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Now, therefore, let us see how it is that they dare to ascribe the
very great extent and duration of the Roman empire to those gods whom
they contend that they worship honorably, even by the obsequies of vile
games and the ministry of vile men: although I should like first to
inquire for a little what reason, what prudence, there is in wishing
to glory in the greatness and extent of the empire, when you cannot
point out the happiness of men who are always rolling, with dark fear
and cruel lust, in warlike slaughters and in blood, which, whether
shed in civil or foreign war, is still human blood; so that their joy
may be compared to glass in its fragile splendor, of which one is
horribly afraid lest it should be suddenly broken in pieces. That this
may be more easily discerned, let us not come to nought by being
carried away with empty boasting, or blunt the edge of our attention by
loud-sounding names of things, when we hear of peoples, kingdoms,
provinces. But let us suppose a case of two men; for each individual
man, like one letter in a language, is as it were the element of a
city or kingdom, however far-spreading in its occupation of the
earth. Of these two men let us suppose that one is poor, or rather of
middling circumstances; the other very rich. But the rich man is
anxious with fears, pining with discontent, burning with
covetousness, never secure, always uneasy, panting from the perpetual
strife of his enemies, adding to his patrimony indeed by these miseries
to an immense degree, and by these additions also heaping up most
bitter cares. But that other man of moderate wealth is contented with
a small and compact estate, most dear to his own family, enjoying the
sweetest peace with his kindred neighbors and friends, in piety
religious, benignant in mind, healthy in body, in life frugal, in
manners chaste, in conscience secure. I know not whether any one can
be such a fool, that he dare hesitate which to prefer. As,
therefore, in the case of these two men, so in two families, in two
nations, in two kingdoms, this test of tranquility holds good; and if
we apply it vigilantly and without prejudice, we shall quite easily see
where the mere show of happiness dwells, and where real felicity.
Wherefore if the true God is worshipped, and if He is served with
genuine rites and true virtue, it is advantageous that good men should
long reign both far and wide. Nor is this advantageous so much to
themselves, as to those over whom they reign. For, so far as
concerns themselves, their piety and probity, which are great gifts of
God, suffice to give them true felicity, enabling them to live well
the life that now is, and afterwards to receive that which is eternal.
In this world, therefore, the dominion of good men is profitable,
not so much for themselves as for human affairs. But the dominion of
bad men is hurtful chiefly to themselves who rule, for they destroy
their own souls by greater license in wickedness; while those who are
put under them in service are not hurt except by their own iniquity.
For to the just all the evils imposed on them by unjust rulers are not
the punishment of crime, but the test of virtue. Therefore the good
man, although he is a slave, is free; but the bad man, even if he
reigns, is a slave, and that not of one man, but, what is far more
grievous, of as many masters as he has vices; of which vices when the
divine Scripture treats, it says, "For of whom any man is
overcome, to the same he is also the bond-slave."
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