L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits

DETAILED CONTENTS

BOOK I. The prevalence of ingratitude—How a benefit ought to be
bestowed—The three Graces—Benefits are the chief bond of human
society—What we owe in return for a benefit received—A benefit
consists not of a thing but of the wish to do good—Socrates and
Aeschines—What kinds of benefits should be bestowed, and in what
manner—Alexander and the franchise of Corinth.
BOOK II. Many men give through weakness of character—We ought to give
before our friends ask—Many benefits are spoiled by the manner of
the giver—Marius Nepos and Tiberius—Some benefits should be given
secretly—We must not give what would harm the receiver—Alexander's
gift of a city—Interchange of benefits like a game of ball—From
whom ought one to receive a benefit?—Examples—How to receive
a benefit—Ingratitude caused by self-love, by greed, or by
jealousy—Gratitude and repayment not the same thing—Phidias and the
statue.
BOOK III. Ingratitude—Is it worse to be ungrateful for kindness or
not even to remember it?—Should ingratitude be punished by law?—Can
a slave bestow a benefit?—Can a son bestow a benefit upon his
father?—Examples
BOOK IV. Whether the bestowal of benefits and the return of gratitude
for them are desirable objects in themselves? Does God bestow
benefits?—How to choose the man to be benefited—We ought not to look
for any return—True gratitude—Of keeping one's promise—Philip and the
soldier—Zeno
BOOK V. Of being worsted in a contest of benefits—Socrates and
Archelaus—Whether a man can be grateful to himself, or can bestow
a benefit upon himself—Examples of ingratitude—Dialogue on
ingratitude—Whether one should remind one's friends of what one has
done for them—Caesar and the soldier—Tiberius.
BOOK VI. Whether a benefit can be taken from one by force—Benefits
depend upon thought—We are not grateful for the advantages which we
receive from inanimate Nature, or from dumb animals—In order to lay me
under an obligation you must benefit me intentionally—Cleanthes's story
of the two slaves—Of benefits given in a mercenary spirit—Physicians
and teachers bestow enormous benefits, yet are sufficiently paid by a
moderate fee—Plato and the ferryman—Are we under an obligation to the
sun and moon?—Ought we to wish that evil may befall our benefactors, in
order that we may show our gratitude by helping them?
BOOK VII. The cynic Demetrius—his rules of conduct—Of the truly
wise man—Whether one who has done everything in his power to return
a benefit has returned it—Ought one to return a benefit to a bad
man?—The Pythagorean, and the