The rhetoricians give rules for oratory; there are none for conversation. And the Therefore, that we may be able to discriminate without mistake, if at any time what we call expedient shall seem repugnant to what we conceive of as right, there must be established some general rule,2 which if we recognize in the comparison of things, we shall never be false to our duty. Moreover, the knowledge and contemplation of nature are Edition: current; Page: [98]somehow defective and imperfect, unless they lead to some result in action; and this appropriate action is best recognized in care for the well-being of mankind. Sequatur, which I have translated literally; for so far as I have been able to trace the festal habits of the ancients, from Homer’s heroes downward, they ate in silence, and talked afterward. The Stoics maintained that the truly wise man lived only in theory, but had had no actual being in this world. Pains must then be taken that, if the conversation begins to wander off to other subjects, it be recalled to these. Yet there have been found many who were ready to pour out not only their money, but even their blood for their country, who would not make the least sacrifice of reputation, even when the well-being of the state demanded it; as, for instance, Callicratidas, who, after having been at the head of the Lacedaemonian forces in the Peloponnesian war, and having repeatedly rendered excellent service, at last reversed everything by rejecting the advice of those who thought it best to remove the fleet from the Arginusae and not to fight with the Athenians. But the speech that is uttered with energy in a great assembly often awakens the enthusiasm Edition: current; Page: [135]of the entire audience; for great is the admiration bestowed on him who speaks fluently and wisely, and those who hear him think that he also has more intelligence and good sense than other men. A brave and great soul is, in fine, chiefly characterized by two things. Its duties are evolved from man’s own consciousness. Yet it may be said that when the gain is very great, there is justifying cause for wrong-doing. For a man to take anything wrongfully from another, and to increase his own means of comfort by his fellow-man’s discomfort, is more contrary to nature than death, than poverty, than pain, than anything else that can happen to one’s body or his external condition.1 In the first place, it destroys human intercourse and society; for if we are so disposed that every one for his own gain is ready to rob or outrage another, that fellowship of the human race which is in the closest accordance with nature must of necessity be broken in sunder. This contempt of the mind for outward fortunes thus excites great admiration; and most of all, justice, for which one virtue men are called good, seems to the multitude a quality of marvellous Edition: current; Page: [127]excellence, — and not without good reason; for no one can be just, who dreads death, pain, exile, or poverty, or who prefers their opposites to honesty. But when our mode of life is changed, we ought by all means to take heed that we present some show of sufficient reason. De emendandis Ciceronis libris de Officiis [AW] The Italian or Social War, b.c. Both interests ought certainly to be cared for, that of individuals no less than of the community at large, yet in such a way that what is done may be of benefit, or at all events, not of injury to the state. “He had no need to fear any harm from Jupiter’s anger; for Jupiter is not wont either to be angry or to do harm.” This argument is of no more force against Regulus than against any oath. Nor can the supreme good, which ought to be simple, be mingled and compounded of widely unlike ingredients. Ruhnken. We ought, indeed, to act in such a way as shall be in no respect repugnant to our common human nature; yet, holding this sacred, let us follow our individual nature, so that, if there are other pursuits in themselves more important and excellent, Edition: current; Page: [70]we yet may measure our own pursuits by the standard of our own nature. Tara 66 ---- vittorio.todisco@tin.it) LIBRO I I. PROEMIO 1. But the union of blood, especially, binds men in mutual kindness and affection; for it is a great thing to have the same statues of ancestors, the same rites of domestic worship, the same sepulchres. Of injustice there are two kinds, — one, that of those who inflict injury; the other, that of those who do not, if they can, repel injury from those on whom Edition: current; Page: [15]it is inflicted. Euripides makes a proper distinction when he says: —, “I swore in words; my mind I keep unsworn.”3. But order, and consistency, and moderation, and similar qualities have their scope in affairs that demand not merely the movement of the mind, but some outward action; for it is by bringing to the concerns of daily life a certain method and order that we shall maintain honor and propriety. I have now shown, with nearly sufficient fulness of detail, how the right, on which duty depends, is derived