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‘Accordingly, the service that is received’ (by the recipients, which seems to be the subject of ἔχειν) ‘must be especially directed to these same things’ (viz. the satisfaction of the more urgent wants and desires. I have followed Bekker in retaining ταῦτα. MS A^{c} has ταῦτα, and Q, Y^{b}, Z^{b} τοιαῦτα, which is adopted by Victorius), ‘or if not, to things equal or greater. And therefore, now that the times, circumstances, and dispositions of mind, which give rise to benevolent feeling, have been pointed out, it is plain that it is from these sources that we must provide our materials (for producing it in our audience), by shewing that the one party (the recipient in the transaction) either is or has been1 in want or pain such (as has been described), and the other either has done or is doing a service in a case of need, the service and the need being each of the kind mentioned’.
1 γεγενημένους. There seems to be no intelligible distinction here made between εἶναι and γίγνεσθαι; at least, none that is worth expressing in the translation. What again is the difference intended between the two verbs in this passage, γενόμενα ἢ ἐσόμενα, II. 8. 13? It may be supposed that Aristotle has only used the latter verb in default of a perfect of the former. And it is certain that the Greek writers do occasionally employ forms of γίγνεσθαι where our idiom requires the substitution of the simple ‘to be’. If the word here be translated literally, the notion of ‘becoming’ must be rendered by ‘having come to be in, or fallen into, such want’.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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