e writes down his gifts in a ledger, or like a grasping
creditor demands repayment to the day and hour. A good man never thinks
of such matters, unless reminded of them by some one returning his
gifts; otherwise they become like debts owing to him. It is a base usury
to regard a benefit as an investment. Whatever may have been the result
of your former benefits, persevere in bestowing others upon other men;
they will be all the better placed in the hands of the ungrateful, whom
shame, or a favourable opportunity, or imitation of others may some day
cause to be grateful. Do not grow weary, perform your duty, and act
as becomes a good man. Help one man with money, another with credit,
another with your favour; this man with good advice, that one with
sound maxims. Even wild beasts feel kindness, nor is there any animal
so savage that good treatment will not tame it and win love from it. The
mouths of lions are handled by their keepers with impunity; to obtain
their food fierce elephants become as docile as slaves: so that constant
unceasing kindness wins the hearts even of creatures who, by their
nature, cannot comprehend or weigh the value of a benefit. Is a man
ungrateful for one benefit? perhaps he will not be so after receiving
a second. Has he forgotten two kindnesses? perhaps by a third he may be
brought to remember the former ones also.

III. He who is quick to believe that he has thrown away his benefits,
does really throw them away; but he who presses on and adds new benefits
to his former ones, forces out gratitude even from a hard and forgetful
breast. In the face of many kindnesses, your friend will not dare to
raise his eyes; let him see you whithersoever he turns himself to escape
from his remembrance of you; encircle him with your benefits. As for the
power and property of these, I will explain it to you if first you will
allow me to glance at a matter which does not belong to our subject, as
to why the Graces are three in number, why they are sisters, why hand in
hand, and why they are smiling and young, with a loose and transparent
dress. Some writers think that there is one who bestows a benefit,
one who receives it, and a third who returns it; others say that they
represent the three sorts of benefactors, those who bestow, those who
repay, and those who both receive and repay them. But take whichever
you please to be true; what will this knowledge profit us? What is the
meaning of this dance of sisters i