Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

54 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK
all a question of some slowness, some lack of
quickness in perception ; and this you can train
and discipline, if you do not shut your eyes to it
or indulge your own stupidity.
There is a kind of man, who, whenever he does
a good turn, makes a point of claiming credit for it ;
and though he does not perhaps press the claim,
yet all the same at heart he takes up the position
of creditor, and does not forget what he has done.
But there is another, who so to say forgets what
he has done : he is like the vine that bears a
cluster, and having once borne its proper fruit
seeks no further recompense. As the horse that
runs, the hound that hunts, the bee that hives its
honey, so the man who does the kindness does not
raise a shout, but passes on to the next act, as a
vine to the bearing of clusters for next season.
' '
What ! you object, '
are we to class ourselves
with things that act unconsciously, without intelli-
gence ? ' * Yes indeed ; but to do so is to assert
intelligence ;
for it is a characteristic of the social
being to perceive consciously
social.'
that his action is
'
Yes i' faith, and to wish the recipient
too to perceive the same.' 'What you say is
true : but if you thus pervert the maxim's mean-