been adopted for the sake of the party reproved. Now, it is advisable, even in those disputes which take place with our bitterest enemies, if we hear any that is insulting to ourselves to maintain our equanimity, and repress passion; for whatever is done under such excitement can never be either consistently performed, or approved of by those who are present.1 It is likewise indecent for a man to be loud in his own praise (and the more so if it be false), and so to imitate the swaggering soldier (in the play) amidst the derision of the auditors.

XXXIX. Now, as I touch, at least wish to touch, upor every matter of duty, I shall likewise treat of the kind of house which I think suited to a man of high rank and office; the end of this being utility, to it the design of the building must be adapted, but still regard must be paid to magnificence and elegance. We learn that it was to the honor of Cneius Octavius, the first of that family who was raised to the consulship, that he built upon the Palatine, a house of a noble and majestic appearance, which, as it was visited as a spectacle by the common people, was supposed to have voted its proprietor, though but a new man, into the consulship. Scaurus demolished this house, and took the ground into his own palace. But though the one first brought a consulship into his family, yet the other, though the son of a man of the greatest rank and distinction, carried into this, his enlarged palace, not only repulse but disgrace, nay ruin.

1 "The command of anger appears, upon many occasions, not less generous and noble than that of fear. The proper expression of just indignation composes many of the most splendid and admired passages both of ancient and modern eloquence. The Philippics of Demosthenes, the Catilinarians of Cicero derive their whole beauty from the noble propriety with which this passion is expressed. But this just indignation is nothing but anger restrained and properly attempered to what the impartial spectator can enter into. The blustering and noisy passion which goes beyond this is always odious and offensive, and interests us, not for the angry man but the man with whom he is angry. The noble. ness of pardoning appears, upon many occasions, superior even to the most perfect propriety of resenting, when either proper acknowledgments have been made by the offending party, or, even without any such acknowledgments, when the public interest requires that the most mortal enemies should unite for the discharge of some important duty. The man who can cast away all animosity, and act with confidence and cordiality toward the person who had most grievously offended him, seems justly to merit our highest admiration."-Smith's "Moral Sentiments," part vi. section iii

For dignity should be adorned by a palace, but not be wholly sought from it-the house ought to be ennobled by the master, and not the master by the house. And, as in other matters a man should have regard to others and not to his own concerns alone, so in the house of a man of rank, who is to entertain a great many guests and to admit a multitude of all denominations, attention should be paid to spaciousness; but a great house often reflects discredit upon its master, if there is solitude in it, especially if, under a former proprietor, it has been accustomed to be well filled. It is a mortifying thing when passengers exclaim, "Ah! ancient dwelling! by how degenerate a master art thou occupied !" which may well be said at the present time of a great many houses.

But you are to take care, especially if you build for yourself, not to go beyond bounds in grandeur and costliness. Even the example of an excess of this kind does much mischief. For most people, particularly in this respect, studiously imitate the example of their leaders. For instance, who imitates the virtue of the excellent Lucius Lucullus? But how many there are who have imitated the magnificence of his villas. To which certainly a bound ought to be set, and it reduced to moderation, and the same spirit of moderation ought to be extended to all the practice and economy of life. But of this enough.

Now in undertaking every action we are to regard three things. First, that appetite be subservient to reason, than which there is no condition better fitted for preserving the moral duties. We are, secondly, to examine how important the object in which we desire to accomplish, that our attention or labor may be neither more nor less than the occasion requires. Thirdly, we are to take care that every thing that comes under the head of magnificence and dignity should be well regulated. Now, the best regulation is, to observe that some graceful propriety which I have recommended, and to go no further. But of those three heads, the most excellent is, that of making our appetites subservient to our reason.

XL. I am now to speak concerning the order and the timing of things. In this science is comprehended what the Greek call evražia, not that which we Romans call moderation, an expression that implies keeping within bounds; whereas that is Eurasia, in which the preservation of order is

involved. This duty, which we will denominate moderation, is defined by the Stoics as those things which are either said or done in their appropriate places of ranging. Therefore, the signification of order and of arrangement seems to be the same. For they define order to be the disposing of things into fitting and convenient places. Now they tell us that the appropriate place of an action is the opportunity of doing it. The proper opportunity for action being called by the Greeks exagla, and by the Latins, occasio, or occasion. Thus, as I have already observed, that modestia which we have thus explained is the knowledge of acting according to the fitness of a conjuncture.

But prudence, of which we have treated in the beginning of this book, may admit of the same definition. Under this head, however, I speak of moderation and temperance, and the like virtues. Therefore, the considerations which belong to prudence have been treated in their proper place. But at present I am to treat of those virtues I have been so long speaking of, which relate to morality, and the approbation of those with whom we live.

nate.

