L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

DETAILED CONTENTS

       Table of 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 benefactors, in

       order that we may show our gratitude by helping them?

       BOOK VII. The cynic Demetrius—his rules of conduct—Of the truly

       wise man—Whether one who has done everything in his power to return

       a benefit has returned it—Ought one to return a benefit to a bad

       man?—The Pythagorean, and the shoemaker—How one ought to bear with the

       ungrateful.