conceives himself to be indebted for a benefit to the Nile, any
more than he would owe it a grudge if its waters flooded his fields
to excess, and retired more slowly than usual; the wind does not
bestow benefits, gentle and favorable though it may be, nor does
wholesome and useful food; for he who would bestow a benefit upon
me, must not only do me good, but must wish to do so. No obligation
can therefore be incurred towards dumb animals; yet how many men
have been saved from peril by the swiftness of a horse!--nor yet
towards trees--yet how many sufferers from summer heat have been
sheltered by the thick foliage of a tree! What difference can it
make, whether I have profited by the act of one who did not know
that he was doing me good, or one who could not know it, when in
each case the will to do me good was wanting? You might as well bid
me be grateful to a ship, a carriage, or a lance for saving me from
danger, as bid me be grateful to a man who may have done me good by
chance, but with no more intention of doing me good than those
things could have.

VIII. Some men may receive benefits without knowing it, but no man
can bestow them without knowing it. Many sick persons have been
cured by chance circumstances, which do not therefore become
specific remedies; as, for instance, one man was restored to health
by falling into a river during very cold weather, as another was
set free from a quartan fever by means of a flogging, because the
sudden terror turned his attention into a new channel, so that the
dangerous hours passed unnoticed. Yet none of these are remedies,
even though they may have been successful; and in like manner some
men do us good, though they are unwilling--indeed, because they are
unwilling to do so--yet we need not feel grateful to them as though
we had received a benefit from them, because fortune has changed