登陆注册
38560900000013

第13章

'What am I to say of power and of the with the careless happiness of the man who meets highwayman with no purse and empty pockets.Page 45honours of office, which you raise to heaven because you know not true honoured power? What fires belched forth from &;扙tna's flames, what overwhelming flood could deal such ruin as these when they fall into the hands of evil men? I am sure you remember how your forefathers wished to do away with the consular power, which had been the very foundation of liberty, because of the overbearing pride of the consuls, just as your ancestors had too in earlier times expunged from the state the name of king on account of the same pride.But if, as rarely happens, places of honour are granted to honest men, what else is delightful in them but the honesty they practise thereby? Wherefore honour comes not to virtue from holding office, but comes to office from virtues there practised.

'But what is the power which you seek and esteem so highly?

O creatures of the earth, can you not think over whom you are set? If you saw in a community of mice, one mouse asserting his rights and his power over the others, with what mirth you would greet the sight! Yet if you consider the body, what can you find weaker than humanity? Cannot a tiny gnat by its bite, or by creeping into the inmost parts, kill that body?

How can any exercise right upon any other except upon the body alone, or that which is below the body, whereby I mean the fortunes? Can you ever impose any law upon a free spirit? Can you eyer disturb the peculiar restfulness which is the property of a mind that hangs together Page 46upon the firm basis of its reason? When a certain tyrant thought that by tortures he would compel a free manl to betray the conspirators in a plot against his life, the philosopher bit through his tongue and spat it out in the tyrant's face.Thus were the tortures, which the tyrant intended to have cruel results, turned by the philosopher into subjects of high courage.Is there aught that one man can do to another, which he may not suffer from another in his turn? We have heard how Busiris, who used to kill strangers, was killed by Hercules when he came to Egypt.Regulus, 2 who had cast into chains many a Carthaginian captive, soon yielded himself a prisoner to their chains.Do you think that power to be any power, whose possessor cannot ensure his own escape from suffering at another's hands what he inflicts upon some other?

'Further, if there were any intrinsic good in the nature of honours and powers themselves, they could never crowd upon the basest men.For opposites will not be bound together.Nature refuses to allow contraries to be linked to each other.Wherefore, while it is un-doubted that for the most part offices of honour are enjoyed by bad men, it is also manifest that those things are not by nature good, which 46:1 -- This story is told of Anaxagoras and Nicocreon, king of Cyprus, c.B.C.323.

46:2 -- Regulus was the Roman general in Sicily in the first Punic War, taken prisoner in 255 B.C., and put to death in 250.Page 47allow themselves to cling to evil men.And this indeed may worthily be held of all the gifts of fortune which come with the greatest success to the most unscrupulous.And in this matter we must also think on this fact, that no one doubts a man to be brave in whom he has found by examination that bravery is implanted: and whoever has the quality of swiftness is plainly swift.So also music makes men musical, medicine makes men physicians, oratory makes men orators.The nature of each quality acts as is peculiar to itself: it is not confused with the results of contrary qualities, but goes so far as to drive out those qualities which are opposed to it.Wealth cannot quench the insatiable thirst of avarice: nor can power ever make master of himself the man whom vicious passions hold fast in un-breakable chains.Honours, when joined to dishonest men, so far from ****** them honour-able, betray them rather, and show them to be dishonourable.Why is this so? It is because you rejoice to call things by false mes which belong not to them ?their names are refuted by the reality of their qualities:

wherefore neither riches, nor that kind of power, nor these honours, can justly so be called.Lastly, we may come to the same conclusion concerning all the aspects of Fortune: nothing is to be sought in her, and it is plain she has no innate good, for she is not always joined with good men, nor does she make good those with whom she is joined.' Page 48'We have heard what ruin Nero wrought when Rome was burnt and senators were slain.We know how savagely he did to death his brother,l how he was stained by the spilling of his own mother's blood, and how he looked upon her cold body and yet no tear fell upon his cheek: yet could this man be judge of the morals that were dead.Nay, he was ruler of the peoples whom the sun looks upon from the time he rises in the east until he hides his rays beneath the waves, and those whom the chilling northern Wain o'errules, and those whom the southern gale burns with its dry blast, as it heats the burning sands.Say, could great power chasten Nero's maddened rage? Ah! heavy fate, how often is the sword of high injustice given where is already most poisonous cruelty!'

Then I said,' You know that the vain-glory of this world has had but little influence over me; but I have desired the means of so managing affairs that virtue might not grow aged in silence.'

