man to be moderate, or for a moderate man to be rich. As he who is in health would not choose to be served (ministered to) by the sick, nor for those who dwell with him to be sick, so neither would a free man endure to be served by slaves, or for those who live with him to be slaves. If you wish your house to be well managed, imitate the Spartan Lycurgus. For as he did not fence his city with walls, but fortified the inhabitants by virtue and preserved the city always free; so do you not cast around (your house) a large court and raise high towers, but strengthen the dwellers by good will and fidelity and friendship, and then nothing harmful will enter it, not even if the whole band of wickedness shall array itself against it. If you propose to adorn your city by the dedication of offerings (monuments), first dedicate to yourself (decorate yourself with) the noblest offering of gentleness, and justice, and beneficence. You will do the greatest services to the state, if you shall raise not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses. Do not decorate the walls of your house with the valuable stones from Euboea and Sparta; but adorn the minds (breasts) of the citizens and of those who administer the state with the instruction which comes from Hellas (Greece). For states are well governed by the wisdom (judgment) of men, but not by stone and wood. As, if you wished to breed lions, you would not care about the costliness of their dens, but about the habits of the animals; so, if you attempt to preside over your citizens, be not so anxious about the costliness of the buildings as careful about the manly character of those who dwell in them. Every place is safe to him who lives with justice. Law intends indeed to do service to human life, but it is not able when men do not choose to accept her services; for it is only in those who are obedient to her that she displays her special virtue. As to the sick, physicians are as saviours, so to those also who are wronged are the laws. The justest laws are those which are the truest. CXXIII. I am a man, and nothing that concerns human beings is indifferent to me. We are by nature inclined to love mankind. Take away love and benevolence, and you take away all the joy of life. Men are born for the sake of men, that they may mutually benefit one another. When man shall have studied the nature of all things, and shall come to look upon himself as not confined within the walls of one city, or as a member of any particular community, but as a citizen of the universe considered as one Commonwealth-amid such an acquaintance with Nature, and such a grand magnificence of things, to what a knowledge of himself will man attain! Give bread to a stranger in the name of the universal brotherhood which binds all men together, under the common Father of Nature. Nature fitted us for social life by planting within us a mutual love. We are members of one great body; and we must consider that we were born for the good of the whole. I will look upon the whole world as my country, and upon God as both the witness and judge of my actions. I will live and die with this testimony- that I never invaded another man's freedom, and that I preserved my own. The universe is but one great city full of beloved ones, divine and human by nature endeared to each other. The law imprinted on the hearts of all men. is to love the members of society as themselves. The eternal, universal, unchangeable law of all beings is to seek the good of one another, like children of the same Father. |