[5]
It is evident also by what means it is possible to
make out that there is no favor at all, or that those who render it are not
actuated by benevolence1;
for it can either be said that they do, or have done so,
for their own sake, in which case there is no favor; or that it was mere chance;
or that they acted under compulsion; or that they were making a return, not a
gift, whether they knew it or not; for in both cases it is an equivalent return,
so that in this case also there is no favor.
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1 ἀχαρίστους: the word generally means “ungrateful,” and so Jebb takes it here: “and to make men ungrateful.”
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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