which is their due--while the other is joyous, cheerful, on the
watch for an opportunity of proving his gratitude, and gaining much
pleasure from this frame of mind itself? Such a man has no wish to
become bankrupt, but only to make the fullest and most copious
return for benefits, and that not only to parents and friends, but
also to more humble persons; for even if he receives a benefit from
his own slave, he does not consider from whom he receives it, but
what he receives.

XVIII. It has, however, been doubted by Hecaton and some other
writers, whether a slave can bestow a benefit upon his master. Some
distinguish between benefits, duties, and services, calling those
things benefits which are bestowed by a stranger--that is, by one
who could discontinue them without blame--while duties are
performed by our children, our wives, and those whom relationship
prompts and orders to afford us help; and, thirdly, services are
performed by slaves, whose position is such that nothing which they
do for their master can give them any claim upon him. . . .

Besides this, he who affirms that a slave does not sometimes confer
a benefit upon his master is ignorant of the rights of man; for the
question is, not what the station in life of the giver may be, but
what his intentions are. The path of virtue is closed to no one, it
lies open to all; it admits and invites all, whether they be free-
born men, slaves or freed-men, kings or exiles; it requires no
qualifications of family or of property, it is satisfied with a
mere man. What, indeed, should we have to trust to for defence
against sudden misfortunes, what could--a noble mind promise to
itself to keep unshaken, if virtue could be lost together with
prosperity? If a slave cannot confer a benefit upon his master,