so as to say, "I had not
thought of that." Such are the operations of a genius, capacious and
elevated; of such a one as relies on its own prudence and counsel; but
to rush precipitately into the field, and to encounter an enemy with
mere physical force has somewhat in it that is barbarous and brutal.
When the occasion, however, and its necessity compel it, we should
resist with force, and prefer death to slavery or dishonor.

IV

OF SCIPIO'S DEATH AND OF FRIENDSHIP[28]

Should I say that I am not distrest by the loss of Scipio,
philosophers may determine with what propriety I should do so; but
assuredly I should be guilty of falsehood. For I am distrest at being
bereaved of such a friend, as no one, I consider, will ever be to me
again, and, as I can confidently assert, no one ever was; but I am not
destitute of a remedy. I comfort myself, and especially with this
consolation, that I am free from that error by which most men, on the
decease of friends, are wont to be tormented; for I feel that no evil
has happened to Scipio; it has befallen myself, if indeed it has
happened to any. Now to be above measure distrest at one's own
troubles is characteristic of the man who loves not his friend, but
himself. In truth, as far as he is concerned, who can deny that his
end was glorious? for unless he had chosen to wish for immortality, of
which he had not the slightest thought, what did he fail to obtain
which it was lawful for a man to wish for? A man who, as soon as he
grew up, by his transcendent merit far surpassed those sanguine hopes
of his countrymen which they had conceived regarding him when a mere
boy, who never stood for the consulship, yet was made Consul twice; on
the first occasion, before his time; on the second, at the proper age
as regarded himself, tho for the commonwealth almost too late; who, by
overthrowing two cities,[29] most hostile to our empire, put an end
not only to all present but all future wars. What shall I say of his
most engaging manners; of his dutiful conduct to his mother; his
generosity to his sisters; his kindness to his friends; his
uprightness toward all? These are known to you; and how dear he was to
the state was displayed by its mourning at his death....

The authority of the ancients has more weight with me, either that of
our own ancestors, who paid such sacred honors to the dead, which
surely they would not have done if they thought those honors did in no
way affect th