the
kindness which was done by means of them remains. All those things,
therefore, which improperly assume the name of benefits, are means by
which kindly feeling manifests itself. In other cases also, we find a
distinction between the visible symbol and the matter itself, as when a
general bestows collars of gold, or civic or mural crowns upon any one.
What value has the crown in itself? or the purple-bordered robe? or the
fasces? or the judgment-seat and car of triumph? None of these things
is in itself an honour, but is an emblem of honour. In like manner,
that which is seen is not a benefit--it is but the trace and mark of a
benefit.

VI. What, then, is a benefit? It is the art of doing a kindness which
both bestows pleasure and gains it by bestowing it, and which does its
office by natural and spontaneous impulse. It is not, therefore, the
thing which is done or given, but the spirit in which it is done or
given, that must be considered, because a benefit exists, not in that
which is done or given, but in the mind of the doer or giver. How great
the distinction between them is, you may perceive from this, that
while a benefit is necessarily good, yet that which is done or given is
neither good nor bad. The spirit in which they are given can exalt small
things, can glorify mean ones, and can discredit great and precious
ones; the objects themselves which are sought after have a neutral
nature, neither good nor bad; all depends upon the direction given them
by the guiding spirit from which things receive their shape. That which
is paid or handed over is not the benefit itself, just as the honour
which we pay to the gods lies not in the victims themselves, although
they be fat and glittering with gold, [Footnote: Alluding to the
practice of gilding the horns of the victims.] but in the pure and holy
feelings of the worshippers.

Thus good men are religious, though their offering be meal and their
vessels of earthenware; whilst bad men will not escape from their
impiety, though they pour the blood of many victims upon the altars.

VII. If benefits consisted of things, and not of the wish to benefit,
then the more things we received the greater the benefit would be. But
this is not true, for sometimes we feel more gratitude to one who gives
us trifles nobly, who, like Virgil's poor old soldier, "holds himself as
rich as kings," if he has given us ever so little with a good will a man
who forgets his own need when he