‘And those whose slight is offered to such objects as it would be a disgrace to us not to help and protect, such as parents, children, wives, rulers and governors’, such as have a natural claim upon our help and protection. ‘And those that have failed to make a due return (for a benefit received); for in this case the slight (neglect, contemptuous indifference to moral obligation) is a violation of the natural claim, duty, or obligation. The nature or fitness of things requires (under this theory, which is that of justice, the lex talionis) such a compensation, or the repayment of the favour.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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