one thing, and that of a trade is another. It is the business of
the art to make the thing which he wished to make, and that of the
trade to make it with a profit. Phidias has completed his work,
even though he does not sell it. The product, therefore, of his
work is threefold: there is the consciousness of having made it,
which he receives when his work is completed; there is the fame
which he receives; and thirdly, the advantage which he obtains by
it, in influence, or by selling it, or otherwise. In like manner
the first fruit of a benefit is the consciousness of it, which we
feel when we have bestowed it upon the person whom we chose;
secondly and thirdly there is the credit which we gain by doing so,
and there are those things which we may receive in exchange for it.
So when a benefit has been graciously received, the giver has
already received gratitude, but has not yet received recompense for
it: that which we owe in return is therefore something apart from
the benefit itself, for we have paid for the benefit itself when we
accept it in a grateful spirit.

XXXIV. "What," say you, "can a man repay a benefit, though he does
nothing?" He has taken the first step, he has offered you a good
thing with good feeling, and, which is the characteristic of
friendship, has placed you both on the same footing. In the next
place, a benefit is not repaid in the same manner as a loan: you
have no reason for expecting me to offer you any payment; the
account between us depends upon the feelings alone. What I say will
not appear difficult, although it may not at first accord with your
ideas, if you will do me the favour to remember that there are more
things than there are words to express them. There is an enormous
mass of things without names, which we do not speak of under
distinctive names of their own, but by the names of other things