[81]
Who of us has
been liberally educated, by whom his bringers up, and his teachers, and his
governors, and even the very mute place itself in which he has
been brought up and taught, are not preserved in his mind with a grateful
recollection?—who ever can have, or who ever had such resources in
himself as to be able to stand without many acts of kindness on the part of
many friends?—and yet no such acts can possibly exist, if you take
away memory and gratitude. I, in truth, think nothing so much the peculiar
property of man, as the quality of being bound, not only by a kindness
received, but by even the intimation of good-will towards one; and I think
nothing so inconsistent with one's idea of a man—nothing so
barbarous or so brutal—as to appear, I will not say unworthy of,
but surpassed by kindness.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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