nd one who has not
returned it is grateful. Even an unpractised judge can give his vote
upon some matters; for instance, when the thing to be determined is
whether something has or has not been done, when a dispute is terminated
by the parties giving written bonds, or when the casting up of accounts
decides between the disputants. When, however, motives have to be
guessed at, when matters upon which wisdom alone can decide, are brought
into court, they cannot be tried by a judge taken at random from the
list of "select judges," [Footnote: See Smith's "Dict. of Antiq.," s.
v] whom property and the inheritance of an equestrian fortune [Footnote:
400,000 sesterces] has placed upon the roll.

VIII. Ingratitude, therefore, is not only matter unfit to be brought
into court, but no judge could be found fit to try it; and this you
will not be surprised at, if you examine the difficulties of any one who
should attempt to prosecute a man upon such a charge. One man may
have given a large sum of money, but he is rich and would not feel it;
another may have given it at the cost of his entire inheritance. The
sum given is the same in each case, but the benefit conferred is not the
same. Add another instance: suppose that to redeem a debtor from slavery
one man paid money from his own private means, while another man paid
the same sum, but had to borrow it or beg for it, and allow himself to
be laid under a great obligation to some one; would you rank the man who
so easily bestowed his benefit on an equality with him who was obliged
to receive a benefit himself before he could bestow it? Some benefits
are great, not because of their amount, but because of the time at which
they are bestowed; it is a benefit to give an estate whose fertility
can bring down the price of corn, and it is a benefit to give a loaf of
bread in time of famine; it is a benefit to give provinces through which
flow vast navigable rivers, and it is a benefit, when men are parched
with thirst, and can scarcely draw breath through their dry throats,
to show them a spring of water. Who will compare these cases with one
another, or weigh one against the other? It is hard to give a decision
when it is not the thing given, but its meaning, which has to be
considered; though what is given is the same, yet if it be given
under different circumstances it has a different value. A man may have
bestowed a benefit upon me, but unwillingly; he may have complained of
having gi