may be called the importunities of its gra|titude. But to preserve and to increase his esteem, is an interest which the greatest mind does not think unworthy of its at|tention. And this is the foundation of what I formerly observed, that when we cannot enter into the motives of our bene|factor, when his conduct and character appear unworthy of our approbation, let his services have been ever so great, our gratitude is always sensibly diminished. We are less flattered by the distinction; and to preserve the esteem of so weak, or so worthless a patron, seems to be an ob|ject which does not deserve to be pursued for its own sake.
The object, on the contrary, which re|sentment is chiefly intent upon, is not so much to make our enemy feel pain in his turn, as to make him conscious that he feels it upon account of his past conduct, to make him repent of that conduct, and to make him sensible, that the person whom he injured did not deserve to be treated in that manner. What chiefly enrages us against the man who injures or insults us, is the little account which he seems to make of us, the unreasonable preference which
