he a good man or a bad one? if he is a good man, I have a good case
against him, and I will not plead if he be a bad one. Neither do I
think it right to insist on making repayment, even though it be
against the will of those whom we repay, and to press it upon them
however reluctant they may be; it is not repayment to force an
unwilling man to resume what you were once willing to take. Some
people, if any trifling present be sent to them, afterwards send
back something else for no particular reason, and then declare that
they are under no obligation; to send something back at once, and
balance one present by another, is the next thing to refusing to
receive it. On some occasions I shall not return a benefit, even
though I be able to do so. When? When by so doing I shall myself
lose more than he will gain, or if he would not notice any
advantage to himself in receiving that which it would be a great
loss to me to return. The man who is always eager to repay under
all circumstances, has not the feeling of a grateful man, but of a
debtor; and, to put it shortly, he who is too eager to repay, is
unwilling to be in his friend's debt; he who is unwilling, and yet
is in his friend's debt, is ungrateful.




BOOK V.

I.


In the preceding books I seem to have accomplished the object which
I proposed to myself, since in them I have discussed how a benefit