the Obligation? Business may have put it out of his Head, or taken him off from't: He may have flipt his Opportunity: I will fay, in Excufe of human Weaknefs, That one Man's Memory is not fufficient for all things It is but of a limited Capacity, fo as to hold only fo much, and no more; and when it is once full, it must let out part of what it had, to take in any thing beside; and the last Benefit ever fits closest to us. In our Youth, we forget the Obligations of our Infancy; and when we are Men, we forget thofe of our Youth. If nothing will prevail, let him keep what he has, and welcome, but let him have a Care of returning Evil for Good, and making it dangerous for a Man to do his Duty. I would no more give a benefit to fuch a Man, than I would lend Money to a beggarly Spendthrift; or depofite any in the Hand of a known. Knight of the Poft. However, the Cafe stands, an ungrateful Perfon is never the bet ter for a Reproach; if he be already. hardened in his Wickedness, he gives no head to't, and, if he be not, it turns a doubtful Modefty into an incorrigible Impu dence befide that, he watches for ill Words, to pick and Quarrel with them. : + There Should be no Delay in the doing of a Benefit. t + As the Benefactor is not to upbraid a Benefit, fo neither to delay it: The one is tiresome, and the other odious. We must not hold Men in hand, as Phyficians and Surgeons do their Patients, and keep them longer in Fear and pain than needs, only to magnify the Cure. A generous Man gives eafily; and receives as he gives, but never exacts, He rejoices in the Return, and judges favourably of it whatever it be, and contents himself, with bare Thanks for a Requital. It is a harder Matter with fome to get the Benefit after it is promifed, than the fir Promife of it; there must be fo many Friends made in the Cafe. One must be desired to folicit another; and he must be intreated to move a third; and a fourth mult be at laft befought to receive it; fo that the Author, upon the Upfhot, has the leaft Share in the Obligation. It is then welcome when it comes free, and without Deduction; and no Man either to intercept, or hinder, or to detain it. And let it be of fuch a Quality too, that it be not only delightful in the receiving, but after it is received; which it will certainly be, if we do but ob ferve this Rule, never do any thing for another, which we would not honestly defire for ourselves. CHAP. XVI. How the Receiver ought to behave himself. TH HERE are certain Rules in common, betwixt the Giver, and the Receiver: We must do both chearfully, that the Giver may receive the Fruit of his Benefit in the very act of beftowing it. It is a juft Ground of Satisfaction, to see a Friend pleased; but it is much more, to make him fo. The Intention of the one is to be fuited to the Intention of the other; and there must be an Emulation betwixt them, whether shall o blige most. Let the one fay, That he has received a Be nefit, and let the other perfuade himself that he has not returned it. Let the one fay, I am paid, and the o ther, I am yet in your Debt: let the Benefactor acquit the Receiver, and the Receiver bind himself. The Frankness of his Difcharge heightens the Obligation. It is in Converfation, as in a Tennis-Court: Benefits are to be toft like Balls; the longer they Reft, the better are the Gamesters. The Giver, in fome Refpect, has the Odds, because (as in a Race) he starts first, and the o ther must use great Diligence to overtake him. The Return must be larger than the first Obligation to come up to it; and it is a kind of Ingratitude, not to render it with Interest. In a Matter of Money, 'tis a common thing to pay a Debt out of course, and before it be due; but we account ourselves to owe nothing for a good Office; whereas the Benefit increases by delay. So infenfible are we of the most important Affair of human Life. That Man were doubtless in a miserable Condition, that could neither fee, nor hear, nor talte, nor feel, nor fmell: but, How much more unhappy is he then, that, wanting a fenfe of Benefits, lofes the greatest Comfort in Nature; in the Bliss of Giving, and Receiving them? He that takes a Benefit as it is meant, is in the right; for the Benefactor has then his end, and his only end, when the Receiver is grateful. The Receiver has the harder Game to play." THE more glorious part, in appearance, is that of the Giver; but, † the Receiver has undoubtedly the harder Game to play, in many regards. There are fome from whom I would not accept of a Benefit; that is to fay, from those upon whomi I would not beltow one. For why should not I scorn to receive a Benefit, where I am ashamed to owe it? And, I would yet be more tender too, where I receive than where I give; for 'tis a Torment to be in Debt, where a Man has no mind to pay; as it is the greatest Delight imaginable to be engaged by a Friend, whom I fhould. yet have a Kindness for, if I were never so much difobliged. It is a Pain to an honeft, and a generous Mind, to lie under a Duty of Affection against Inclination. I do not fpeak here of wife Men, that love to do what they ought to do; that have their Paffions at Command ; that prefcribe Laws to themfelves; and keep them when they have done; but of Men, in