this by chicanery
or by prayer, unless it be that by prayer you raise up more powerful
enemies to him than by the other means? You cannot say "Why, what harm
do I do him?" your prayer is either futile or harmful, indeed it is
harmful even though nothing comes of it. You do your friend wrong by
wishing him harm: you must thank the gods that you do him no harm. The
fact of your wishing it is enough: we ought to be just as angry with you
as if you had effected it.

XXVIII. "If," argues our adversary, "my prayers had any efficacy, they
would also have been efficacious to save him from danger." In the first
place, I reply, the danger into which you wish me to fall is certain,
the help which I should receive is uncertain. Or call them both certain;
it is that which injures me that comes first. Besides, YOU understand
the terms of your wish; _I_ shall be tossed by the storm without being
sure that I have a haven of rest at hand.

Think what torture it must have been to me, even if I receive your help,
to have stood in need of it: if I escape safely, to have trembled for
myself; if I be acquitted, to have had to plead my cause. To escape from
fear, however great it may be, can never be so pleasant as to live in
sound unassailable safety. Pray that you may return my kindnesses when I
need their return, but do not pray that I may need them. You would have
done what you prayed for, had it been in your power.

XXIX. How far more honourable would a prayer of this sort be: "I pray
that he may remain in such a position as that he may always bestow
benefits and never need them: may he be attended by the means of giving
and helping, of which he makes such a bountiful use; may he never want
benefits to bestow, or be sorry for any which he has bestowed; may his
nature, fitted as it is for acts of pity, goodness, and clemency, be
stimulated and brought out by numbers of grateful persons, whom I trust
he will find without needing to make trial of their gratitude; may
he refuse to be reconciled to no one, and may no one require to be
reconciled to him: may fortune so uniformly continue to favour him that
no one may be able to return his kindness in any way except by feeling
grateful to him."

How far more proper are such prayers as these, which do not put you off
to some distant opportunity, but express your gratitude at once? What is
there to prevent your returning your benefactor's kindness, even while
he is in prosperity? How many wa