h, when admitted to them,
summons them to perform their duty: tools lie idle, unless the workman
uses them to take part in his work. Similarly men's minds contain a good
feeling, which, however, lies torpid, either through luxury and disuse,
or through ignorance of its duties. This we ought to render useful, and
not to get into a passion with it, and leave it in its wrong doing, but
bear with it patiently, just as schoolmasters bear patiently with the
blunders of forgetful scholars; for as by the prompting of a word or two
their memory is often recalled to the text of the speech which they
have to repeat, so men's goodwill can be brought to return kindness by
reminding them of it.

BOOK VI.

I.

There are some things, my most excellent Liberalis, which lie completely
outside of our actual life, and which we only inquire into in order to
exercise our intellects, while others both give us pleasure while we are
discovering them, and are of use when discovered. I will place all these
in your hands; you, at your own discretion, may order them either to
be investigated thoroughly, or to be reserved, and be used as agreeable
interludes. Something will be gained even by those which you dismiss at
once, for it is advantageous even to know what subjects are not worth
learning. I shall be guided, therefore, by your face: according to its
expression, I shall deal with some questions at greater length, and
drive others out of court, and put an end to them at once.

II. It is a question whether a benefit can be taken away from one by
force. Some say that it cannot, because it is not a thing, but an act. A
gift is not the same as the act of giving, any more than a sailor is the
same as the act of sailing. A sick man and a disease are not the same
thing, although no one can be ill without disease; and, similarly,
a benefit itself is one thing, and what any of us receive through a
benefit is another. The benefit itself is incorporeal, and never becomes
invalid; but its subject-matter changes owners, and passes from hand to
hand. So, when you take away from anyone what you have given him,
you take away the subject-matter only of the benefit, not the benefit
itself. Nature herself cannot recall what she has given. She may cease
to bestow benefits, but cannot take them away: a man who dies, yet has
lived; a man who becomes blind, nevertheless has seen. She can cut off
her blessings from us in the future, but she cannot prevent