SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXXI.
thousand denarii given at the right time. Now it
makes a great deal of difference whether you give
outright, or come to a man's assistance, whether
your generosity saves him, or sets him up in life.
Often the gift is small, but the consequences great.
And what a distinction do you imagine there is
between taking something which one lacks, something
which was offered, and receiving a benefit in
order to confer one in return ?
But we should not slip back into the subject
which we have already sufficiently investigated. In
this balancing of benefits and injuries, the good man
will, to be sure, judge with the highest degree of
fairness, but he will incline towards the side of the
benefit ;
he will turn more readily in this direction.
Moreover, in affairs of this kind the person concerned
is wont to count for a great deal. Men say: "You
conferred a benefit upon me in that matter of the
slave, but you did me an injury in the case of my
father" ;
a father." Similarly, he will follow up
all other
matters in which comparisons can be made, and if
the difference be very slight, he will pretend not to
notice it. Even though the difference be great, yet
if the concession can be made without impairment
of duty and lovalty, our good man will overlook it
that is, provided the injury exclusively affects the
good man himself. To sum up, the matter stands
or, "You saved my son, but robbed me of
thus the :
good man will be easy-going in striking a
balance ;
he will allow too much to be set against
his credit. He will be unwilling to pay a benefit by
balancing the injury against
it. The side towards
which he will lean, the tendency -which he will
exhibit, is the desire to be under obligations for the
favour, and the desire to make return therefor. For
229