the other, who will be sorry
that his hated brother did not perish?" There can be no doubt that it is
a benefit to do good to a man, even against that man's will, just as he,
who against his own will does a man good, does not bestow a benefit upon
him. "Do you," asks our adversary, "call that by which he is displeased
and hurt a benefit?" Yes; many benefits have a harsh and forbidding
appearance, such as cutting or burning to cure disease, or confining
with chains. We must not consider whether a man is grieved at receiving
a benefit, but whether he ought to rejoice: a coin is not bad because it
is refused by a savage who is unacquainted with its proper stamp. A man
receives a benefit even though he hates what is done, provided that it
does him good, and that the giver bestowed it in order to do him good.
It makes no difference if he receives a good thing in a bad spirit.
Consider the converse of this. Suppose that a man hates his brother,
though it is to his advantage to have a brother, and I kill this
brother, this is not a benefit, though he may say that it is, and be
glad of it. Our most artful enemies are those whom we thank for the
wrongs which they do us.

"I understand; a thing which does good is a benefit, a thing which does
harm is not a benefit. Now I will suggest to you an act which neither
does good nor harm, and yet is a benefit. Suppose that I find the corpse
of some one's father in a wilderness, and bury it, then I certainly
have done him no good, for what difference could it make to him in what
manner his body decayed? Nor have I done any good to his son, for what
advantage does he gain by my act?" I will tell you what he gains. He has
by my means performed a solemn and necessary rite; I have performed a
service for his father which he would have wished, nay, which it would
have been his duty to have performed himself. Yet this act is not a
benefit, if I merely yielded to those feelings of pity and kindliness
which would make me bury any corpse whatever, but only if I recognized
this body, and buried it, with the thought in my mind that I was doing
this service to the son; but, by merely throwing earth over a dead
stranger, I lay no one under an obligation for an act performed on
general principles of humanity.

It may be asked, "Why are you so careful in inquiring upon whom you
bestow benefits, as though some day you meant to demand repayment of
them? Some say that repayment should never be demanded; a