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I Shall not give either to you or any man else, the names of any of those persons to whom I have been a Bene∣factor: nor shall your Scornful rejecting my Presents, force me upon the Vanity of urging against you the many examples of those who have not Disdained to ac∣cept
of a Benevolence from my hands. That would be at the same time a Boasting of my self, and an Upbraiding of them. For, for a man either to Report his Good Deeds himself, or to delight in hearing others do it for him, I take to be neither better nor worse, than a Re∣proaching the Receivers.a 1.1 What no∣tion you may have of the matter,b 1.2 I know not: of this I am sure, other men think not the worse of any thing that's worth the Taking for its having once belonged to Pha∣laris. How much I have lost by the fraud and violence of those, who made no scruple of laying hold on whatever they could meet with of mine, I leave it to you to imagin. There are but too many (and those great pretenders to Justice) who look upon whatever they can Steal from me as Lawful Prize; and therefore having once seized it, no∣thing but the Power of the Sword can oblige them to Restore: Others have despoiled the very Gods themselves of the Gifts which came from Me, and ta∣ken into their own Hands the most Sa∣cred and Inviolable things in the world. For certainly had they looked upon 'em as Abominable and Accursed, they would not have ran such hazards in
maintaing to themselves by Force of Arms the possession of that, the admitting of which to come near them they ought by Force of Arms to have Resisted. What No∣tion therefore have you of my Gifts, or for what Reason do you refuse them? for c 1.3 all the excuses you have hitherto made what hath already been said (and much more might have been added) is sufficient to silence. That there is no∣thing of Impurity in the things themselves even my Enemies declare, Unless to them who seized them by force, adding Rapine to Sacriledge, they are Pure; Impure to you, to whom the voluntary Gift of your Friend, the Owner of them, gives a just Title to them.
If I have taken the sense of the following Para∣graphs right, this Clause will seem no unnecessary Ad∣dition, the Connexion seeming to run lame with∣out it.
Sc. The Messaniaus. V. Ep. 84.
We must suppose the Gifts sent to Polystratus to have been some of the Things designed for the Tem∣ple of Messana. Ep. 84.