of mankind be enlarged; nor could any law be appointed for the
showers, so that they should not fall upon the fields of wicked and
evil men. Some things are given to all alike: cities are founded
for good and bad men alike; works of genius reach, by publication,
even unworthy men; medicine points out the means of health even to
the wicked; no one has checked the making up of wholesome remedies
for fear that the undeserving should be healed. You must seek for
examination and preference of individuals in such things as are
bestowed separately upon those who are thought to deserve them; not
in these, which admit the mob to share them without distinction.
There is a great difference between not shutting a man out and
choosing him. Even a thief receives justice; even murderers enjoy
the blessings of peace; even those who have plundered others can
recover their own property; assassins and private bravoes are
defended against the common enemy by the city wall; the laws
protect even those who have sinned most deeply against them. There
are some things which no man could obtain unless they were given to
all; you need not, therefore, cavil about those matters in which
all mankind is invited to share. As for things which men receive or
not at my discretion, I shall not bestow them upon one whom I know
to be ungrateful.

XXIX. "Shall we, then," argues he, "not give our advice to an
ungrateful man when he is at a loss, or refuse him a drink of water
when he is thirsty, or not show him the path when he has lost his
way? or would you do him these services and yet not give him
anything?" Here I will draw a distinction, or at any rate endeavour
to do so. A benefit is a useful service, yet all useful service is
not a benefit; for some are so trifling as not to claim the title
of benefits. To produce a benefit two conditions must concur.