ce, wherefore
Seneca says (De Benef. ii): "Do you wish to repay a favor? Receive it
graciously." As regards the gift, one ought to wait until such a time
as will be convenient to the benefactor. In fact, if instead of
choosing a convenient time, one wished to repay at once, favor for
favor, it would not seem to be a virtuous, but a constrained
repayment. For, as Seneca observes (De Benef. iv), "he that wishes to
repay too soon, is an unwilling debtor, and an unwilling debtor is
ungrateful."

Reply Obj. 1: A legal debt must be paid at once, else the equality of
justice would not be preserved, if one kept another's property
without his consent. But a moral debt depends on the equity of the
debtor: and therefore it should be repaid in due time according as
the rectitude of virtue demands.

Reply Obj. 2: Earnestness of the will is not virtuous unless it be
regulated by reason; wherefore it is not praiseworthy to forestall
the proper time through earnestness.

Reply Obj. 3: Favors also should be conferred at a convenient time
and one should no longer delay when the convenient time comes; and
the same is to be observed in repaying favors.
_______________________

FIFTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 106, Art. 5]

Whether in Giving Thanks We Should Look at the Benefactor's
Disposition or at the Deed?

Objection 1: It seems that in repaying favors we should not look at
the benefactor's disposition but at the deed. For repayment is due to
beneficence, and beneficence consists in deeds, as the word itself
denotes. Therefore in repaying favors we should look at the deed.

Obj. 2: Further, thanksgiving, whereby we repay favors, is a part of
justice. But justice considers equality between giving and taking.
Therefore also in repaying favors we should consider the deed rather
than the disposition of the benefactor.

Obj. 3: Further, no one can consider what he does not know. Now God
alone knows the interior disposition. Therefore it is impossible to
repay a favor according to the benefactor's disposition.

_On the contrary,_ Seneca says (De Benef. i): "We are sometimes under
a greater obligation to one who has given little with a large heart,
and has bestowed a small favor, yet willingly."

_I answer that,_ The repayment of a favor may belong to three
virtues, namely, justice, gratitude and friendship. It belongs to
justice when the repayment has the character of a legal debt, as in a
loan and the like: and in such cases repayment