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[97]
26. Ulysses thought his ruse expedient, as1
the tragic poets, at least, have represented him. In
Homer, our most reliable authority, no such suspicion
is cast upon him; but the tragedies charge him with
trying to escape a soldier's service by feigning madness. The trick was not morally right, but, someone may perhaps say, “It was expedient for him to
keep his throne and live at ease in Ithaca with
parents, wife, and son. Do you think that there
is any glory in facing daily toil and danger that can
be compared with a life of such tranquillity?”
[p. 375]
Nay; I think that tranquillity at such a price is to
be despised and rejected; for if it is not morally
right, neither is it expedient.
1 Apparent Expediency vs. Fortitude: (1) Ulysses's ruse,
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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