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able, those among whom they happen are bound together in close association.

But when you view every thing with reason and reflection, of all connections none is more weighty, none is more dear, than that between every individual and his country. Our parents are dear to us; our children, our kinsmen, our friends, are dear to us; but our country comprehends alone all the endearments of us all. For which what good man would hesitate to die if he could do her service? The more execrably unnatural, therefore, are they who wound their country by every species of guilt, and who are now, and have been, employed in her utter destruction. But where a computation or comparison set up, of those objects to which our chief duty should be paid, the principal are our country and our parents, by whose services we are laid under the s rongest obligations; the next are our children and entire family, who depend upon us alone, without having any other refuge; the next our agreeable kinsmen, who generally share our fortune in common. The necessary supports of life, therefore, are due chiefly to those I have already mentioned; but the mutual intercourses of life, counsels, discourses, exhortations, consultations, and even sometimes reproofs, flourish chiefly in friendships, and those friendships are the most agreeable that are cemented by a similarity of manners.

XVIII. But in performing all these duties we are carefully to consider what is most necessary to each, and what every one of them could or could not attain even without us. Thus the relative claims of relationship and of circumstances will not always be identical. Some duties are owing to some more than to others. For instance, you are sooner to help your neighbor to house his corn, than your brother or your friend; but if a cause be on trial, you are to take part with your kinsman, or your friend, rather than with your neighbor. These considerations, therefore, and the like, ought to be carefully observed in every duty; and custom and practice should be attained, that we may be able to be correct assessors of our duties, and, by adding or subtracting, to strike the balance, by which we may see the proportion to which every party is entitled.

But as neither physicians, nor generals, nor orators, however perfect they may be in the theory of their art, can ever perform any thing that is highly praiseworthy, without experience and practice, so rules have indeed been laid down for the

observation of duties, as I myself am doing; but the importance of the matter demands experience and practice. I have now, I think, sufficiently treated of the manner in which the honestum, which gives the fitness to our duties, arises from those matters that come within the rights of human society.

It must be understood, however, at the same time, that when the four springs from which virtue and honesty arise are laid open, that which is done with a lofty spirit, and one which scorns ordinary interests, appears the most noble. Therefore the most natural of all reproaches is somewhat of the following kind :—

Young men, ye carry but the souls of women;
That woman of a man.

Or somewhat of the following kind :—

Salmacis, give me spoils without toil or danger.

On the other hand, in our praises, I know not how it is, but actions performed with magnanimity, with fortitude, and virtue, we eulogize in a loftier style. From hence Marathon, Salamis, Platæa, Thermopyla, Leuctra, have become the field of rhetoricians; and among ourselves, Cocles, the Decii, the two Scipios, Cneius and Publius, Marcus Marcellus, and a great many others. Indeed, the Roman people in general are distinguished above all by elevation of spirit; and their fondness for military glory is shown by the fact that we generally see their statues dressed in warlike habits.

XIX. But that magnanimity which is discovered in toils and dangers, if it be devoid of justice, and contend not for the public good, but for selfish interest, is blamable; for, so far from being a mark of virtue, it is rather that of a barbarity which is repulsive to all humanity. By the Stoics, therefore, fortitude is rightly defined, when they call it "valor fighting on the side of justice." No man, therefore, who has acquired the reputation of fortitude, attained his glory by deceit and malice; for nothing that is devoid of justice can be a virtue.

It is, therefore, finely said by Plato, that not only the knowledge that is apart from justice deserves the appellation of cunning rather than wisdom, but also a mind that is ready to encounter danger, if it is animated by private interest, and

not public utility, deserves the character of audaciousness rather than of fortitude. We, therefore, require that all men of courage and magnanimity should be at the same time men of virtue and of simplicity, lovers of truth, and by no means deceitful; for these qualities are the main glory of justice.

But there is one painful consideration, that obstinacy, and an undue ambition for power, naturally spring up from this elevation and greatness of spirit; for, as Plato tells us, the entire character of the Lacedæmonians was inflamed with the desire of conquest. Thus the man who is most distinguished by his magnanimity, is most desirous of being the leading, or rather the only potentate of all. Now, it is a difficult matter, when you desire to be superior to all others, to preserve that equability which is the characteristic of justice. Hence it is that such men will not suffer themselves to be thwarted in a debate, nor by any public and lawful authority; and in public matters they are commonly guilty of corruption and faction, in order to grasp at as great power as possible; and they choose to be superior by means of force, rather than equals by justice. But the more difficult the matter is, it is the more glorious; for there is no conjuncture which ought to be unconnected with justice.

