man may be happy without them, he is happier with them,--which is
making the real happiness imperfect after all. Men differ in their views
of life. As in the great Olympic games, the throng are attracted, some
by desire of gain, some by the crown of wild olive, some merely by the
spectacle; so, in the race of life, we are all slaves to some ruling idea,
it may be glory, or money, or wisdom. But they alone can be pronounced
happy whose minds are like some tranquil sea--"alarmed by no fears,
wasted by no griefs, inflamed by no lusts, enervated by no relaxing
pleasures,--and such serenity virtue alone can produce".

These 'Disputations' have always been highly admired. But their popularity
was greater in times when Cicero's Greek originals were less read or
understood. Erasmus carried his admiration of this treatise to enthusiasm.
"I cannot doubt", he says, "but that the mind from which such teaching
flowed was inspired in some sort by divinity".

IV. THE TREATISE 'ON MORAL DUTIES'.

The treatise 'De Officiis', known as Cicero's 'Offices, to which we pass
next, is addressed by the author to his son, while studying at Athens
under Cratippus; possibly in imitation of Aristotle, who inscribed
his Ethics to his son Nicomachus. It is a treatise on the duties of a
gentleman--"the noblest present", says a modern writer, "ever made by
parent to a child".[1] Written in a far higher tone than Lord
Chesterfield's letters, though treating of the same subject, it proposes
and answers multifarious questions which must occur continually to the
modern Christian as well as to the ancient philosopher. "What makes an
action right or wrong? What is a duty? What is expediency? How shall I
learn to choose between my principles and my interests? And lastly (a
point of casuistry which must sometimes perplex the strictest conscience),
of two 'things honest',[2] which is most so?"

[Footnote 1: Kelsall.]

[Footnote 2: The English "Honesty" and "Honour" alike fail to convey the
full force of the Latin _honestus_. The word expresses a progress
of thought from comeliness and grace of person to a noble and graceful
character--all whose works are done in honesty and honour.]

The key-note of his discourse throughout is Honour; and the word seems to
carry with it that magic force which Burke attributed to chivalry--"the
unbought grace of life--the nurse of heroic sentiment and manly
enterprise". _Noblesse oblige_,--and there is no state of life, s