himself, and whether one ought to return one's own kindness to
oneself. This discussion has been raised in consequence of our
habit of saying, "I am thankful to myself," "I can complain of no
one but myself," "I am angry with myself," "I will punish myself,"
"I hate myself," and many other phrases of the same sort, in which
one speaks of oneself as one would of some other person. "If," they
argue, "I can injure myself, why should I not be able also to
bestow a benefit upon myself? Besides this, why are those things
not called benefits when I bestow them upon myself which would be
called benefits if I bestowed them upon another? If to receive a
certain thing from another would lay me under an obligation to him,
how is it that if I give it to myself, I do not contract an
obligation to myself? why should I be ungrateful to my own self,
which is no less disgraceful than it is to be mean to oneself, or
hard and cruel to oneself, or neglectful of oneself? The procurer
is equally odious whether he prostitutes others or himself. We
blame a flatterer, and one who imitates another man's mode of
speech, or is prepared to give praise whether it be deserved or
not; we ought equally to blame one who humours himself and looks up
to himself, and so to speak is his own flatterer. Vices are not
only hateful when outwardly practised, but also when they are
repressed within the mind. Whom would you admire more than he who
governs himself and has himself under command? It is easier to rule
savage nations, impatient of foreign control, than to restrain
one's own mind and keep it under one's own control. Plato, it is
argued, was grateful to Socrates for having been taught by him; why
should not Socrates be grateful to himself for having taught
himself? Marcus Cato said, "Borrow from yourself whatever you
lack;" why, then, if I can lend myself anything, should I be unable
to give myself anything? The instances in which usage divides us