L. A. SENECA

ON BENEFITS.


DEDICATED TO

AEBUTIUS LIBERALIS.




BOOK I.

I.


Among the numerous faults of those who pass their lives recklessly
and without due reflexion, my good friend Liberalis, I should say
that there is hardly any one so hurtful to society as this, that we
neither know how to bestow or how to receive a benefit. It follows
from this that benefits are badly invested, and become bad debts:
in these cases it is too late to complain of their not being
returned, for they were thrown away when we bestowed them. Nor need
we wonder that while the greatest vices are common, none is more