against my own inclination, to
be the general of such a people in such war.

_Aristides_.--I fear that your just contempt of the greater number of
those who composed the democracy so disgusted you with this mode and form
of government, that you were as averse to serve under it as others with
less ability and virtue than you were desirous of obtruding themselves
into its service. But though such a reluctance proceeds from a very
noble cause, and seems agreeable to the dignity of a great mind in bad
times, yet it is a fault against the highest of moral obligations--the
love of our country. For, how unworthy soever individuals may be, the
public is always respectable, always dear to the virtuous.

_Phocion_.--True; but no obligation can lie upon a citizen to seek a
public charge when he foresees that his obtaining of it will be useless
to his country. Would you have had me solicit the command of an army
which I believed would be beaten?

_Aristides_.--It is not permitted to a State to despair of its safety
till its utmost efforts have been made without success. If you had
commanded the army at Chaeronea you might possibly have changed the event
of the day; but, if you had not, you would have died more honourably
there than in a prison at Athens, betrayed by a vain confidence in the
insecure friendship of a perfidious Macedonian.

DIALOGUE XXXII.

MARCUS AURELIUS PHILOSOPHUS--SERVIUS TULLIUS.

_Servius Tullius_.--Yes, Marcus, though I own you to have been the first
of mankind in virtue and goodness--though, while you governed, Philosophy
sat on the throne and diffused the benign influences of her
administration over the whole Roman Empire--yet as a king I might,
perhaps, pretend to a merit even superior to yours.

_Marcus Aurelius_.--That philosophy you ascribe to me has taught me to
feel my own defects, and to venerate the virtues of other men. Tell me,
therefore, in what consisted the superiority of your merit as a king.

_Servius Tullius_.--It consisted in this--that I gave my people freedom.
I diminished, I limited the kingly power, when it was placed in my hands.
I need not tell you that the plan of government instituted by me was
adopted by the Romans when they had driven out Tarquin, the destroyer of
their liberty; and gave its form to that republic, composed of a due
mixture of the regal, aristocratical, and democratical powers, the
strength and wisdom of which subdued the world. Thus all the gl