from the conventional line of thought, and then rejoins it by
another path. We declare that a wise man cannot receive an injury;
yet, if a man hits him with his fist, that man will be found guilty
of doing him an injury. We declare that a fool can possess nothing;
yet if a man stole anything from a fool, we should find that man
guilty of theft. We declare that all men are mad, yet we do not
dose all men with hellebore; but we put into the hands of these
very persons, whom we call madmen, both the right of voting and of
pronouncing judgment. Similarly, we say that a man who has received
a benefit with good-will has returned the favour, yet we leave him
in debt nevertheless--bound to repay it even though he has repaid
it. This is not to disown benefits, but is an encouragement to us
neither to fear to receive benefits, nor to faint under the too
great burden of them. "Good things have been given to me; I have
been preserved from starving; I have been saved from the misery of
abject poverty; my life, and what is dearer than life, my liberty,
has been preserved. How shall I be able to repay these favours?
When will the day come upon which I can prove my gratitude to him?"
When a man speaks thus, the day has already come. Receive a
benefit, embrace it, rejoice, not that you have received it, but
that you have to owe it and return it; then you will never be in
peril of the great sin of being rendered ungrateful by mischance. I
will not enumerate any difficulties to you, lest you should
despair, and faint at the prospect of a long and laborious
servitude. I do not refer you to the future; do it with what means
you have at hand. You never will be grateful unless you are so
straightway. What, then, will you do? You need not take up arms,
yet perhaps you may have to do so; you need not cross the seas, yet
it may be that you will pay your debt, even when the wind threatens
to blow a gale. Do you wish to return the benefit? Then receive it