they are indebted, both in good offices and in good feeling;
because the man whose duty it is to repay, can never do so unless
he out-does his benefactor; [Footnote: That is, he never comes up
to his benefactor unless he leaves him behind: he can only make a
dead heat of it by getting a start.] the one class must be taught
to look for no return, the other to feel deeper gratitude. In this
noblest of contests to outdo benefits by benefits, Chrysippus
encourages us by bidding us beware lest, as the Graces are the
daughters of Jupiter, to act ungratefully may not be a sin against
them, and may not wrong those beauteous maidens. Do thou teach me
how I may bestow more good things, and be more grateful to those
who have earned my gratitude, and how the minds of both parties may
vie with one another, the giver in forgetting, the receiver in
remembering his debt. As for those other follies, let them be left
to the poets, whose purpose is merely to charm the ear and to weave
a pleasing story; but let those who wish to purify men's minds, to
retain honour in their dealings, and to imprint on their minds
gratitude for kindnesses, let them speak in sober earnest and act
with all their strength; unless you imagine, perchance, that by
such flippant and mythical talk, and such old wives' reasoning, it
is possible for us to prevent that most ruinous consummation, the
repudiation of benefits.

V. However, while I pass over what is futile and irrelevant I must
point out that the first thing which we have to learn is, what we
owe in return for a benefit received. One man says that he owes the
money which he has received, another that he owes a consulship, a
priesthood, a province, and so on. These, however, are but the
outward signs of kindnesses, not the kindnesses themselves. A
benefit is not to be felt and handled, it is a thing which exists