nd they give
the following reasons. An unworthy man will not repay the benefit which
he has received, even if it be demanded of him, while a worthy man will
do so of his own accord. Consequently, if you have bestowed it upon a
good man, wait; do not outrage him by asking him for it, as though of
his own accord he never would repay it. If you have bestowed it upon a
bad man, suffer for it, but do not spoil your benefit by turning it
into a loan. Moreover the law, by not authorizing you, forbids you,
by implication, to demand the repayment of a benefit." All this is
nonsense. As long as I am in no pressing need, as long as I am
not forced by poverty, I will lose my benefits rather than ask for
repayment; but if the lives of my children were at stake, if my wife
were in danger, if my regard for the welfare of my country and for
my own liberty were to force me to adopt a course which I disliked, I
should overcome my delicacy, and openly declare that I had done all that
I could to avoid the necessity of receiving help from an ungrateful man;
the necessity of obtaining repayment of one's benefit will in the end
overcome one's delicacy about asking for it. In the next place, when I
bestow a benefit upon a good man, I do so with the intention of never
demanding repayment, except in case of absolute necessity.

XXI. "But," argues he, "by not authorizing you, the law forbids you to
exact repayment." There are many things which are not enforced by any
law or process, but which the conventions of society, which are stronger
than any law, compel us to observe. There is no law forbidding us to
divulge our friend's secrets; there is no law which bids us keep faith
even with an enemy; pray what law is there which binds us to stand by
what we have promised? There is none. Nevertheless I should remonstrate
with one who did not keep a secret, and I should be indignant with one
who pledged his word and broke it. "But," he argues, "you are turning a
benefit into a loan." By no means, for I do not insist upon repayment,
but only demand it; nay, I do not even demand it, but remind my friend
of it. Even the direst need will not bring me to apply for help to one
with whom I should have to undergo a long struggle.

If there be any one so ungrateful that it is not sufficient to remind
him of his debt, I should pass him over, and think that he did not
deserve to be made grateful by force. A money-lender does not demand
repayment from his debtors