[53]
But if
people are generous and kind in the way of personal
service—that is, with their ability and personal
effort—various advantages arise: first, the more
people they assist, the more helpers they will have
in works of kindness; and second, by acquiring the
habit of kindness they are better prepared and in
better training, as it were, for bestowing favours
upon many.
In one of his letters Philip takes his son Alexander
sharply to task for trying by gifts of money to secure
the good-will of the Macedonians: “What in the
mischief induced you to entertain such a hope,” he
says, “as that those men would be loyal subjects to
[p. 225]
you whom you had corrupted with money? Or are
you trying to do what you can to lead the Macedonians to expect that you will be not their king but
their steward and purveyor?”
“Steward and purveyor” was well said, because
it was degrading for a prince; better still, when he
called the gift of money “corruption.” For the
recipient goes from bad to worse and is made all the
more ready to be constantly looking for one bribe
after another.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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