ives for it; this must be looked
to by the man who makes a profit by it. The same is true with benefits;
when you ask what return I get for them, I answer, the consciousness
of a good action. "What return does one get for benefits?" Pray tell
me what return one gets for righteousness, innocence, magnanimity,
chastity, temperance? If you wish for anything beyond these virtues, you
do not wish for the virtues themselves. For what does the order of the
universe bring round the seasons? for what does the sun make the day
now longer and now shorter? all these things are benefits, for they take
place for our good. As it is the duty of the universe to maintain the
round of the seasons, as it is the duty of the sun to vary the points of
his rising and setting, and to do all these things by which we profit,
without any reward, so is it the duty of man, amongst other things, to
bestow benefits. Wherefore then does he give? He gives for fear that
he should not give, lest he might lose an opportunity of doing a good
action.

XIII. You Epicureans take pleasure in making a study of dull torpidity,
in seeking for a repose which differs little from sound sleep, in
lurking beneath the thickest shade, in amusing with the feeblest
possible trains of thought that sluggish condition of your languid minds
which you term tranquil contemplation, and in stuffing with food and
drink, in the recesses of your gardens, your bodies which are pallid
with want of exercise; we Stoics, on the other hand, take pleasure in
bestowing benefits, even though they cost us labour, provided that they
lighten the labours of others; though they lead us into danger, provided
that they save others, though they straiten our means, if they alleviate
the poverty and distresses of others. What difference does it make to me
whether I receive benefits or not? even if I receive them, it is still
my duty to bestow them. A benefit has in view the advantage of him
upon whom we bestow it, not our own; otherwise we merely bestow it upon
ourselves. Many things, therefore, which are of the greatest possible
use to others lose all claim to gratitude by being paid for. Merchants
are of use to cities, physicians to invalids, dealers to slaves; yet all
these have no claim to the gratitude of those whom they benefit, because
they seek their own advantage through that of others. That which is
bestowed with a view to profit is not a benefit. "I will give this in
order that I may get a r