to all mankind: I will so live as to
remember that I was born for others, and will thank Nature on this
account: for in what fashion could she have done better for me? she
has given me alone to all, and all to me alone. Whatever I may
possess, I will neither hoard it greedily nor squander it recklessly.
I will think that I have no possessions so real as those which I have
given away to deserving people: I will not reckon benefits by their
magnitude or number, or by anything except the value set upon them by
the receiver: I never will consider a gift to be a large one if it be
bestowed upon a worthy object. I will do nothing because of public
opinion, but everything because of conscience: whenever I do anything
alone by myself I will believe that the eyes of the Roman people are
upon me while I do it. In eating and drinking my object shall be to
quench the desires of Nature, not to fill and empty my belly. I will
be agreeable with my friends, gentle and mild to my foes: I will grant
pardon before I am asked for it, and will meet the wishes of honorable
men half-way. I will bear in mind that, the world is my native city,
that its governors are the gods, and that they stand above and around
me, criticizing whatever I do or say. Whenever either Nature demands
my breath again, or reason bids me dismiss it, I will quit this life,
calling all to witness that I have loved a good conscience, and good
pursuits; that no one's freedom, my own least of all, has been
impaired through me." He who sets up these as the rules of his life
will soar aloft and strive to make his way to the gods: of a truth,
even tho he fails, yet he

"Fails in a high emprise."

But you, who hate both virtue and those who practise it, do nothing at
which we need be surprized, for sickly lights can not bear the sun,
nocturnal creatures avoid the brightness of day, and at its first
dawning become bewildered and all betake themselves to their dens
together: creatures that fear the light hide themselves in crevices.
So croak away, and exercise your miserable tongues in reproaching good
men: open wide your jaws, bite hard: you will break many teeth before
you make any impression....

Where, indeed, can fortune invest riches more securely than in a place
from whence they can always be recovered without any squabble with
their trustee? Marcus Cato, when he was praising Curius and
Coruncanius and that century in which the possession of a few small
silver co