Nature’s rule is that a man should first become a debtor, and then should return gratitude; there cannot be a debtor without a creditor any more than there can be a husband without a wife, — or a father without a son; someone must give in order that someone may receive. To transfer something from the left hand to the right hand is neither to give nor to receive. Just as no one carries himself although he moves and transports his body, as no one, although he has spoken in his own defense, is said to have appeared as his own advocate, or erects a statue to himself as his own patron, as no sick man, when he has regained health by treating himself, demands from himself a fee, so in transactions of every sort — even though he may have done something that has been to his advantage, yet he will be under no obligation to return gratitude to himself because he will not find any person to whom he can return it. Though I grant that a man may bestow a benefit on himself, yet at the same time that he gives it, he also receives a return; though I grant that a man may receive a benefit from himself, yet at the same time that he receives it, he returns it. “You borrow,” as they say, “from your own pocket,” and, just as if it were a game, the item immediately shifts to the other side7; for the giver and the receiver are not to be differentiated, but are one and the same person. The word “owe” has no place unless two persons are involved; how, then, will it apply to one person, who, in the act of incurring a debt, frees himself from it? In a disk or a sphere there is no bottom, no top, no end, no beginning, because as the object is moved, the relations change, and the part that was behind now precedes, and the part that was going down now comes up, yet all, in whatever direction they may move, come back to the same position. Imagine that the same principle applies in the case of a man; though you may transform him into many different characters, he remains a simple human being. He strikes himself — there is no one whom he may charge with doing him an injury. He binds himself and locks himself up — he is not held for damages. He bestows a benefit on himself — he has forthwith made return to the giver.
In the realm of Nature, it is said, there is never any loss, for whatever is taken out of it, returns to it, and nothing is able to perish, because there is no place into which it can escape, but everything returns to whence it came. “What is the bearing,” you ask, “of this illustration on the question that is before us?” I will tell you. Suppose that you are ungrateful — the benefit is not lost, for the one who bestowed it still has it. Suppose that you are unwilling to receive a return — it is already in your possession before it is returned. You are not able to lose anything, because what is withdrawn from you is nonetheless acquired by you. The operation proceeds in a circle within yourself — in receiving you give, in giving you receive.