Chapter 5

Someone will interpose: It is true you have received all these benefits, but, tell me, how have you deserved them? Why do you cast this burden upon me, Master Inquisitor? No man gives a reason for his prosperity. God, and he who stands next to God, distributes blessings at will, and disdaining to await man's verdict on his favours, chooses rather in the persons of the uplifted to perform a miracle. How have I deserved them, you ask? I know of no grounds, except that you, most kindly Emperor, say that you owe a debt: and this word owe admits of very wide interpretation. Either you consider this debt to be the interest on the principal of your education; or, apart from this interest, you seek after the renown which bounty earns; or you arc discharging yourself of the burden of a pledge which you have incurred; or else with a heavenly loftiness of soul and without a trace of vanity you are imitating God's function. You say you owe a debt. To whom then? Or when did you contract it? On what account? Read the bill over: name the creditor: let the accounts for receipts and expenditure be laid before the court. When this is done you will see that the debit balance is not against you but against another. It is God who now begins to owe you a debt on my behalf. But what do you owe me, most gracious Emperor—for your kindly nature permits me to set aside your kingly qualities and use this familiar form of complimentary address?1 What do you owe me? And on the other side, what do I not owe you? Is it because I was your tutor? I can turn this about and say more exactly that I was deemed worthy to teach you; that so many men superior to me in eloquence and learning were passed over; that the honourable choice fell upon me, in order that you might have a man equipped with ripe years whom your impetuous generosity might advance through all the stages of a distinguished career; and that you seemed to fear that my life might fail while there still remained unbestowed something which you ought to bestow.