Meaning & Analysis
Any favor or act of kindness shown to a young child or an elderly man is wasted because the child will forget it and the old man will likely die before having an opportunity to repay it.
Insights
The Futility of Unreciprocated Investment
The proverb serves as a cynical metaphor for transactional relationships, suggesting that any action or investment is 'lost' if it does not yield a tangible or social return. It frames social interaction purely in terms of utility and reciprocity.
Generational Disconnect
It symbolizes the perceived futility of investing in endeavors with no future. The 'child' and 'old man' represent any person, project, or cause that is inherently incapable of producing a future benefit or carrying a legacy forward.
Critique of Conditional Kindness
The proverb critiques a form of kindness that is motivated by the expectation of a reward. It implicitly reveals that such 'kindness' is not a genuine virtue but a self-serving strategy, which is defeated by the realities of memory and mortality.
Transactional Worldview
This proverb reflects a harsh, utilitarian worldview where kindness is valued only for its potential for reciprocation. It devalues those at the beginning and end of life, viewing them as poor investments rather than individuals deserving of care, a sentiment starkly at odds with modern ethics but understandable in historical contexts of scarce resources.
Psychology of Reciprocity
The proverb exposes a psychological fear of futility and being forgotten. The 'loss' is not merely material but existential; the act of giving is rendered meaningless if it cannot be reciprocated or remembered, tying the value of kindness to the giver's need for social validation and legacy.
Classical and Humanist Context
Cited by Erasmus, the proverb's classical origins highlight a long-standing philosophical tension between conditional and unconditional kindness. Its persistence in later centuries illustrates a pragmatic, and perhaps cynical, thread in Western thought regarding social obligations.
Rhetorical Devices
Parallelism and Juxtaposition
The proverb uses parallelism by juxtaposing 'an old man' and 'a young child'—the two extremes of the human lifespan—to create a comprehensive and damning judgment on unreciprocated kindness.
Hyperbole
The absolute term 'lost' is a form of hyperbole, framing the act in purely economic terms and erasing any intrinsic moral or emotional value, thereby maximizing the proverb's cynical impact.
Didactic Tone
The statement is delivered as a stark, universal maxim, leaving no room for nuance. This aphoristic quality makes the cynical wisdom feel authoritative and memorable.
Transcription
Quotations
In senem ne quod collocaris beneficium.
All is lost that thou dost gyue to fynde Four sortis of people .. The seconde a childe, for his for-getfull mynde Expellyth kyndynes, the thirde a man in age.
Bot as the prou-erbe speikis, it plaine appeiris, Auld men will die and barnes will sone forget.
Pleasures and fa-vours are not to bee done either to a childe or to an olde man.
Three sortes of benefites perish. Such as are bestowed vpon old men. They die before they haue tyme to requite them. Such as are giuen to children. They for-get them before they be able to requite them. Such as are cast away vppon other mens dogs.
It is all tint [lost] quhilk is done to child and auld man.
Our beneficence should not be fixed vpon a Child; or an Old man: for the Child, before he comes to age, will forget it, and the Old man will die before he can requite it.
(that's bestowed on children and old folkes).
(Its lost).
What to old men thou give, thou wilt never regain.
Good turns are not to be done to children, or old men.
It's tint that is done to old men and bairns.
[As in 1668 R.B.].
Cross References
Annotations
- Note 31, p. 32: The one minds them not, the other forgets them.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.