[99]
And of this easy dignity these are the
foundations, these are the component parts, which ought to he upheld by the
chief men, and to be defended even at the hazard of their lives: religious
observances, the auspices, the civil power of
magistrates, the authority of the senate, the laws, the usages of one's
ancestors, the courts of justice, the jurisdiction of the judges, good
faith, the provinces, the allies, the glory of the empire, the whole affairs
of the army, the treasury. To the defender and advocate of all these things,
numerous and important as they are, is a task to employ great courage, great
ability, and great firmness. In truth, in such a vast number of citizens,
there is a great multitude of those men, who either, from fear of
punishment, because they are conscious of their own misdeeds, are anxious
for fresh changes and revolutions in the republic; or who, on account of
some innate insanity of mind, feed upon the discords and seditions of the
citizens; or else who, on account of the embarrassment of
their estates and circumstances, had rather burn in one vast common
conflagration, than in one which consumed only themselves. And when these
men have found instigators, leaders in and promoters of their own objects
and vices, their waves are stirred up in the republic, so that those men
must watch who have demanded for themselves the helm of the country, and
they must strive with all their skill and with all their diligence, in order
that they may be able to preserve these things which I have just now called
its foundations and component parts, and so keep in their course and reach
that harbour of ease and dignity.
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