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the attraction of any reward, or any hope; there is therefore something
which is desirable for itself, whose own worth attracts you, that
is, honour. Now what is more honourable than gratitude? the means of
practising this virtue are as extensive as life itself.

XX. "Yet," argues he, "there is also a certain amount of profit inherent
in this virtue." In what virtue is there not? But that which we speak
of as desirable for itself is such, that although it may possess some
attendant advantages, yet it would be desirable even if stripped of
all these. It is profitable to be grateful; yet I will be grateful even
though it harm me. What is the aim of the grateful man? is it that his
gratitude may win for him more friends and more benefits? What then? If
a man is likely to meet with affronts by showing his gratitude, if he
knows that far from gaining anything by it, he must lose much even of
what he has already acquired, will he not cheerfully act to his own
disadvantage? That man is ungrateful who, in returning a kindness,
looks forward to a second gift--who hopes while he repays. I call him
ungrateful who sits at the bedside of a sick man because he is about
to make a will, when he is at leisure to think of inheritances and
legacies. Though he may do everything which a good and dutiful friend
ought to do, yet, if any hope of gain be floating in his mind, he is a
mere legacy-hunter, and is angling for an inheritance. Like the birds
which feed upon carcases, which come close to animals weakened by
disease, and watch till they fall, so these men are attracted by death
and hover around a corpse.

XXI. A grateful mind is attracted only by a sense of the beauty of its
purpose. Do you wish to know this to be so, and that it is not bribed by
ideas of profit? There are two classes of grateful men: a man is called
grateful who has made some return for what he received; this man may
very possibly display himself in this character, he has something
to boast of, to refer to. We also call a man grateful who receives a
benefit with goodwill, and owes it to his benefactor with goodwill; yet
this man's gratitude lies concealed within his own mind. What profit can
accrue to him from this latent feeling? yet this man, even though he
is not able to do anything more than this, is grateful; he loves his
benefactor, he feels his debt to him, he longs to repay his kindness;
whatever else you may find wanting, there is nothing wanting in the m