ed his being ungrateful, when we
know that it only happens to ungrateful men. There are many classes of
the ungrateful, as there are of thieves or of homicides, who all have
the same fault, though there is a great variety in its various forms.
The man is ungrateful who denies that he has received a benefit; who
pretends that he has not received it; who does not return it. The most
ungrateful man of all is he who forgets it. The others, though they do
not repay it, yet feel their debt, and possess some traces of worth,
though obstructed by their bad conscience. They may by some means and at
some time be brought to show their gratitude, if, for instance, they
be pricked by shame, if they conceive some noble ambition such as
occasionally rises even in the breasts of the wicked, if some easy
opportunity of doing so offers; but the man from whom all recollection
of the benefit has passed away can never become grateful. Which of the
two do you call the worse--he who is ungrateful for kindness, or he who
does not even remember it? The eyes which fear to look at the light are
diseased, but those which cannot see it are blind. It is filial impiety
not to love one's parents, but not to recognise them is madness.

II. Who is so ungrateful as he who has so completely laid aside and cast
away that which ought to be in the forefront of his mind and ever
before him, that he knows it not? It is clear that if forgetfulness of
a benefit steals over a man, he cannot have often thought about repaying
it.

In short, repayment requires gratitude, time, opportunity, and the help
of fortune; whereas, he who remembers a benefit is grateful for it, and
that too without expenditure. Since gratitude demands neither labour,
wealth, nor good fortune, he who fails to render it has no excuse behind
which to shelter himself; for he who places a benefit so far away that
it is out of his sight, never could have meant to be grateful for it.
Just as those tools which are kept in use, and are daily touched by the
hand, are never in danger of growing rusty, while those which are not
brought before our eyes, and lie as if superfluous, not being required
for common use, collect dirt by the mere lapse of time, so likewise that
which our thoughts frequently turn over and renew never passes from our
memory, which only loses those things to which it seldom directs its
eyes.

III. Besides this, there are other causes which at times erase the
greatest services fr