§81.24Malis una voluptas est et haec brevis, dum accipiunt beneficia, ex quibus sapienti longum gaudium manet ac perenne.
The bad have only one pleasure and this a short one, while they receive benefits, from which a long and everlasting joy remains for the wise man.
Non enim illum accipere, sed accepisse delectat, quod inmortale est et adsiduum.
For it does not delight him to receive, but to have received, which is immortal and constant.
Illa contemnit, quibus laesus est, nec obliviscitur per neglegentiam, sed volens.
He despises those things by which he was injured, and does not forget them through negligence, but willingly.
§81.25Non vertit omnia in peius nec quaerit, cui inputet casum, et peccata hominum ad fortunam potius refert.
He does not turn everything to the worse nor seek to whom he may impute an accident, and he refers the sins of men rather to fortune.
Non calumniatur verba nec vultus; quicquid accidit, benigne interpretando levat.
He does not misinterpret words or faces; whatever happens, he lightens it by interpreting it kindly.
Non offensae potius quam officii meminit.
He does not remember an offense rather than a service.
Quantum potest, in priore ac meliore se memoria detinet nec mutat animum adversus bene meritos, nisi multum male facta praecedunt et manifestum etiam coniventi discrimen est; tunc quoque in hoc dumtaxat, ut talis sit post maiorem iniuriam qualis ante beneficium.
As much as he can, he keeps himself in the former and better memory, nor does he change his mind toward those who have well deserved, unless many bad deeds precede and the difference is obvious even to one closing his eyes; even then only to this extent, that after a greater injury he becomes such as he was before the benefit.
Nam cum beneficio par est iniuria, aliquid in animo benivolentiae remanet.
For when the injury is equal to the benefit, some goodwill remains in the mind.
§81.26Quemadmodum reus sententiis paribus absolvitur et semper quicquid dubium est humanitas inclinat in melius, sic animus sapientis, ubi paria maleficiis merita sunt, desinet quidem debere, sed non desinit velle debere et hoc facit, quod qui post tabulas novas solvunt.
Just as a defendant is acquitted by equal votes and always, wherever there is doubt, humanity inclines toward the better, so the mind of the wise man, when merits are equal to injuries, will indeed cease to owe, but does not cease to wish to owe, and does this which those do who pay after the table of new accounts.
§81.27Nemo autem gratus esse potest, nisi contempsit ista, propter quae vulgus insanit; si referre vis gratiam, et in exilium eundum est et effundendus sanguis et suscipienda egestas et ipsa innocentia saepe maculanda indignisque obicienda rumoribus.
But no one can be grateful unless he has despised those things for which the crowd runs mad; if you wish to return gratitude, you must both go into exile and pour out your blood and undergo poverty and often even stain your own innocence and expose it to unworthy rumors.
§81.28Non parvo sibi constat homo gratus.
A grateful man does not cost himself little.
Nihil carius aestimamus quam beneficium, quamdiu petimus, nihil vilius, cum accepimus.
We value nothing more dearly than a benefit as long as we seek it, nothing more cheaply when we have received it.
Quaeris quid sit, quod oblivionem nobis acceptorum faciat? Cupiditas accipiendorum.
Do you ask what it is that makes us forget what we have received? The desire for receiving more.
Cogitamus non quid inpetratum, sed quid petendum sit.
We think not of what has been obtained, but of what is to be sought.
Abstrahunt a recto divitiae, honores, potentia et cetera, quae opinione nostra cara sunt, pretio suo vilia.
Wealth, honors, power, and other things which in our opinion are dear, but cheap in their own price, draw us away from the right.
§81.29Nescimus aestimare res, de quibus non cum fama, sed cum rerum natura deliberandum est; nihil habent ista magnificum, quo mentes in se nostras trahant, praeter hoc, quod mirari illa consuevimus.
We do not know how to estimate things, about which we must deliberate not with common reputation, but with the nature of things; those things have nothing magnificent by which they may draw our minds to themselves, except this, that we have been accustomed to admire them.
Non enim, quia concupiscenda sunt, laudantur, sed concupiscuntur, quia laudata sunt, et cum singulorum error publicum fecerit, singulorum errorem facit publicus.
For they are not praised because they are to be desired, but they are desired because they have been praised, and when the error of individuals has made it public, the public error makes the error of individuals.
§81.30Sed quemadmodum illa credidimus, sic et hoc eidem populo credamus, nihil esse grato animo honestius.
But just as we believed those things, so let us believe this also to the same people, that nothing is more honorable than a grateful mind.
Omnes hoc urbes, omnes etiam ex barbaris regionibus gentes conclamabunt.
All cities, all nations even from barbarian regions, will cry this out together.
In hoc bonis malisque conveniet.
In this the good and the bad will agree.
§81.31Erunt qui voluptates laudent, erunt qui labores malint; erunt qui dolorem maximum malum dicant, erunt qui ne malum quidem appellent; divitias aliquis ad summum bonum admittet, alius illas dicet malo vitae humanae repertas, nihil esse eo locupletius, cui quod donet fortuna non invenit.
There will be those who praise pleasures, there will be those who prefer labors; there will be those who call pain the greatest evil, there will be those who do not even call it an evil; someone will admit wealth to the highest good, another will say it was invented for the evil of human life, and that nothing is richer than he for whom fortune has not found anything to give.
In tanta iudiciorum diversitate referendam bene merentibus gratiam omnes tibi uno, quod aiunt, ore adfirmabunt.
In such great diversity of judgments, all will affirm to you with one mouth, as they say, that gratitude must be returned to those who have well deserved.
In hoc tam discors turba consentiet; cum interim iniurias pro beneficiis reddimus, et prima causa est, cur quis ingratus sit, si satis gratus esse non potuit.
In this so discordant a crowd will agree; while in the meantime we return injuries for benefits, and the first cause why one is ungrateful is if he could not be grateful enough.
§81.32Eo perductus est furor, ut periculosissima res sit beneficia in aliquem magna conferre; nam quia putat turpe non reddere, non vult esse, cui reddat.
Madness has been brought to this point, that it is a most dangerous thing to confer great benefits on someone; for because he thinks it shameful not to return them, he does not want the one to whom he should return them to exist.
Tibi habe, quod accepisti; non repeto, non exigo.
"Keep for yourself what you received; I do not seek it back, I do not demand it.
Profuisse tutum sit. Nullum est odium perniciosius quam e beneficii violati pudore.
Let it be safe to have been of service." No hatred is more destructive than that which arises from the shame of a violated benefit.
VALE.
FAREWELL.