Benefits absolute and vulgar.-Common and personal.

material benefits are

tossed back and forward, and There are some offices that look

change their master. like benefits, but are only desirable conveniences, as wealth, &c. and these a wicked man may receive from a good; or a good man from an evil. Others again, that bear the face of injuries, which are only benefits ill-taken; as cutting, lancing, burning, under the hand of a surgeon. The greatest benefits of all, are those of good education, which we receive from our parents, either in the state of ignorance, or perverseness, as their care and tenderness in our infancy; their discipline in our childhood, to keep us to our duties by fear; and, if fair means will not do, their proceeding afterwards to severity and punishment, without which we should never have come to good. There are matters of great value, many times, that are but of small price; as instructions from a tutor, medicines from a physician, &c. And there are small matters again, which are of great consideration to us: the gift may be small, and the consequence great; as a cup of cold water in a time of need may save a man's life; some things are of great moment to the giver; others to the receiver; one man gives me a house; another snatches me out when 'tis falling upon my head. One gives me an estate; another takes me out of the fire, or casts me out a rope when I am sinking. Some good offices we do to friends, others to strangers; but those are the noblest that we do without predesert. There is an obligation of bounty, and an obligation of charity; this, in case of necessity, and that, in point of convenience. Some benefits are common, others are personal. As if a prince (out of pure grace) grant a privilege to a city, the obligation lies upon the

B

A Son may oblige his Father.

community, and only upon every individual as a part of the whole: but if it be done particularly for my sake, then am I singly the debtor for it. The cherishing of strangers is one of the duties of hospitality, and exercises itself in the relief and protection of the distressed. There are benefits of good counsel, reputation, life, fortune, liberty, health, nay, and of superfluity and pleasure. One man obliges me out of his pocket; another gives me matter of ornament and curiosity; a third, consolation. To say nothing of negative benefits: for there are, that reckon it an obligation if they do a body no hurt; and place it to accompt as if they saved a man, when they do not undo him. To shut up all, in one word, as benevolence is the most sociable of all virtues, so it is of the largest extent; for there is not any man either so great, or so little, but he is yet capable of giving and of receiving benefits,

A SON MAY OBLIGE HIS FATHER, AND A SERVANT

HIS MASTER.

THE question is (in the first place), whether it may not be possible for a father to owe more to a son in other respects, than the son owes to his father for his being? That many sons are both greater and better than their fathers, there is no question; as there are many other things that derive their beings from others, which yet are far greater than their original. Is not the tree larger than the seed? the river than the fountain? The foundation of all things lies hid, and the superstructure obscures it. If I owe all to my father, because he gives me life, I may owe as much to a physician that saved his life; for if my father had not been cured, I had

Filial Benefits valuable when well-timed.

never been begotten: or, if I stand indebted for all that I am, to my beginning, my acknowledgement must run back to the very original of all human beings. My father gave me the benefit of life, which he had never done, if his father had not first given it to him. He gave me life, not knowing to whom, and when I was in a condition neither to feel death, nor to fear it. That is the great benefit, to give life to one that knows how to use it; and that is capable of the apprehension of death. It is true, that without a father I could never have had a being; and so without a nurse, that being had never been improved; but I do not, therefore, owe my virtue either to my nativity, or to her that gave me suck. The generation of me was the least part of the benefit: for, to live, is common with the brutes; but, to live well is the main business; and that virtue is all my own, saving what I drew from my education. It does not follow that the first benefit must be the greatest; because, without the first, the greatest could never have been. The father gives life to the son but once; but if the son save the father's life often, though he do but his duty, it is yet a greater benefit. And again, the benefit that a man receives is the greater, the more he needs it; but the living has more need of life, than he that is not yet born; so that the father receives a greater benefit in the continuance of his life, than the son in the beginning of it. What if a son deliver his father from the rack; or, which is more, lay himself down in his place? the giving of him a being was but the office of a father, a simple act, a benefit given at a venture; beside that, he had a participant in it, and a regard to his family. He gave only a single life, and he received a happy one. My mother brought me into

Of Scipio and Æneas.

the world naked, exposed, and void of reason; but my reputation and my fortune are advanced by my virtue. Scipio (as yet in his minority) rescued his father in a battle with Hannibal, and afterward from the practices and prosecution of a powerful faction; covering him with consular honours and the spoils of public enemies. He made himself as eminent for his moderation, as for his piety, and military knowledge; he was the defender and the establisher of his country; he left the empire without a competitor; and made himself as well the ornament of Rome, as the security of it: and did not Scipio, in all this, more than requite his father barely for begetting of him? Whether did Anchises more for Æneas, in dandling the child in his arms; or Æneas for his father, when he carried him upon his back through the flames of Troy, and made his name famous to future ages, among the founders of the Roman empire? T. Manlius was the son of a sour and imperious father, who banished him his house as a blockhead, and a scandal to the family: this Manlius, hearing that his father's life was in question, and a day set for his trial, went to the tribune that was concerned in his cause, and discoursed him about it; the tribune told him the appointed time, and withal (as an obligation upon the young man) that his cruelty to his son would be part of his accusation. Manlius, upon this, takes the tribune aside, and presenting a poniard to his breast, "Swear," says he, "that you will let this cause fall, or you shall have this dagger in the heart of you; and now it is at your choice, which way you will deliver my father." The tribune swore, and kept his word; and made a fair report of the whole matter to the council. He that makes himself famous by his eloquence, justice, or arms,

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A Servant may oblige his Master.

illustrates his extraction, let it be ever so mean; and gives inestimable reputation to his parents. We should never have heard of Sophroniscus, but for his son Socrates; nor of Gryllus and Ariston, if it had not been for Xenophon and Plato.

This is not to discountenance the veneration we owe to parents; nor to make children the worse, but the better; and to stir up generous emulations. For, in contests of good offices, both parts are happy; as well the vanquished, as those that overcome. It is the only honourable dispute that can arise betwixt a father and a son, which of the two shall have the better of the other in the point of benefits.

In the question betwixt a master and a servant, we must distinguish betwixt benefits, duties, and actions ministerial. By benefits, we understand those good offices that we receive from strangers, which are voluntary, and may be forborne without blame. Duties are the parts of a son and wife, and incumbent upon kindred and relations. Offices ministerial belong to the part of a servant. Now, since it is the mind, and not the condition, of the person that prints the value upon the benefit, a servant may oblige his master, and so may a subject his sovereign, or a common soldier his general, by doing more than he is expressly bound to do. Some things there are, which the law neither commands nor forbids; and here the servant is free. It would be very hard for a servant to be chastised for doing less than his duty, and not thanked for it when he does more. His body, it is true, is his master's, but his mind is his own: and there are many commands which a servant ought no more to obey, than a master to impose. There is no man so great, but he may both