then no subject can confer a benefit upon his king, and no soldier
upon his general; for so long as the man is subject to supreme
authority, the form of authority can make no difference. If main
force, or the fear of death and torture, can prevent a slave from
gaining any title to his master's gratitude, they will also prevent
the subjects of a king, or the soldiers of a general from doing so,
for the same things may happen to either of these classes of men,
though under different names.

Yet men do bestow benefits upon their kings and their generals;
therefore slaves can bestow benefits upon their masters. A slave
can be just, brave, magnanimous; he can therefore bestow a benefit,
for this is also the part of a virtuous man. So true is it that
slaves can bestow benefits upon their masters, that the masters
have often owed their lives to them.

XIX. There is no doubt that a slave can bestow a benefit upon
anyone; why, then, not upon his master? "Because," it is argued,
"he cannot become his master's creditor if he gives him money. If
this be not so, he daily lays his master under an obligation to
him; he attends him when on a journey, he nurses him when sick, he
works most laboriously at the cultivation of his estate; yet all
these, which would be called benefits if done for us by anyone
else, are merely called service when done by a slave. A benefit is
that which some one bestows who has the option of withholding it:--
now a slave has no power to refuse, so that he does not afford us
his help, but obeys our orders, and cannot boast of having done
what he could not leave undone." Even under these conditions I
shall win the day, and will place a slave in such positions, that
for many purposes he will be free; in the meanwhile, tell me, if I