or which we are not sure of recompense, but of which
the fruit is at once enjoyed by a noble mind.

The book-keeping of benefits is simple: so much is expenditure; if
there is any return, that is clear gain; if there is no return, that is
not a loss. I gave it for the sake of giving. No one registers his
benefits in a ledger, or, like an exacting usurer, presses to the day
and hour for repayment. An honourable man never thinks of such matters,
unless reminded by someone returning a favour; otherwise they assume the
form of a debt.

Do not hesitate, then; persevere in your generous work. Assist one with
your means, another with credit, another with your favour, or your
advice, or a word in season. Is he ungrateful for one benefit? After
receiving a second, perhaps he will not be so. Has he forgotten two?
Perhaps the third kindness will bring back the recollection of those
that slipped his mind.

The subject we have to treat is that of benefits. We have to lay down an
ordered account of what is the chief bond of human society: we have to
prescribe a rule of life, such that inconsiderate open-handedness may
not commend itself under the guise of kindness, but also that our
caution, while it controls, may not strangle generosity, which ought to
be neither defective nor excessive.

People must be instructed to receive cheerfully and to repay cheerfully,
setting before themselves the high aim of not merely equalling but
surpassing those to whom they are obliged, and this both in act and in
feeling. It is necessary to point out that the first point which we have
to learn is what we owe for a kindness received. One says he owes the
money which he got, another a consulship, another a province. These,
however, are but the outward tokens of good services, not the services
themselves. A benefit is to the hand something intangible; it is a
process in the mind. There is a world of difference between the material
of a benefit and the benefit itself. Hence the reality of a benefit lies
not in gold, nor silver, but in the good will of the giver. The things
which we hold in our hands, which we look at, and on which our desire is
set, are perishable; misfortune or injustice may rob us of them; but a
kindness lasts even after the loss of what was given.

What, then, is a benefit? It is the doing of a kindness which gives
pleasure and in the giving gets pleasure, being inclined and
spontaneously ready for that which it does. Consequentl