L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits
BOOK I. The prevalence of ingratitude--How a benefit ought to be
bestowed--The three Graces--Benefits are the chief bond of human
society--What we owe in return for a benefit received--A benefit
consists not of a thing but of the wish to do good--Socrates and
Aeschines--What kinds of benefits should be bestowed, and in what
manner--Alexander and the franchise of Corinth.
BOOK II. Many men give through weakness of character--We ought to give
before our friends ask--Many benefits are spoiled by the manner of
the giver--Marius Nepos and Tiberius--Some benefits should be given
secretly--We must not give what would harm the receiver--Alexander's
gift of a city--Interchange of benefits like a game of ball--From
whom ought one to receive a benefit?--Examples--How to receive
a benefit--Ingratitude caused by self-love, by greed, or by
jealousy--Gratitude and repayment not the same thing--Phidias and the
statue.
BOOK III. Ingratitude--Is it worse to be ungrateful for kindness or
not even to remember it?--Should ingratitude be punished by law?--Can
a slave bestow a benefit?--Can a son bestow a benefit upon his
father?--Examples
BOOK IV. Whether the bestowal of benefits and the return of gratitude
for them are desirable objects in themselves? Does God bestow
benefits?--How to choose the man to be benefited--We ought not to look
for any return--True gratitude--Of keeping one's promise--Philip and the
soldier--Zeno
BOOK V. Of being worsted in a contest of benefits--Socrates and
Archelaus--Whether a man can be grateful to himself, or can bestow
a benefit upon himself--Examples of ingratitude--Dialogue on
ingratitude--Whether one should remind one's friends of what one has
done for them--Caesar and the soldier--Tiberius.
BOOK VI. Whether a benefit can be taken from one by force--Benefits
depend upon thought--We are not grateful for the advantages which we
receive from inanimate Nature, or from dumb animals--In order to lay me
under an obligation you must benefit me intentionally--Cleanthes's story
of the two slaves--Of benefits given in a mercenary spirit--Physicians
and teachers bestow enormous benefits, yet are sufficiently paid by a
moderate fee--Plato and the ferryman--Are we under an obligation to the
sun and moon?--Ought we to wish that evil may befall our benefactors, in
order that we may show our gratitude by helping them?
BOOK VII. The cynic Demetrius--his rules of conduct--Of the truly
wise man--Whether one who has done everything in his power to return
a benefit has returned it--Ought one to return a benefit to a bad
man?--The Pythagorean, and the shoemaker--How one ought to bear with the
ungrateful.
L. A. SENECA
ON BENEFITS.
DEDICATED TO
AEBUTIUS LIBERALIS.
BOOK I.
I.
Among the numerous faults of those who pass their lives recklessly and
without due reflexion, my good friend Liberalis, I should say that there
is hardly any one so hurtful to society as this, that we neither know
how to bestow or how to receive a benefit. It follows from this that
benefits are badly invested, and become bad debts: in these cases it is
too late to complain of their not being returned, for they were thrown
away when we bestowed them. Nor need we wonder that while the greatest
vices are common, none is more common than ingratitude: for this I see
is brought about by various causes. The first of these is, that we do
not choose worthy persons upon whom to bestow our bounty, but although
when we are about to lend money we first make a careful enquiry into
the means and habits of life of our debtor, and avoid sowing seed in a
worn-out or unfruitful soil, yet without any discrimination we scatter
our benefits at random rather than bestow them. It is hard to say
whether it is more dishonourable for the receiver to disown a benefit,
or for the giver to demand a return of it: for a benefit is a loan, the
repayment of which depends merely upon the good feeling of the debtor.
