Chapter XIV: Book V: asks “Is it a shame to be surpassed in benefits?” then takes up

the Stoic paradoxes “No one can be ungrateful,” “All are ungrateful”; and proceeds to find fresh puzzles, “Must a son be grateful for benefits done to his father?” “Is that a benefit which was not intended?” Among the problems in Book VI are “Do we owe gratitude to one who has benefited us against his will?”, or “without knowing it?”, or “incidentally in furthering his own interests?,” and in the last book “Can one benefit the sage who possesses all?” and “What is the position where the giver has forgotten the benefit conferred?” Although many of the problems end in unfruitful refinements, there is much to treasure in Seneca’s permanently valuable and shrewd criticism of human conduct. He is genuinely anxious to correct by his counsels one of the most detrimental and heartbreaking mistakes made in life; for he well realises how much pain is caused by ignorance in conferring or in receiving a benefit. A few citations will illustrate some aspects of his attitude:

“I should find it hard to say whether it is meaner for the
recipient to repudiate a benefit, or for the giver to press for
its repayment, inasmuch as a benefit is a sort of loan whose
return absolutely depends on the spontaneous action of the
debtor.”

“We find many people ungrateful; yet we make more people so,
because at one time we are insistent and harsh in our claims
for return, at another time we are fickle enough to regret
our generosity. By such conduct we spoil the whole favour....
A benefit is felt to be a debt in the same spirit as that in
which it is bestowed.”

“If a man does not give because he does not receive, he must
have given in order to receive, and that justifies ingratitude.
How many there are who are unworthy of the light of day, and
nevertheless the sun rises.”

“Persevere in your generosity. Assist one with your means,
another with credit, another with your favour, or your advice,
or a word in season. Is he ungrateful for one benefit?
After receiving a second, perhaps he will not be so. Has he
forgotten two? Perhaps the third kindness will bring back the
recollection of those that slipped his mind.”

“The reality of a benefit lies not in gold, nor silver, but in
the goodwill of the giver.”

“What is a benefit? It is the doing of a kindness which gives
pleasure and in the giving gets pleasure.... The spirit
animating the act is what exalts trivial things, throws lustre
on ordinary things, while it can discredit great and highly
valued ones.”

The _Naturales Quaestiones_ is in Seneca’s eyes an excursion into the highest speculation; for such physical inquiries concern God’s universe, whereas moral philosophy concerns man. The subject had occupied Seneca in Corsica,[663] and for many years he must have collected material to be combined (not over methodically) in these seven books. At the opening of