from the constituent elements of human society. This treatise, then, may be regarded as an exposition of the ethical system of the Stoics of Cicero’s time, yet with a special limitation, purpose, and adaptation. Yet Cicero leaves duty (officium) undefined. Then the home is the Edition: current; Page: [36]germ of the city, and, so to speak, the nursery of the state. This, then, being understood, I am to explain how we can elicit and call forth the good will of men for our own benefit. Nor, if perchance he can render some good office in return, does he magnify it, but rather underrates it in what he says about it. Their endeavor was to procure the entire cancelling of debts, and the re-distribution of the Spartan territory. To what purpose do I name these things? But suppose it to be of benefit to him, — he may, indeed, have more to spend; but how is he made any better? But at the same time the dereliction of the common good is opposed to nature, for it is unjust; and therefore the very law of nature, which preserves and maintains the good of man, undoubtedly prescribes that the necessaries of life should be transferred from an inefficient and useless man to a Edition: current; Page: [186]wise, good, brave man, whose death would make a large deduction from the common good, — provided he effect the transfer in such a way that his self-esteem and self-love may not furnish a pretext for wrong-doing. But though you, my Cicero, are becoming versed in the most ancient1 and noble of philosophies, under the guidance of Cratippus, who bears the closest resemblance to the illustrious founders of the school, I am unwilling that these speculations of mine, nearly allied to those of your school, should be unknown to you. Nor is it only with reference to landed estate that the civil law, derived from nature, punishes cunning and fraud; but in the sale of slaves also all fraud on the part of the seller is prohibited. What if a good man, to save himself from perishing with the cold, should rob of his clothes the cruel and savage tyrant Phalaris? They gathered strength This science, until the present unsettled times, the leading men of the state retained as one of their special prerogatives. But I have treated of friendship in another book, under the title of Laelius. Caius Canius, a Roman knight, a man not without wit and of respectable literary culture, having gone to Syracuse, for rest, as he used to say, not for business, wanted to buy a small estate, to which he could invite his friends, and where he could take his own pleasure without intruders. It is as if a Mohammedan, while recognizing the divine mission of the Arab prophet, were to write for his son a treatise on the ethics of the New Testament as better adapted than the moral system of the Koran for the training and confirming of a young man in the practice of virtue. ; Tusc. Latin, sed, ut dicitur, Marte nostro, literally, “But, as the saying is, by my own Mars,” i. e. fighting my own battle, depending on myself alone. Cicero claims that the absence of political rights corrupts moral virtues. Let us now return to the remaining head of my proposed division. Grandfather of the triumvir, — a contemporary of Crassus, and of nearly equal reputation as an orator. Let either party, if it comes to naming the price, say once for all what he will give or take. Clodius was undoubtedly the greater ruffian and the worse man of the two; but it is only by shutting out all testimony save that of Cicero’s magnificent defence of Milo, that we can regard him as a pre-eminently law-abiding and patriotic citizen. Yet of these three the most excellent is that impulse should be subservient to reason. Indeed, it is said that even among robbers there are laws which they obey, which they hold sacred. Driven from Athens, he took refuge in Alexandria; and it was owing to his influence that Ptolemy Lagi commenced the collection of books which grew into the famous Alexandrian library. One may, then, venture upon accusation once, or, at any rate, not often. Caius Julius Caesar, who commenced public life by the accusation of Titus Albucius of extortion as praetor in Sicily, and procured his condemnation. A single supper is said to have cost him a sum equivalent in silver to about ten thousand dollars, in value to at least five times as much. If it follows from Dono, ducite, doque volentibus cum magnis dis. Moreover, in my opinion, every mode and plan of life demands the aid of men, and craves especially those with whom there may be friendly conversational intercourse, which is not easy, unless you are looked upon as a good man. Complete conformity, or perfect virtue, is, according to this school, attainable only by the truly wise; and its earlier disciples, while by no means certain that this ideal perfectness had ever been realized in human form even by Zeno, the great master, yet admitted no moral distinction between those who fell but little short of perfection and those who had made no progress toward it.
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