[33]
Secondly, the command of confidence can be1
secured on two conditions: (1) if people think us
possessed of practical wisdom combined with a sense
of justice. For we have confidence in those who we
think have more understanding than ourselves, who,
[p. 203]
we believe, have better insight into the future, and
who, when an emergency arises and a crisis comes, can
clear away the difficulties and reach a safe decision
according to the exigencies of the occasion; for that
kind of wisdom the world accounts genuine and
practical. But (2) confidence is reposed in men
who are just and true—that is, good men—on
the definite assumption that their characters admit
of no suspicion of dishonesty or wrong-doing. And
so we believe that it is perfectly safe to entrust our
lives, our fortunes, and our children to their care.
1 (2) through confidence.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.