my promise. I may have promised to plead a cause; afterwards it
appears that this cause is designed to form a precedent for an
attack upon my father. I may have promised to leave my country, and
travel abroad; then news comes that the road is beset with robbers.
I was going to an appointment at some particular place; but my
son's illness, or my wife's confinement, prevented me. All
conditions must be the same as they were when I made the promise,
if you mean to hold me bound in honour to fulfil it. Now what
greater change can take place than that I should discover you to be
a bad and ungrateful man? I shall refuse to an unworthy man that
which I had intended to give him supposing him to be worthy, and I
shall also have reason to be angry with him for the trick which he
has put upon me.

XXXVI. I shall nevertheless look into the matter, and consider what
the value of the thing promised may be. If it be trifling, I shall
give it, not because you are worthy of it, but because I promised
it, and I shall not give it as a present, but merely in order to
make good my words and give myself a twitch of the ear. I will
punish my own rashness in promising by the loss of what I gave.
"See how grieved you are; mind you take more care what you say in
future." As the saying is, I will take tongue money from you. If
the matter be important, I will not, as Maecenas said, let ten
million sesterces reproach me. I will weigh the two sides of the
question one against the other: there is something in abiding by
what you have promised; on the other hand, there is a great deal in
not bestowing a benefit upon one who is unworthy of it. Now, how
great is this benefit? If it is a trifling one, let us wink and let
it pass; but if it will cause me much loss or much shame to give
it, I had rather excuse myself once for refusing it than have to do