We cannot admit, therefore, that the Gods consulted the good of a few only; the conclusion must be that they consulted the good of none.
XXVIII.

You answer that the ill use which a great part of mankind make of reason no more takes away the goodness of the Gods, who bestow it as a present of the greatest benefit to them, than the ill use which children make of their patrimony diminishes the obligation which they have to their parents for it.

We grant you this; but where is the similitude?
It was far from Deianira's design to injure Hercules when she made him a present of the shirt dipped in the blood of the Centaurs.

Nor was it a regard to the welfare of Jason of Pherae that influenced the man who with his sword opened his imposthume, which the physicians had in vain attempted to cure.

For it has often happened that people have served a man whom they intended to injure, and have injured one whom they designed to serve; so that the effect of the gift is by no means always a proof of the intention of the giver; neither does the benefit which may accrue from it prove that it came from the hands of a benefactor.