a community and neglect another, introduce into the state the greatest of all evils, sedition and discord. From this partiality some seem to court the people, some each great man, but few the whole. Hence the great discords amongst the Athenians, and in our government not only seditions but the most destructive wars, which every worthy and brave citizen who deserves to rise in the state will avoid and detest: he will give himself entirely up to the service of his country, without regard to riches or to power, and he will watch over the whole so as to consult the good of all. He will even be far from bringing any man into hatred or disgrace, by ill-grounded charges, and he will so closely attach himself to the rules of justice and virtue, that however he may give offence he will preserve them, and incur death itself rather than swerve from the principles I have laid down.

Of all evils, ambition and the disputes, for public posts are the most deplorable. Plato, likewise, on this subject, says very admirably, "that they who dispute for the management of a state resemble mariners wrangling about who should direct the helm." He then lays down as a rule that we ought to look upon those as our enemies who take arms against the public, and not those who want to have public affairs directed by their judgment. For instance, Publius Africanus and Quintus Metellus differed in opinion, but without animosity.

Nor, indeed, are those to be listened to who consider that we ought to cherish a bitter resentment against our enemies, and that this is characteristic of a high-minded and brave man; for nothing is more noble, nothing more worthy of a great and a good man, than placability and moderation.*

best, either choose him or reject him, retain him or depose him, though no tyrant, merely by the liberty and right of free-born men to be governed as seems to them best. This, though it cannot but stand with plain reason, shall be made good also by scripture: When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations about me.'-Deut. xvii. 14. These words confirm us that the right of choosing, yea of changing their own government, is by the grant of God himself in the people."—Ibid.

*It is impossible not to remark how far the popular standard of duty, and the modern laws of honour, fall below this high and almost Christian morality of Cicero.

Nay, amidst free nations and equality of rights, an equability and loftiness of temper is necessary, to prevent our falling into an idle, disagreeable peevishness, when we are irritated by persons approaching us unseasonably, or preferring to us unreasonable requests. Yet this politeness and moderation ought to be so tempered, that for the sake of the interests of the state severity should be employed, otherwise public business could not be carried on. Meanwhile, all reprimands and punishments ought to be inflicted without abuse, without regard to the party so punishing or reprimanding, but to the good of the state.

We ought, likewise, to take care that the punishment be proportioned to the offence,* and that some be not punished for doing things for which others are not so much as called to account. Above all things, in punishing we ought to guard against passion; for the man who is to pronounce a sentence of punishment in a passion, never can preserve that mean between what is too much and too little, which is so justly recommended by the Peripatetics, did they not too much commend the passion of anger, by asserting it to be a useful property of our nature. For my part, I think that it ought to be checked under all circumstances ;† and it were to be wished that they who preside in government were like

"A slight perusal of the laws by which the measures of vindictive and coercive justice are established, will discover so many disproportions between crimes and punishments, such capricious distinctions of guilt, and such confusion of remissness and severity, as can scarcely be believed to have been produced by public wisdom, sincerely and calmly studious of public happiness."-Dr. Johnson.

"Be ye angry, and sin not;" therefore, all anger is not sinful; I suppose because some degree of it, and upon some occasions, is inevitable. It becomes sinful, or contradicts, however, the rule of scripture, when it is conceived upon slight and inadequate provocation, and when it continues long."-Paley's "Moral and Political Philosophy," book 3, chap. 7.

"From anger in its full import, protracted into malevolence, and exerted in revenge, arise, indeed, many of the evils to which the life of man is exposed. By anger operating upon power are produced the subversion of cities, the desolation of countries, the massacre of nations, and all those dreadful and astonishing calamities which fill the histories of the world, and which could not be read at any distant point of time, when the passions stand neutral, and every motive and principle are left to its natural force, without some doubt of the truth of the relation, did we not see the same causes still tending to the same effects, and only acting with less vigour for want of the same concurrent opportunities."-Dr. Johnson.

the laws, which in punishing are not directed by resentments but by equity.

