on the enemy's altar was equivalent to the death
of Porsena, and valour struggling against fortune is always illustrious,
even if it falls short of accomplishing its design. He who watches
each opportunity as it passes, and tries to avail himself of one
after another, does more to show his gratitude than he whom the first
opportunity enabled to be grateful without any trouble whatever. "But,"
says our adversary, "he gave you two things, material help and kindly
feeling; you, therefore, owe him two." You might justly say this to one
who returns your kindly feeling without troubling himself further; this
man is really in your debt; but you cannot say so of one who wishes to
repay you, who struggles and leaves no stone unturned to do so; for,
as far as in him lies, he repays you in both kinds; in the next place,
counting is not always a true test, sometimes one thing is equivalent to
two; consequently so intense and ardent a wish to repay takes the place
of a material repayment. Indeed, if a feeling of gratitude has no value
in repaying a kindness without giving something material, then no one
can be grateful to the gods, whom we can repay by gratitude alone. "We
cannot," says our adversary, "give the gods anything else." Well, but
if I am not able to give this man, whose kindness I am bound to return,
anything beside my gratitude, why should that which is all that I can
bestow on a god be insufficient to prove my gratitude towards a man?

XVI. If, however, you ask me what I really think, and wish me to give a
definite answer, I should say that the one party ought to consider his
benefit to have been returned, while the other ought to feel that he has
not returned it; the one should release his friend from the debt, the
other should hold himself bound to pay it; the one should say, "I have
received;" the other should answer, "I owe." In our whole investigation,
we ought to look entirely to the public good; we ought to prevent the
ungrateful having any excuses in which they can take refuge, and under
cover of which they can disown their debts. "I have done all in my
power," say you. Well, keep on doing so still. Do you suppose that our
ancestors were so foolish, as not to understand that it is most unjust
that the man who has wasted the money which he received from his
creditor on debauchery, or gambling, should be classed with one who has
lost his own property as well as that of others in a fire, by robbery,
or some sadder