‘And to those who have done us more kindness and service (than they have received from us)’. The explanation of this is not given because it is too clear to require one. It is that this superiority in conferring favours constitutes a debt and an obligation on the part of the inferior in this social commerce, whose account is on the debit side in the books of the other; who is therefore obliged to him, and disinclined to resent any real or supposed offence: the gratitude overpowers the sense of slight. ‘And those who beg for anything and deprecate our wrath or resentment’—both of these are confessions of inferiority, we acknowledge that we are in want of something, a deficiency which they can supply, and this shews superiority—‘for they are humbler’ (than they would otherwise be, if they didn't want anything).
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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