work.

The text which I have followed for De Beneficiis is that of Gertz,
Berlin (1876.).

AUBREY STEWART

London, March, 1887.

CONTENTS

BOOK I. The prevalence of ingratitude--How a benefit ought to be
bestowed--The three Graces--Benefits are the chief bond of human
society--What we owe in return for a benefit received--A benefit
consists not of a thing but of the wish to do good--Socrates and
Aeschines--What kinds of benefits should be bestowed, and in what
manner--Alexander and the franchise of Corinth.

BOOK II. Many men give through weakness of character--We ought to give
before our friends ask--Many benefits are spoiled by the manner of
the giver--Marius Nepos and Tiberius--Some benefits should be given
secretly--We must not give what would harm the receiver--Alexander's
gift of a city--Interchange of benefits like a game of ball--From
whom ought one to receive a benefit?--Examples--How to receive
a benefit--Ingratitude caused by self-love, by greed, or by
jealousy--Gratitude and repayment not the same thing--Phidias and the
statue.

BOOK III. Ingratitude--Is it worse to be ungrateful for kindness or
not even to remember it?--Should ingratitude be punished by law?--Can
a slave bestow a benefit?--Can a son bestow a benefit upon his
father?--Examples

BOOK IV. Whether the bestowal of benefits and the return of gratitude
for them are desirable objects in themselves? Does God bestow
benefits?--How to choose the man to be benefited--We ought not to look
for any return--True gratitude--Of keeping one's promise--Philip and the
soldier--Zeno

BOOK V. Of being worsted in a contest of benefits--Socrates and
Archelaus--Whether a man can be grateful to himself, or can bestow
a benefit upon himself--Examples of ingratitude--Dialogue on
ingratitude--Whether one should remind one's friends of what one has
done for them--Caesar and the soldier--Tiberius.

BOOK VI. Whether a benefit can be taken from one by force--Benefits
depend upon thought--We are not grateful for the advantages which we
receive from inanimate Nature, or from dumb animals--In order to lay me
under an obligation you must benefit me intentionally--Cleanthes's story
of the two slaves--Of benefits given in a mercenary spirit--Physicians
and teachers bestow enormous benefits, yet are sufficiently paid by a
moderate fee--Plato and the ferryman--Are we under an obligation to the
sun and moon?--Ought we to wish that evil may befall our bene