BOOK VI.

I.


There are some things, my most excellent Liberalis, which lie
completely outside of our actual life, and which we only inquire
into in order to exercise our intellects, while others both give us
pleasure while we are discovering them, and are of use when
discovered. I will place all these in your hands; you, at your own
discretion, may order them either to be investigated thoroughly, or
to be reserved, and be used as agreeable interludes. Something will
be gained even by those which you dismiss at once, for it is
advantageous even to know what subjects are not worth learning. I
shall be guided, therefore, by your face: according to its
expression, I shall deal with some questions at greater length, and
drive others out of court, and put an end to them at once.

II. It is a question whether a benefit can be taken away from one
by force. Some say that it cannot, because it is not a thing, but
an act. A gift is not the same as the act of giving, any more than
a sailor is the same as the act of sailing. A sick man and a
disease are not the same thing, although no one can be ill without
disease; and, similarly, a benefit itself is one thing, and what
any of us receive through a benefit is another. The benefit itself
is incorporeal, and never becomes invalid; but its subject-matter
changes owners, and passes from hand to hand. So, when you take
away from anyone what you have given him, you take away the
subject-matter only of the benefit, not the benefit itself. Nature
herself cannot recall what she has given. She may cease to bestow