it at the same time). In a benefit, too, what we commend and admire
is, that a man has for the time being forgotten his own interests,
in order that he may do good to another; that he has deprived
himself of something, in order to bestow it upon another. Now, he
who bestows a benefit upon himself does not do this. The bestowal
of a benefit is an act of companionship--it wins some man's
friendship, and lays some man under an obligation; but to bestow it
upon oneself is no act of companionship--it wins no man's
friendship, lays no man under an obligation, raises no man's hopes,
or leads him to say, "This man must be courted; he bestowed a
benefit upon that person, perhaps he will bestow one upon me also."
A benefit is a thing which one gives not for one's own sake, but
for the sake of him to whom it is given; but he who bestows a
benefit upon himself, does so for his own sake; therefore, it is
not a benefit.

XII. Now I seem to you not to have made good what I said at the
beginning of this book. You say that I am far from doing what is
worth any one's while; nay, that in real fact I have thrown away
all my trouble. Wait, and soon you will be able to say this more
truly, for I shall lead you into covert lurking-places, from which
when you have escaped, you will have gained nothing except that you
will have freed yourself from difficulties with which you need
never have hampered yourself. What is the use of laboriously
untying knots which you yourself have tied, in order that you might
untie them? Yet, just as some knots are tied in fun and for
amusement, so that a tyro may find difficulty in untying them,
which knots he who tied them can loose without any trouble, because
he knows the joinings and the difficulties of them, and these
nevertheless afford us some pleasure, because they test the