§81.1Querens incidisse te in hominem ingratum.
You complain that you have run into an ungrateful man.
Si hoc nunc primum, age aut fortunae aut diligentiae tuae gratias.
If this is now for the first time, give thanks either to fortune or to your diligence.
Sed nihil facere hoc loco diligentia potest nisi te malignum.
But in this matter, diligence can do nothing except make you unkind.
Nam si hoc periculum vitare volueris, non dabis beneficia; ita ne apud alium pereant, apud te peribunt.
For if you wish to avoid this danger, you will not give benefits; thus, lest they perish in the hands of another, they will perish in your own.
Non respondeant potius quam non dentur.
Let them rather not be returned than not be given.
Et post malam segetem serendum est; saepe quicquid perierat adsidua infelicis soli sterilitate, unius anni restituit ubertas.
And one must sow even after a bad harvest; often, whatever had perished by the continuous barrenness of an unproductive soil, the fertility of a single year restores.
§81.2Est tanti, ut gratum in venias, experiri et ingratos.
It is worth the cost, in order that you may find a grateful person, to try even the ungrateful.
Nemo habet tam certam in beneficiis manum, ut non saepe fallatur; aberrent, ut aliquando haereant.
No one has so certain a hand in giving benefits as not to be often deceived; let them go astray, so that they may sometimes cling.
Post naufragium maria temptantur.
After a shipwreck, the seas are tried again.
Faeneratorem non fugat a foro decoctor.
A bankrupt does not drive a moneylender from the forum.
Cito inerti otio vita torpebit, si relinquendum est, quicquid offendit; te vero benigniorem haec ipsa res faciat.
Life will soon grow numb in inert laziness, if whatever offends must be abandoned; indeed, let this very thing make you more generous.
Nam cuius rei eventus incertus est, id ut aliquando procedat, saepe temptandum est.
For that whose outcome is uncertain, in order that it may succeed sometimes, must be tried often.
§81.3Sed de isto satis multa in iis libris locuti sumus, qui de beneficiis inscribuntur.
But about that matter we have spoken enough in those books which are entitled "On Benefits".
Illud magis quaerendum videtur, quod non satis, ut existimo, explicatum est, an is, qui profuit nobis, si postea nocuit, paria fecerit et nos debito solverit.
That rather seems to be investigated, which has not been sufficiently explained, as I think: whether he who has benefited us, if he later has harmed us, has made things equal and released us from our debt.
Adice, si vis, et illud: multo plus postea nocuit quam ante profuerat.
Add, if you wish, this also: he later harmed us much more than he had previously benefited us.
§81.4Si rectam illam rigidi iudicis sententiam quaeris, alterum ab altero absolvet et dicet: "Quamvis iniuriae praeponderent, tamen beneficiis donetur, quod ex iniuria superest. "Plus nocuit; sed prius profuit.
If you seek that straightforward opinion of a rigid judge, he will acquit the one by the other and say: "Although the injuries outweigh, yet let that which remains of the injury be forgiven to the benefits." He did more harm; but he benefited first.
Itaque habeatur et temporis ratio.
Therefore, let account of time also be taken.
§81.5Iam illa manifestiora sunt, quam ut admoneri debeas quaerendum esse, quam libenter profuerit, quam invitus nocuerit, quoniam animo et beneficia et iniuriae constant.
Now those things are too obvious for you to need to be reminded that we must ask how willingly he benefited, how unwillingly he harmed, since both benefits and injuries consist in the mind.
"Nolui beneficium dare; victus sum aut verecundia aut instantis pertinacia aut spe. " §81.6Eo animo quidque debetur, quo datur, nec quantum sit, sed a quali profectum voluntate, perpenditur.
"I did not want to give a benefit; I was overcome either by shame, or by the persistence of the one pressing me, or by hope." Each thing is owed with the same mind with which it is given, and it is weighed not by how much it is, but from what sort of will it proceeded.
Nunc coniectura tollatur; et illud beneficium fuit et hoc, quod modum beneficii prioris excessit, iniuria est.
Now let conjecture be set aside; both that was a benefit, and this, which exceeded the measure of the prior benefit, is an injury.
Vir bonus utrosque calculos sic ponit, ut se ipse circumscribat; beneficio adicit, iniuriae demit.
A good man sets both counters in such a way that he cheats himself; he adds to the benefit, and subtracts from the injury.
Alter ille remissior iudex, quem esse me malo, iniuriae oblivisci iubebit, officii meminisse. "
That other, more lenient judge, which I prefer myself to be, will order us to forget the injury, and to remember the service.
§81.7Hoc certe," inquis, "iustitiae convenit, suum cuique reddere, beneficio gratiam, iniuriae talionem aut certe malam gratiam. "Verum erit istud, cum alius iniuriam fecerit, alius beneficium dederit; nam si idem est, beneficio vis iniuriae extinguitur.
"This certainly," you say, "agrees with justice, to render to each his own: gratitude for a benefit, retaliation for an injury, or at least ill-will." That will be true when one person has done the injury, and another has given the benefit; for if it is the same person, the force of the injury is extinguished by the benefit.
Nam cui, etiam si merita non antecessissent, oportebat ignosci, post beneficia laedenti plus quam venia debetur.
For to one whom it would be proper to forgive even if no merits had preceded, more than pardon is owed when he harms after benefits.
§81.8Non pono utrique par pretium.
I do not place an equal price on both.
Pluris aestimo beneficium quam iniuriam.
I value a benefit more than an injury.
Non omnes grati sciunt debere beneficium; potest etiam inprudens et rudis et unus e turba, utique dum prope est ab accepto; ignorat autem, quantum pro eo debeat.
Not all grateful people know how to owe a benefit; even an imprudent and unrefined person, and one of the crowd, can do so, especially while he is close to the receipt of it; but he is ignorant of how much he owes for it.
Uni sapienti notum est, quanti res quaeque taxanda sit.
To the wise man alone is it known at what rate each thing is to be valued.
Nam ille, de quo loquebar modo, stultus etiam si bonae voluntatis est, aut minus quam debet aut alio quam debet tempore aut quo non debet loco reddit.
For he of whom I was just speaking, the fool, even if he is of good will, returns either less than he ought, or at another time than he ought, or in a place where he ought not.
Id quod referendum est, effundit atque abicit.
That which is to be returned, he pours out and throws away.