Such then should be the regularity of all our actions, that in the economy of life, as in a connected discourse, all things may agree and correspond. For it would be unbecoming and highly blamable, should we, when upon a serious subject, introduce the language of the jovial or the effemiWhen Pericles had for his colleague in the prætorship Sophocles the poet, and as they were discoursing upon their joint official duty, a beautiful boy by chance passed by, Sophocles exclaimed, "What a charming boy, Pericles!" but Pericles very properly told him, "A magistrate ought to keep not only his hands, but his eyes under restraint." Now Sophocles, had he said the same thing at a trial of athletic performers would not have been liable to this just reprimand, such importance there is in the time and place. So, too, a man, who is going to plead a cause, if on a journey or in a walk he should muse or appear to himself more thoughtful than ordinary, he is not blamed: but should he do this at an entertainment, he would seem ill-bred for not distingnishing times.

But those actions that are in wide discrepancy with goodbreeding, such, for instance, as singing in the forum, or

any such absurdity, are so easily discernible, that they require no great degree of reprehension or advice. But faults that seem to be inconsiderable, and such as are discernible only by a few, are to be more carefully avoided. As in lutes or pipes, however little they be out of tune, it is perceived by a practiced ear; so in life we are to guard against all discrepancy, and the rather as the harmony of morals is greater and much more valuable than that of sounds.

XLI. Thus, as the ear is sensible to the smallest discord in musical instruments, so we, if we desire to be accurate and attentive observers of faults, may make great discoveries from very trifling circumstances. The cast of the eye, the bending or unbending of the brow, an air of dejection or cheerfulness, laughter, the tone of words, silence, the raising or falling of the voice, and the like circumstances, we may easily form a judgment which of them are in their proper state, and which of them are in discord with duty and nature. Now in this case, it is advisable to judge from others, of the condition and properties of every one of those, so that we ourselves may avoid those things that are unbecoming in others. For it happens, I know not how, that we perceive what is defective more readily in others than we do in ourselves. Therefore, when masters mimic the faults of boys that they may amend them, those boys are most casily corrected.

Neither is it improper, in order to fix our choice in matters which involve a doubt, if we apply to men of learning and also of experience, and learn what they think of the several kinds of duty; for the greatest part of such men are usually led to that conclusion to which nature herself directs; and in these cases, we are to examine not only what a man says. but what he thinks, and upon what ground he thinks it. For as painters, statuaries, and even poets, want to have their works canvassed by the public in order to correct any thing that is generally condemned, and examine both by themselves and with others where the defect lies; thus we ought to make use of the judgment of others to do, and not to do, to alter and correct, a great many things.

:

As to actions resulting from the customs or civil institutions of a people, no precepts can be laid down; for those very institutions are precepts in themselves. Nor ought men

to be under the mistake to imagine that if Socrates cr Aristippus acted or spoke in opposition to the manners and civil constitutions of their country, they themselves have a similar license. For this was a right they acquired by their

1 There are two things in this passage which must excite surprise; the first, that Cicero should regard those actions as immoral in the generality of society which he justifies in the case of two individuals on tho sole ground of their intellectual pre-eminence. For this must be the sole ground of the distinction; inasmuch as, if a moral superiority be admitted as a justifying consideration in the case of Socrates, it can scarcely be denied to any other individual who might be led to the adoption of a similar course. The second is, that the customs and institutions of a country should be invested by Cicero with the powers of moral obligation; nor, considering the general tenor of Cicero's ethics, is this the less surprising, from the fact that in modern times the same principle was carried by Hobbes to a far greater extent. "According to him," says Sir James Mackintosh, "the perfect state of a community is where law prescribes the religion and morality of the people, and where the will of an absolute sovereign is the sole fountain of law." The insufficiency both of the law of the land, and of that conventional influenco which in modern times has been designated the law of honor as a code of morality is admirably shown by Paley in the following passage:

"The Law of Honor is a system of rules constructed by people of fashion, and calculated to facilitate their intercourse with one another; and for no other purpose. Consequently, nothing is adverted to by the law of honor, but what tends to incommode this intercourse. Hence this law only prescribes and regulates the duties betwixt equals; omitting such as relate to the Supreme Being, as well as those which we owe to our inferiors. For which reason, profaneness, neglect of public worship or private devotion, cruelty to servants, rigorous treatment of tenants or other dependents, want of charity to the poor, injuries done to tradesmen by insolvency or delay of payment, with numberless examples of the same kind, are accounted no breaches of honor; because a man is not a less agreeable companion for these vices, nor the worse to deal with in those concerns which are usually transacted between one gentleman and another. Again, the law of honor, being constituted by men occupied in the pursuit of pleasure, and for the mutual conveniency of such men, will be found, as might be expected from the character and design of the law-makers, to be, in most instances, favorable to the licentious indulgence of the natural passions. Thus, it allows of fornication, adultery, drunkenness, prodigality, duelling, and of revenge in the extreme; and lays no stress upon the virtues opposite to these.

"That part of mankind, who are beneath the law of honor, often make the Law of the Land their rules of life; that is, they are satisfied with themselves, so long as they do or omit nothing, for the doing or omitting of which the law can punish them. Whereas every system of human laws, considered as a rule of life, labors under the two following defects:-1. Human laws omit many duties, as not objects of compulsion;