assuming
that honour must always clash with their interests, while in reality, says
Cicero, "they would obtain their ends best, not by knavery and underhand
dealing, but by justice and integrity". The right is identical with
the expedient. "The way to secure the favour of the gods is by upright
dealing; and next to the gods, nothing contributes so much to men's
happiness as men themselves". It is labour and co-operation which have
given us all the goods which we possess.

Since, then, man is the best friend to man, and also his most formidable
enemy, an important question to be discussed is the secret of influence
and popularity--the art of winning men's affections. For to govern by
bribes or by force is not really to govern at all; and no obedience based
on fear can be lasting--"no force of power can bear up long against a
current of public hate". Adventurers who ride rough-shod over law (he is
thinking again of Caesar) have but a short-lived reign; and "liberty, when
she has been chained up a while, bites harder when let loose than if she
had never been chained at all".[1] Most happy was that just and moderate
government of Rome in earlier times, when she was "the port and refuge for
princes and nations in their hour of need". Three requisites go to form
that popular character which has a just influence over others; we must win
men's love, we must deserve their confidence, and we must inspire them
with an admiration for our abilities. The shortest and most direct road to
real influence is that which Socrates recommends--"for a man to be that
which he wishes men to take him for".[2]

[Footnote 1: It is curious to note how, throughout the whole of this
argument, Cicero, whether consciously or unconsciously, works upon the
principle that the highest life is the political life, and that the
highest object a man can set before him is the obtaining, by legitimate
means, influence and authority amongst his fellow-citizens.]

[Footnote 2:

"Not being less but more than all
The gentleness he seemed to be".
--Tennyson: 'In Memoriam'.]

Then follow some maxims which show how thoroughly conservative was the
policy of our philosopher. The security of property he holds to be the
security of the state. There must be no playing with vested rights, no
unequal taxation, no attempt to bring all things to a level, no cancelling
of debts and redistribution of land (he is thinking of the baits held out
by Catiline), none of th