SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXXI.
deserved well of him, except in cases where the
bad deeds far outdistance the good, and the space
between them is obvious even to one who closes his
eyes to it even then
; only to this extent, that he
strives, after receiving the preponderant injury, to
resume the attitude which he held before he received
the benefit. For when the injury merely equals the
benefit, a certain amount of kindly feeling
is left
over. Just as a defendant is acquitted when the
votes are equal, and just as the spirit of kindliness
always tries to bend every doubtful case toward the
better interpretation,
so the mind of the wise man,
when another's merits merely equal his bad deeds,
will, to be sure, cease to feel an obligation, but does
not cease to desire to feel it, and acts precisely like
the man who pays his debts even after they have
been legally cancelled. a
But no man can be grateful unless he has learned
to scorn the things which drive the common herd to
distraction if ;
you wish to make return for a favour,
you must be willing to go into exile, or to pour forth
your blood, or to undergo poverty, or, and this will
frequently happen, even to let your very innocence
be stained and exposed to shameful slanders. It is
no slight price that a man must pay for being grateful.
We hold nothing dearer than a benefit, so long
as we are seeking one we hold
; nothing cheaper
after we have received it. Do you ask what it is
that makes us forget benefits received ? It is our
extreme greed for receiving others. We consider
not what we have obtained, but what we are to
seek. We are deflected from the right course by
riches, titles, power, and everything which is valuable
in our opinion but worthless when rated at its real
value. We do not know how to weigh matters b ;
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