masses,--at once induces very
many of them to do wrong. [-17-] The boast of birth and pride of wealth,
greatness of honor, audacity founded on bravery, and conceit due to
authority, bring shipwreck to not a few. There is no making nobility
ignoble, bravery cowardly, or prudence foolish: it is impossible. Nor,
again, is it to curtail men's abundance or to strike down ambitions where
conduct has been correct: that is iniquitous. That he who is on the
defensive and anticipates others' movements should incur injury and ill
repute is inevitable. Come, let us change our policy and spare some of
them. To me it seems far more feasible to set things right by kindness
than by harshness. Not only are those who grant pardon loved by the
objects of their clemency, who strive to repay the favor, but all others
both respect and reverence them and will not readily endure to see harm
done to them. Sovereigns, however, who maintain an inexorable anger not
only are hated by those who have aught to fear, but cause uneasiness to
all the rest. As a result, men plot against them to avoid meeting an
untimely fate. Do you not notice that physicians very rarely have
recourse to cutting and burning, wishing to avoid aggravating a person's
disease, but in the majority of cases soothe and cure by means of
fomentations and mild drugs? Do not think that because those ailments
have to do with the body and these with the mind that they are
essentially different. Very many experiences of the body are similar in
a way to what goes on in the souls of men, no matter how bodiless the
latter may be. The soul contracts under the influence of fear and expands
under that of wrath. Pain humiliates men and audacity puffs them up. The
correspondences then are very close and therefore both kinds of trouble
need treatments which are much alike. A gentle speech uttered to a man
causes all his unruliness to subside, just as a harsh one provokes to
anger even an easy-going person. The granting of pardon melts the most
audacious, just as punishment irritates the most mild. Acts of violence
inflame all men in every instance, even though such measures may be
thoroughly just, but considerate treatment mollifies them. Hence
one would more readily brave great dangers through persuasion and
voluntarily, than under compulsion. Such is the inherent, unalterable
quality of both methods of behavior that even among brute beasts that
have no mind many of the strongest and fiercest a