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 一只萝卜出头来

    一只萝卜出头来

    南城宋家是暴发户,重男轻女的思想根深蒂固,宋家长女刚出生就被送往宋家祖籍泉江市,一个远房亲戚寄养。美其名曰,送女来子。南城明启大学的林教授,是个女儿奴,可惜妻子生了个男孩…林家小男孩上小学时,林教授调任泉江德信大学。于是林家举家搬迁泉江。宋殷自幼调皮捣蛋爱爬墙,有一天,隔壁搬来一家人,一对恩爱的夫妻,和一个长得像瓷娃娃的“小女孩”!自那以后,宋殷常爬墙观察那个行事说话一板一眼的瓷娃娃。直到有一天,瓷娃娃不再是瓷娃娃。一张五官精致的面孔出现在宋殷面前,宋殷从墙头摔下,折了一只脚。林时川是个天才,他自幼就知道自己被那女儿奴爹妈当成女儿养!墙头上那个自以为隐藏的很好的小萝卜头,其实早就被他发现了。有一天他突发好奇爬墙是一种怎样的感受,于是他莫名其妙成了小萝卜头的家属?当重男轻女的家庭遇上重女轻男的家庭,当幽默风趣的教授碰上脾气暴躁的暴发户,当性格大大咧咧的“假小子”暗恋矜贵斯文的年轻医生,会发生怎样的奇妙反应?多年后一胎生男,二胎才生女的宋殷一脸悲痛地捶胸顿足,这一切都是林医生的阴谋…
  • 凤逆仙途:纨绔二小姐

    凤逆仙途:纨绔二小姐

    男友背叛后,她被新一代魔皇和魔师给硬是灵魂拉到了这个时代,却发现原本在现代没有武术天分的她,却意外发现在这里的天赋,于是帮着新一代魔皇一步一步成为真正的魔皇……【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 狐狸不作妖

    狐狸不作妖

    安安是青丘上的一只小狐狸,日日不是捉弄小妖就是偷偷溜去人间,青丘娘娘为此十分头疼给她定了门亲事,安安不满阿娘定的亲事,偷跑到大漠边陲当了一个风韵老板娘的酒水丫头,日日变成狐狸躲在胡杨上偷看驻守边疆的小将军,后来小将军回到京城一场人和妖的故事拉开序幕……
  • 九爷今天也被扒马了

    九爷今天也被扒马了

    她是姜九,生于姜家,流浪于贫民窟。姜家人找到这个传说中的姜家幼女时,摇摇欲坠的楼房,四周充满了垃圾的恶臭,而姜九,衣着廉价,看人带着三分躁意。满怀期望的姜家人到底是认回了这个与权贵姜家格格不入的孩子。姜老爷子说,“就叫姜余吧,多余的余。”整个京城无人不知,姜家自小走失的的幼女脾气躁,不懂时尚不懂交际,外人都笑,“听说这姜余是在贫民窟长大的。”姜九只点着烟笑,她目光越过迢迢岁月,看那山河大海,只不曾留下一丝停在这繁华京城。姜九,九,古为龙形图腾化之为字,有天赐神赋之意。ps:女主大佬,男主多余。
  • 月缺东方

    月缺东方

    没有过人的天赋没有过人的背景,只有过人的努力过人的拼搏过人的毅力过人的奋斗。他告诉我们掉在水里不会死但是待在水里会死,上帝不让我活那我就做撒旦灭了他。
  • 魔娃笑红颜

    魔娃笑红颜

    会舞,会武,会弹,会画,会医的一个半斤八两的现代女孩,因为一场酒醉驾驶意外穿越到烈焰国成为九岁小屁孩,还是尿床王爷的专属玩伴,有一个阴险毒辣的姐姐还有一个宠溺自己到不像话的哥哥,一场古代之旅究竟意欲何为?双生之子的魔咒深深将两个人牵连一步一步到底何时走入陷阱?情节虚构,请勿模仿!
  • 异界之临渊阁传说

    异界之临渊阁传说

    秦立重生到异界大陆,左眼拥有空间之力,右眼拥有时间之力。这是本述说异界风情的小说,请大家跟随秦立,看遍异界的激情与无奈。特别说明,不喜勿入:1、主角不会滥杀嗜杀,甚至全文没有杀过任何一个人。2、主角不会妻妾成群,甚至全文没有出现主角的女人。
  • 腹黑竹马:诱妻深入

    腹黑竹马:诱妻深入

    小时候,因为她的一句:哥哥,你好帅,长大了你嫁给我好吗?他们便从小就有了娃娃亲。她暗恋他好多年,好不容易在她成年的时候鼓起勇气对他告白,却不经意听见,他对父母说:他不可能娶她,他只把她当做妹妹那般疼爱,儿时的承诺只是玩笑罢了。她的心从那个渐渐为他冰封,选择了出国留学。当他发现她消失的无影无踪的时候,心如撕裂般的疼痛不已。四年后,她盛世回归,视他为陌生人,他却死皮赖脸的缠上了她。
  • 两界至尊主播

    两界至尊主播

    主播客户端发生异变,可连接异世界直播平台,还有音乐、表演、游戏技能随意学,失意主播从此一发不可收拾。