Kitap 2
7.3
By needs I mean longings, especially for things the failure to obtain which is accompanied by pain; such are the desires, for instance, love; also those which arise in bodily sufferings and dangers, for when a man is in pain or danger he desires something. That is why those who help a man who is poor or an exile, even if the service be ever so small, are regarded with favor owing to the urgency and occasion of the need; for instance, the man who gave the matProbably given to a beggar or vagrant who had nothing to sleep on. to another in the Lyceum.
7.4
It is necessary then, if possible, that the service should be in the same directionThat is, should have in view the satisfaction of urgent wants and desires (Cope).; if not, that it should apply to cases of similar or greater need.
7.4
Since then it is evident on what occasions,Reading ὅτε; others read οἷς, by whom. for what reasons, and in what frame of mind a feeling of benevolence arises, it is clear that we must derive our arguments from this—to show that the one side either has been, or still is, in such pain or need, and that the other has rendered, or is rendering, such a service in such a time of need.
7.5
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 benevolenceἀχαρίστους: the word generally means ungrateful, and so Jebb takes it here: and to make men ungrateful.; 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.
