borrow it or beg for it, and allow himself to be laid under a great
obligation to some one; would you rank the man who so easily
bestowed his benefit on an equality with him who was obliged to
receive a benefit himself before he could bestow it? Some benefits
are great, not because of their amount, but because of the time at
which they are bestowed; it is a benefit to give an estate whose
fertility can bring down the price of corn, and it is a benefit to
give a loaf of bread in time of famine; it is a benefit to give
provinces through which flow vast navigable rivers, and it is a
benefit, when men are parched with thirst, and can scarcely draw
breath through their dry throats, to show them a spring of water.
Who will compare these cases with one another, or weigh one against
the other? It is hard to give a decision when it is not the thing
given, but its meaning, which has to be considered; though what is
given is the same, yet if it be given under different circumstances
it has a different value. A man may have bestowed a benefit upon
me, but unwillingly; he may have complained of having given it; he
may have looked at me with greater haughtiness than he was wont to
do; he may have been so slow in giving it, that he would have done
me a greater service if he had promptly refused it. How could a
judge estimate the value of these things, when words, hesitation,
or looks can destroy all their claim to gratitude?

IX. What, again, could he do, seeing that some things are called
benefits because they are unduly coveted, whilst others are not
benefits at all, according to this common valuation, yet are of
even greater value, though not so showy? You call it a benefit to
cause a man to be adopted as a member of a powerful city, to get
him enrolled among the knights, or to defend one who is being tried
for his life: what do you say of him who gives useful advice? of