To misuse a benefit like a spendthrift is most shameful, because we
do not need our wealth but only our intention to set us free from the
obligation of it; for a benefit is repaid by being acknowledged. Yet
while they are to blame who do not even show so much gratitude as to
acknowledge their debt, we ourselves are to blame no less. We find many
men ungrateful, yet we make more men so, because at one time we harshly
and reproachfully demand some return for our bounty, at another we are
fickle and regret what we have given, at another we are peevish and
apt to find fault with trifles. By acting thus we destroy all sense of
gratitude, not only after we have given anything, but while we are in
the act of giving it. Who has ever thought it enough to be asked for
anything in an off-hand manner, or to be asked only once? Who, when he
suspected that he was going to be asked for any thing, has not frowned,
turned away his face, pretended to be busy, or purposely talked without
ceasing, in order not to give his suitor a chance of preferring his
request, and avoided by various tricks having to help his friend in his
pressing need? and when driven into a corner, has not either put the
matter off, that is, given a cowardly refusal, or promised his help
ungraciously, with a wry face, and with unkind words, of which he seemed
to grudge the utterance. Yet no one is glad to owe what he has not
so much received from his benefactor, as wrung out of him. Who can be
grateful for what has been disdainfully flung to him, or angrily cast
at him, or been given him out of weariness, to avoid further trouble? No
one need expect any return from those whom he has tired out with delays,
or sickened with expectation. A benefit is received in the same temper
in which it is given, and ought not, therefore, to be given carelessly,
for a man thanks himself for that which he receives without the
knowledge of the giver. Neither ought we to give after long delay,
because in all good offices the will of the giver counts for much, and
he who gives tardily must long have been unwilling to give at all. Nor,
assuredly, ought we to give in offensive manner, because human nature is
so constituted that insults sink deeper than kindnesses; the remembrance
of the latter soon passes away, while that of the former is treasured in
the memory; so what can a man expect who insults while he obliges? All
the gratitude which he deserves is to be forgiven for helping us. On
the other hand, the number of the ungrateful ought not to deter us
from earning men's gratitude; for, in the first place, their number is
increased by our own acts. Secondly, the sacrilege and indifference
to religion of some men does not prevent even the immortal gods from
continuing to shower their benefits upon us: for they act according to
their divine nature and help all alike, among them even those who so ill
appreciate their bounty. Let us take them for our guides as far as the
weakness of our mortal nature permits; let us bestow benefits, not put
them out at interest. The man who while he gives thinks of what he will
get in return, deserves to be deceived. But what if the benefit turns
out ill? Why, our wives and our children often disappoint our hopes,
yet we marry--and bring up children, and are so obstinate in the face of
experience that we fight after we have been beaten, and put to sea after
we have been shipwrecked. How much more constancy ought we to show in
bestowing benefits! If a man does not bestow benefits because he has
not received any, he must have bestowed them in order to receive them
in return, and he justifies ingratitude, whose disgrace lies in not
returning benefits when able to do so. How many are there who are
unworthy of the light of day? and nevertheless the sun rises. How many
complain because they have been born? yet Nature is ever renewing our
race, and even suffers men to live who wish that they had never lived.
It is the property of a great and good mind to covet, not the fruit of
good deeds, but good deeds themselves, and to seek for a good man even
after having met with bad men. If there were no rogues, what glory would
there be in doing good to many? As it is, virtue consists in bestowing
benefits for which we are not certain of meeting with any return, but
whose fruit is at once enjoyed by noble minds. So little influence ought
this to have in restraining us from doing good actions, that even though
I were denied the hope of meeting with a grateful man, yet the fear of
not having my benefits returned would not prevent my bestowing them,
because he who does not give, forestalls the vice of him who is
ungrateful. I will explain what I mean. He who does not repay a benefit,
sins more, but he who does not bestow one, sins earlier.
"If thou at random dost thy bounties waste,
Much must be lost, for one that's rightly placed."
II. In the former verse you may blame two things, for one should not
cast them at random, and it is not right to waste anything, much less
benefits; for unless they be given with judgement, they cease to be
benefits, and, may be called by any other name you please. The meaning
of the latter verse is admirable, that one benefit rightly bestowed
makes amends for the loss of many that have been lost. See, I pray you,
whether it be not truer and more worthy of the glory of the giver, that
we should encourage him to give, even though none of his gifts should
be worthily placed. "Much must be lost." Nothing is lost because he
who loses had counted the cost before. The book-keeping of benefits
is simple: it is all expenditure; if any one returns it, that is clear
gain; if he does not return it, it is not lost, I gave it for the sake
of giving. No one writes down his gifts in a ledger, or like a grasping
creditor demands repayment to the day and hour. A good man never thinks
of such matters, unless reminded of them by some one returning his
gifts; otherwise they become like debts owing to him. It is a base usury
to regard a benefit as an investment. Whatever may have been the result
of your former benefits, persevere in bestowing others upon other men;
they will be all the better placed in the hands of the ungrateful, whom
shame, or a favourable opportunity, or imitation of others may some day
cause to be grateful. Do not grow weary, perform your duty, and act
as becomes a good man. Help one man with money, another with credit,
another with your favour; this man with good advice, that one with
sound maxims. Even wild beasts feel kindness, nor is there any animal
so savage that good treatment will not tame it and win love from it. The
mouths of lions are handled by their keepers with impunity; to obtain
their food fierce elephants become as docile as slaves: so that constant
unceasing kindness wins the hearts even of creatures who, by their
nature, cannot comprehend or weigh the value of a benefit. Is a man
ungrateful for one benefit? perhaps he will not be so after receiving
a second. Has he forgotten two kindnesses? perhaps by a third he may be
brought to remember the former ones also.
III. He who is quick to believe that he has thrown away his benefits,
does really throw them away; but he who presses on and adds new benefits
to his former ones, forces out gratitude even from a hard and forgetful
breast. In the face of many kindnesses, your friend will not dare to
raise his eyes; let him see you whithersoever he turns himself to escape
from his remembrance of you; encircle him with your benefits. As for the
power and property of these, I will explain it to you if first you will
allow me to glance at a matter which does not belong to our subject, as
to why the Graces are three in number, why they are sisters, why hand in
hand, and why they are smiling and young, with a loose and transparent