They, therefore, who oppose, not they who commit, injustice are to be deemed brave and magnanimous. Now, genuine and well-considered magnanimity judges that the honestum, which is nature's chief aim, consists in realities and not in mere glory, and rather chooses to be than to seem pre-eminent: for the man who is swayed by the prejudices of an ignorant rabble is not to be reckoned among the great; but the man of a spirit the most elevated, through the desire of glory, is the most easily impelled into acts of injustice. This is, indeed, a slippery situation; for scarcely can there be found a man who, after enduring trials and encountering dangers, does not pant for popularity as the reward of his exploits.'

1 "It must be strongly impressed upon our minds," says Dr. Johnson, "that virtue is not to be pursued as one of the means to fame, but famo to be accepted as the only recompense which mortals can bestow on virtue to be accepted with complacency, but not sought with eager ness. The true satisfaction which is to be drawn from the consciousness

XX. A spirit altogether brave and elevated is chiefly discernible by two characters. The first consists in a low estimate of mere outward circumstances, since it is convinced that a man ought to admire, desire, or court nothing but what is virtuous and becoming; and that he ought to succumb to no man, nor to any perturbation either of spirit or fortune.' The other thing is, that possessed of such a spirit as I have just mentioned, you should perform actions which are great and of the greatest utility, but extremely arduous, full of difficulties and danger both to life and the many things which pertain to life.

In the latter of those two characters consist all the glory, the majesty, and, I add, the utility; but the causes and the efficient means that form great men is in the former, which contains the principles that elevate the soul, and gives it a contempt for temporary considerations. Now, this very excellence consists in two particulars: you are to deem that only to be good that is virtuous; and that you be free from all mental irregularity. For we are to look upon it as the character of a noble and an elevated soul, to slight all those considerations that the generality of mankind account great and glorious, and to despise them, upon firm and durable principles; while strength of mind, and greatness of resolution, are discerned in bearing those calamities which, in the course of man's life, are many and various, so as not to be driven from your natural disposition, nor from the dignity of a wise man: for it is not consistent that he who is not subdued by fear should be subjugated by passion; nor that he who has shown himself invincible by toil, should be conquered by pleasure." Wherefore, we ought to watch and avoid the love of money: that we shall share the attention of future times, must arise from the hope that with our name our virtues will be propagated, and that those whom we can not benefit in our lives may receive instruction from our examples, and incitement from our renown."—Rambler.

"It is the business of moralists to detect the frauds of fortune, and to show that she imposes upon the careless eye by a quick succession of shadows, which will sink to nothing in the gripe; that she disguises life in extrinsic ornaments, which serve only for show, and are laid aside in the hours of solitude and of pleasure; and that when greatness aspires either to felicity or to wisdom, it shakes off those distinctions which dazzle tho gazer and awe the suppliant."-Dr. Johnson.

2 "Be not a Hercules furens abroad, and a poltroon within thyself. To chase our enemies out of the field, and bo led captive by our vices;

for nothing so truly characterizes a narrow, groveling disposition as to love riches;' and nothing is more noble and more exalted than to despise riches if you have them not, and if you have them, to employ them in beneficence and liberality."

An inordinate passion for glory, as I have already observed, is likewise to be guarded against; for it deprives us of liberty, the only prize for which men of elevated sentiments ought to contend. Power is so far from being desirable in itself, that it sometimes ought to be refused, and sometimes to be resigned. We should likewise be free from all disorders of the mind, from all violent passion and fear, as well as languor, voluptuousness, and anger, that we may possess that tranquillity and security which confer alike consistency and dignity. Now, many there are, and have been, who, courting that tranquillity which I have mentioned here, have withdrawn themselves from public affairs and taken refuge in retirement. Among these, some of the noblest and most leading of our philosophers; and some persons, of strict and grave dispositions, were unable to bear with the manners either of the people or their rulers; and some have lived in the country, amusing themselves with the management of their private affairs. Their aim was the same as that of the powerful, that they might enjoy their liberty, without wanting any thing or obeying any person; for the essence of liberty is to live just as you please.

to beat down our foes, and fall down to our concupiscences, are solecisms in moral schools, and no laurel attends them."-Sir Thomas Browne's "Christian Morals."

1 "To me avarice seems not so much a vice as a deplorable piece of madness. To conceive ourselves urinals, or be persuaded that we are dead, is not so ridiculous, nor so many degrees beyond the power of hellebore, as this. The opinions of theory, and positions of men, are not so void of reason as their practiced conclusions. Some have held that snow is black, that the earth moves, that the soul is air, fire, water; but all this is philosophy, and there is no delirium if we do but speculate the folly and indisputable dotage of avarice to that subterraneous idol and god of the earth."-Sir Thomas Browne's "Religio Medici."

2 "A reader, of very ordinary erudition," says Guthrie, "may easily perceive how greatly the best historians and poets among the Romans were indebted to this and the foregoing chapter, which have served as a commonplace for their finest sentiments."

3 Such are Pythagoras, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato. Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, etc.

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