[63]
Furthermore, the favour conferred upon a man
who is good and grateful finds its reward, in such a
case, not only in his own good-will but in that of
others. For, when generosity is not indiscriminate
giving, it wins most gratitude and people praise it
with more enthusiasm, because goodness of heart in
a man of high station becomes the common refuge
of everybody. Pains must, therefore, be taken to
benefit as many as possible with such kindnesses
that the memory of them shall be handed down to
children and to children's children, so that they too
may not be ungrateful. For all men detest ingratitude and look upon the sin of it as a wrong
committed against themselves also, because it discourages generosity; and they regard the ingrate as
the common foe of all the poor.
Ransoming prisoners from servitude and relieving
the poor is a form of charity that is a service to the
[p. 237]
state as well as to the individual. And we find in
one of Crassus's orations the full proof given that
such beneficence used to be the common practice
of our order. This form of charity, then, I much
prefer to the lavish expenditure of money for public
exhibitions. The former is suited to men of worth
and dignity, the latter to those shallow flatterers, if
I may call them so, who tickle with idle pleasure,
so to speak, the fickle fancy of the rabble.
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