XXVI. Now, during our prosperity, and while things flow agreeably to our desire, we ought with great care to avoid pride and arrogance; for, as it discovers weakness not to bear adversity with equanimity, so also with prosperity. That equanimity in every condition of life is a noble attribute, and that uniform expression of countenance and appearance which we find recorded of Socrates, and also of Caius Lælius. Though Philip of Macedon was excelled by his son in his achievements and his renown, yet I find him superior to him in politeness and goodness of nature; the one, therefore, always appeared great, while the other often became detestable. So that they appear to teach rightly, who admonish us that the more advanced we are in our fortune the more affable ought we to be in our behaviour. Panætius tells us his scholar and friend, Africanus, used to say, that as horses, grown unruly by being in frequent engagements, are delivered over to be tamed by horse-breakers, thus men, who grow riotous and self-sufficient by prosperity, ought, as were, to be exercised in the traverse of reason and philosophy, that they may learn the inconstancy of human affairs and the uncertainty of fortune.

it

In the time of our greatest prosperity we should also have the greatest recourse to the advice of our friends, and greater authority should be conceded to them than before. At such

a time we are to take care not to lend our ears to flatterers, or to suffer ourselves to be imposed upon by adulation, by which it is easy to be misled: for we then think ourselves such as may be justly praised, an opinion that gives rise to a thousand errors in conduct; because, when men are once blown up with idle conceits, they are exposed to ignominious ridicule and led into the greatest mistakes. So much for this subject.

One thing you are to understand, that they who regulate public affairs perform the greatest exploits, and such as require the highest style of mind, because their business is most extensive and concerns the greatest number. Yet there are, and have been, many men of great capacities, who in, private life have planned out or attempted mighty matters, and yet have confined themselves to the limits of their own

affairs; or, being thrown into a middle state, between philosophers and those who govern the state, have amused themselves with the management of their private fortune, without swelling it by all manner of means, not debarring their friends from the benefit of it, but rather, when occasion calls upon them, sharing it both with their friends and their country. This should be originally acquired with honesty, without any scandalous or oppressive practices; it should then be made serviceable to as many as possible, provided they be worthy; it should next be augmented by prudence, by industry, and frugality, without serving the purposes of pleasure and luxury rather than of generosity and humanity. The man who observes those rules may live with magnificence, with dignity, and with spirit, yet with simplicity and honour, and agreeably to (the economy of) human life.

XXVII. The next thing is, to treat of that remaining part of virtue in which consist chastity and those (as we may term them) ornaments of life, temperance, moderation, and all that allays the perturbations of the mind. Under this head is comprehended what in Latin we may call decorum (or the graceful), for the Greeks term it the TgTov. Now, its quality is such that it is indiscernible from the honestum; for whatever is graceful is virtuous, and whatever is virtuous is graceful.

But it is more easy to conceive than to express the difference between what is virtuous and what is graceful (or between the honestum and the decorum;) for whatever is graceful appears such, when virtue is its antecedent. What is graceful, therefore, appears not only in that division of virtue which is here treated of, but in the three foregoing ones; for it is graceful in a man to think and to speak with propriety, to act with deliberation, and in every occurrence of life to find out and persevere in the truth. On the other hand, to be imposed upon, to mistake, to faulter, and to be deceived, is as ungraceful as to rave or to be insane. Thus, whatever is just is graceful; whatever is unjust is as ungraceful as it is criminal. The same principle applies to courage; for every manly and magnanimous action is worthy of a man and graceful; the reverse, as being unworthy, is ungraceful.

This, therefore, which I call gracefulness, is a universal

property of virtue, and a property that is self-evident, and not discerned by any profundity of reasoning; for there is a certain gracefulness that is implied in every virtue, and which may exist distinctly from virtue, rather in thought than in fact: as grace and beauty of person, for example, cannot be separated from health, so the whole of that gracefulness which I here speak of is blended with virtue, but may exist separately in the mind and in idea.

Now, the definition of this is twofold: for there is a general gracefulness that is the property of all virtue, and that includes another, which is fitted to the particular divisions of virtue. The former is commonly defined to be that gracefulness that is conformable to that excellence of man, in which he differs from other sentient beings; but the special, which is comprised under the general, is defined to be a gracefulness so adapted to nature as to exhibit propriety and sweetness under a certain elegant appearance.

XXVIII. We may perceive that these things are so understood from that gracefulness which is aimed at by the poets, and of which elsewhere more is wont to be said; for we say that the poets observe that gracefulness to be when a person speaks and acts in that manner which is most becoming his character. Thus if Eacus or Minos should

say:

Or

Let them hate me, so they fear me ;

The father's belly is his children's grave,

it would seem unsuitable, because we know them to have been just persons; but when said by an Atreus, they are received with applause, because the speech is worthy of the character. Now, poets will form their judgment of what is becoming in each individual according to his character; but nature herself has stamped on us a character in excellence greatly surpassing the rest of the animal creation.

Poets, therefore, in their vast variety of characters, consider what is proper and what is becoming, even in the vicious: but as nature herself has cast to us our parts in constancy, moderation, temperance, and modesty; as she, at the same time, instructs us not to be unmindful how we should

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