se of all alike; they could not except
individuals from the enjoyment of them. A king bestows honours upon
those who deserve them, but he gives largesse to the undeserving as
well. The thief, the bearer of false witness, and the adulterer, alike
receive the public grant of corn, and all are placed on the register
without any examination as to character; good and bad men share alike in
all the other privileges which a man receives, because he is a citizen,
not because he is a good man. God likewise has bestowed certain gifts
upon the entire human race, from which no one is shut out. Indeed, it
could not be arranged that the wind which was fair for good men should
be foul for bad ones, while it is for the good of all men that the seas
should be open for traffic and the kingdom of mankind be enlarged; nor
could any law be appointed for the showers, so that they should not fall
upon the fields of wicked and evil men. Some things are given to all
alike: cities are founded for good and bad men alike; works of genius
reach, by publication, even unworthy men; medicine points out the
means of health even to the wicked; no one has checked the making up of
wholesome remedies for fear that the undeserving should be healed. You
must seek for examination and preference of individuals in such things
as are bestowed separately upon those who are thought to deserve them;
not in these, which admit the mob to share them without distinction.
There is a great difference between not shutting a man out and choosing
him. Even a thief receives justice; even murderers enjoy the blessings
of peace; even those who have plundered others can recover their own
property; assassins and private bravoes are defended against the common
enemy by the city wall; the laws protect even those who have sinned most
deeply against them. There are some things which no man could obtain
unless they were given to all; you need not, therefore, cavil about
those matters in which all mankind is invited to share. As for things
which men receive or not at my discretion, I shall not bestow them upon
one whom I know to be ungrateful.

XXIX. "Shall we, then," argues he, "not give our advice to an ungrateful
man when he is at a loss, or refuse him a drink of water when he is
thirsty, or not show him the path when he has lost his way? or would you
do him these services and yet not give him anything?" Here I will draw
a distinction, or at any rate endeavour to do so. A benefit is