bestowed, but where
it may be most profitably placed at interest, from whence you will most
easily get it back, is not bestowal of benefits, but usury. Now the gods
have nothing to do with usury; it follows, therefore, that they cannot
be liberal; for if the only reason for giving is the advantage of the
giver, since God cannot hope to receive any advantages from us, there is
no cause why God should give anything.

IV. I know what answer may be made to this. "True; therefore God does
not bestow benefits, but, free from care and unmindful of us, He
turns away from our world and either does something else, or else does
nothing, which Epicurus thought the greatest possible happiness, and
He is not affected either by benefits or by injuries." The man who says
this cannot surely hear the voices of worshippers, and of those who all
around him are raising their hands to heaven and praying for the success
both of their private affairs and those of the state; which certainly
would not be the case, all men would not agree in this madness of
appealing to deaf and helpless gods, unless we knew that their benefits
are sometimes bestowed upon us unasked, sometimes in answer to our
prayers, and that they give us both great and seasonable gifts, which
shield us from the most terrible dangers. Who is there so poor, so
uncared for, born to sorrow by so u