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14. Next in order, as outlined above, let us
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speak of kindness and generosity. Nothing appeals
more to the best in human nature than this, but it
calls for the exercise of caution in many particulars:
we must, in the first place, see to it that our act of
kindness shall not prove an injury either to the
object of our beneficence or to others; in the second
place, that it shall not be beyond our means; and
finally, that it shall be proportioned to the worthiness
of the recipient; for this is the corner-stone of
justice; and by the standard of justice all acts of
kindness must be measured. For those who confer
a harmful favour upon someone whom they seemingly wish to help are to be accounted not generous
benefactors but dangerous sycophants; and likewise
those who injure one man, in order to be generous
to another, are guilty of the same injustice as if
they diverted to their own accounts the property of
their neighbours.