a State of Imperfection, that may have a good Will perhaps to be honeft, and yet be over-born by the Contumacy of their Affections. We must therefore have a Care to whom we become oblig'd; and, I would be much stricter yet in the Choice of a Creditor for Benefits, than for Money. In the one Cafe, it is but paying what I had, and the Debt is dif charged; in the other, I do not only owe more, but when I have paid that, I am still in Arrear: And, this Law is the very Foundation of Friendship. I will fuppofe myself a Prisoner; and a notorious Villian offers to lay down a good Sum of Money for my Redemption. First, fhall I make use of this Money, or no? Secondly, If I do, what Return fhall I make for't? To the first Point, I will take it; but, only as a Debt, not as a Benefit, that shall ever tie me to a Friendship with him: And fecondly, my Acknowledgment fhall be only correfpondent to fuch an Obligation. It is a School-Question, Whether or no Brutus, that thought Cafar not fit to Chap. XVI. live, (and put himself at the Head of a Confpirancy against him) could honeftly have received his Life from Gafar, if he had fallen into Cafar's Power, without examining what Reafon moved him to that Action? How great a man foever he was in other Cafes, without difpute he was extremely out in this, and below the Dignity of his Profeffion. For a Stoick to fear the name of a King, when yet Monarchy is the best State of Government; or there to hope for Liberty, where fo great Rewards are propounded, both for Tyrants and their Slaves for him to imagine, ever to bring the Laws to their former State, where fo many thousand Lives had been loft in the Contest, not so much whether they should serve or no, but who should be their Mafter: He was ftrangely mistaken fure in the Nature and Reason of things, to fancy, that when Julius was gone, fome body else would not start up in his Place, when there was yet a Tarquin found, after so many Kings that were deftroyed, either by Sword or Thunder: And yet the Refolution is, That he might have received it, but not as a Benefit; for at that Rate I owe my Life to every Man that does not take it away. : A Benefit refufed for the Perfon. GRECINUS JULIUS whom Caligula put to Death out of a pure Malice to his Virtue) had a confiderable Sum of Money fent him from Fabius Perficus (a Man of great and infamous Example,) as a Contribution towards the Expence of Plays and other public Entertainments; but Julius would not receive it; and fome of his Friends that had, an Eye more upon the Present than the Presenter, asked him, with fome Freedom, What he meant by refufing it? Why (fays he) do you think that I'll take Money, where I would not take fo much as a Glass of Wine? After this, Rebilus (a Man of the fame Stamp) fent him a greater Sum upon the fame Score. You must excufe me, (lays he to the Meffenger) for I would not take any thing of Perficus neither. To match this Scruple of receiving Money, with another of keeping it ; and the Sum not above three Pence, or a Groat at most, There was a certain Pythagorean A Pythagore an Scruples that contracted with a Cobler for a Pair of Shoes, and some three or four Days after, going to pay him his Money, the Shop was fhut up: and when he had knocked a great while at the Door, Friend (fays a Fellow) you may hammer your heart out there, for the Man that you look for is dead. And when our Friends are dead, we hear no more News of them; but your's that are to live again will shift well enough (alluding to Pythagoras his Tranfmigration.) Upon this the Philofopher went away, with his Money chinking in his Hand, and well enough content to fave it: at laft his Confcience took check at it, and upon Reflexion, Though the Man be dead (fays he) to others; he is alive to thee; pay him what thou oweft him and fo he went back prefently, and thrust it in into his Shop, thro' the Chink of the Door. What ever we owe, 'tis our part to find where to pay it, and to do it without asking too; for whether the Creditor be good, or bad, the Debt is ftill the fame. A forced Bo nefit. IF a Benefit be forced upon me, as from a Tyrant, or Superior, where it may be dangerous to refufe; this is rather obeying than receiving, where the Neceffity destroys the Choice. The way to know what I have a Mind to do, is to leave me at Liberty. whether I will do it or no ; but, it is yet a Benefit if a Man does me good in fpite of my Teeth; as it is none,. if I do any Man good against my Will. A Man may both hate, and yet receive a Benefit at the fame time; the Money is never the worse, because a Fool, that is not read in Coins, refufes to take it. If the Thing be good for the Receiver, and fo intended, no matter how ill 'tis taken. Nay the Receiver may be obliged, and not know it: But there can be no Benefit, which is unknown to the Giver. Neither will f, upon any Terms, receive a Benefit from a worthy Person that may do him a Mifchief: It is the Part of an Enemy, to fave himself, by doing another Man harm. BUT whatever we do, let us be || Keep a grate fure always to keep a grateful Mind. jul Mind. It is not enough to fay, What Requit al fhall a poor Man offer to a Prince; or a Slave to his Patron; when it is the Glory of Gratitude, that it de |