cure it, is a most perverse ingratitude. It is barbaroas ever
to an enemy; much more to a friend ; for it is not so much
to do him a kindness, as to put him in need of it. Of the
two, let it be rather a scar than a wound ; and yet it would
be better to have it neither. Rome had been iittle beholden
to Scipio if he had prolonged the Punic war that he might
have the finishing of it at last, or to the Decii for dying for
their country, if they had first brought it to the last ex-
tremity of needing their devotion. It may be a good con-
templation, but it is a lewd wish. iEneas had never been
surnamed the PiouSy if he had wished the ruin of his coun-
try, only that he might have the honor of taking his father
out of the fire. It is the scandal of a physician to make
work, and irritate a disease, and to torment his patient, for
the reputation of his cure. If a man should openly impre-
cate poverty, captivity, fear, or danger, upon a person that
he has been obliged to, would not the whole world condemn
him for it 1 And what is the difference, but the one is only
a private wish, and the other a public declaration ? Rutilius
was told in his exile, that, for his comfort, there would be
ere-long a civil war, that would bring all the banished men
home again. ** Grod forbid," says he, *• for I had rather my
country should blush for my banishment than mourn for my
return." How much more honorable is it to owe cheerfully,
than to pay dishonestly 1 It is the wish of an enemy to take
a town that he maj preserve it, and to be victorious that
he may forgive ; but *he mercy comes after the cruelty ; be-
side that it is an injury both to God and man ; for the man
must be first afflicted by Heaven to be relieved by me. 