[159]
45. The following question should, perhaps, be1
asked: whether this social instinct, which is the
deepest feeling in our nature, is always to have precedence over temperance and moderation also. I think
not. For there are some acts either so repulsive or so
wicked, that a wise man would not commit them,
even to save his country. Posidonius has made a
large collection of them; but some of them are so
shocking, so indecent, that it seems immoral even
to mention them. The wise man, therefore, will not
think of doing any such thing for the sake of his
country; no more will his country consent to have
it done for her. But the problem is the more easily
disposed of because the occasion cannot arise when
it could be to the state's interest to have the wise
man do any of those things.
1 Justice vs. Temperance.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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