is may come
upon him. You desire that he may need aid: this is to his disadvantage;
you desire that he may need your aid: this is to your advantage. You do
not wish to help him, but to be set free from your obligation to him:
for when you are eager to repay your debt in such a way as this, you
merely wish to be set free from the debt, not to repay it. So the only
part of your wish that could be thought honourable proves to be the base
and ungrateful feeling of unwillingness to lie under an obligation: for
what you wish for is, not that you may have an opportunity of repaying
his kindness, but that he may be forced to beg you to do him a kindness.
You make yourself the superior, and you wickedly degrade beneath your
feet the man who has done you good service. How much better would it be
to remain in his debt in an honourable and friendly manner, than to seek
to discharge the debt by these evil means! You would be less to blame if
you denied that you had received it, for your benefactor would then
lose nothing more than what he gave you, whereas now you wish him to be
rendered inferior to you, and brought by the loss of his property and
social position into a condition below his own benefits. Do you think
yourself grateful? Just utter your wishes in the hearing of him to whom
you wish to do good. Do you call that a prayer for his welfare, which
can be divided between his friend and his enemy, which, if the last part
were omitted, you would not doubt was pronounced, by one who opposed and
hated him? Enemies in war have sometimes wished to capture certain
towns in order to spare them, or to conquer certain persons in order
to pardon, them, yet these were the wishes of enemies, and what was the
kindest part of them began by cruelty. Finally, what sort of prayers do
you think those can be which he, on whose behalf they are made, hopes
more earnestly than any one else may not be granted? In hoping that
the gods may injure a man, and that you may help him, you deal most
dishonourably with him, and you do not treat the gods themselves fairly,
for you give them the odious part to play, and reserve the generous one
for yourself: the gods must do him wrong in order that you may do him
a service. If you were to suborn an informer to accuse a man, and
afterwards withdrew him, if you engaged a man in a law suit and
afterwards gave it up, no one would hesitate to call you a villain: what
difference does it make, whether you attempt to do