st
carefully, if I were not returning but bestowing it.

XXI. This point requires to be illustrated by a story. A certain
Pythagoraean bought a fine pair of shoes from a shoemaker; and as they
were an expensive piece of work, he did not pay ready money for them.
Some time afterwards he came to the shop to pay for them, and after he
had long been knocking at the closed door, some one said to him, "Why do
you waste your time? The shoemaker whom you seek has been carried out
of his house and buried; this is a grief to us who lose our friends for
ever, but by no means so to you, who know that he will be born again,"
jeering at the Pythagoraean. Upon this our philosopher not unwillingly
carried his three or four denarii home again, shaking them every now and
then; afterwards, blaming himself for the pleasure which he had secretly
felt at not paying his debt, and perceiving that he enjoyed having made
this trifling gain, he returned to the shop, and saying, "the man lives
for you, pay him what you owe," he passed four denarii into the
shop through the crack of the closed door, and let them fall inside,
punishing himself for his unconscionable greediness that he might not
form the habit of appropriating that which is not his own.

XXII. If you owe anything, seek for some one to whom you may repay it,
and if no one demands it, dun your own self; whether the man be good
or bad is no concern of yours; repay him, and then blame him. You have
forgotten, how your several duties are divided: it is right for him to
forget it, but we have bidden you bear it in mind. When, however, we
say that he who bestows a benefit ought to forget it, it is a mistake to
suppose that we rob him of all recollection of the business, though it
is most creditable to him; some of our precepts are stated over strictly
in order to reduce them to their true proportions. When we say that he
ought not to remember it, we mean he ought not to speak publicly, or
boast of it offensively. There are some, who, when they have bestowed
a benefit, tell it in all societies, talk of it when sober, cannot be
silent about it when drunk, force it upon strangers, and communicate it
to friends; it is to quell this excessive and reproachful consciousness
that we bid him who gave it forget it, and by commanding him to do this,
which is more than he is able, encourage him to keep silence.

XXIII. When you distrust those whom you order to do anything, you ought
to command them t