A benefit is the contribution of something useful but “contribution” implies the existence of others. If a man says that he has sold something to himself, will he not be thought mad? For selling means alienation, the transferring of one’s property and one’s right in it to another. Yet, just as is the case in selling, giving implies the relinquishment of something, the surrendering of something that you have held to the possession of another. And if this is so, no one has ever bestowed a benefit upon himself because no one can “give” to himself; otherwise two opposites are combined in one act, so that giving and receiving are the same thing. Yet there is a great difference between giving and receiving; why should there not be, since these words are applied to exactly opposite actions? Yet, if anyone can give a benefit to himself, there is no difference between giving and receiving. I said a little while ago that certain words imply the existence of other persons, and are of such fashion that their whole meaning is directed away from ourselves. I am a brother, but of another, for no one can be his own brother; I am an equal, but of someone else, for can any man be the equal of himself? Unless there are two objects, comparison is unintelligible; unless there are two objects, there can be no coupling; so also, unless there are two persons, there can be no giving, and, unless there are two persons, there can be no benefaction. This is clear from the very expression, “to do good to,” by which the act is defined; but no one any more does good to himself than he befriends himself, or belongs to his own party. I might pursue this theme further, and multiply examples. Of course, since benefaction must be included among those acts that require a second person. Certain actions, though honorable, admirable, and highly virtuous, find a field only in the person of another. Fidelity is praised, and honored as one of the greatest blessings of the human race, yet is it ever said that anyone for that reason has kept his promise to himself?