le will also esteem things which no one else has given
to them, or which we have given to no one else.

XIII. When the conquest of the East had flattered Alexander of Macedon
into believing himself to be more than man, the people of Corinth sent
an embassy to congratulate him, and presented him with the franchise of
their city. When Alexander smiled at this form of courtesy, one of
the ambassadors said, "We have never enrolled any stranger among our
citizens except Hercules and yourself." Alexander willingly accepted the
proffered honour, invited the ambassadors to his table, and showed them
other courtesies. He did not think of who offered the citizenship, but
to whom they had granted it; and being altogether the slave of glory,
though he knew neither its true nature or its limits, had followed in
the footsteps of Hercules and Bacchus, and had not even stayed his march
where they ceased; so that he glanced aside from the givers of this
honour to him with whom he shared it, and fancied that the heaven to
which his vanity aspired was indeed opening before him when he was made
equal to Hercules. In what indeed did that frantic youth, whose only
merit was his lucky audacity, resemble Hercules? Hercules conquered
nothing for himself; he travelled throughout the world, not coveting for
himself but liberating the countries which he conquered, an enemy to bad
men, a defender of the good, a peacemaker both by sea and land; whereas
the other was from his boyhood a brigand and desolator of nations, a
pest to his friends and enemies alike, whose greatest joy was to be the
terror of all mankind, forgetting that men fear not only the fiercest
but also the most cowardly animals, because of their evil and venomous
nature.

XIV. Let us now return to our subject. He who bestows a benefit without
discrimination, gives what pleases no one; no one considers himself to
be under any obligation to the landlord of a tavern, or to be the guest
of any one with whom he dines in such company as to be able to say,
"What civility has he shown to me? no more than he has shown to that
man, whom he scarcely knows, or to that other, who is both his personal
enemy and a man of infamous character. Do you suppose that he wished to
do me any honour? not so, he merely wished to indulge his own vice of
profusion." If you wish men to be grateful for anything, give it but
seldom; no one can bear to receive what you give to all the world.
Yet let no one gather