The Admirable Crichton. 115- 



neglected it, the Thracians and the Arabs yet commend it; and 

 if there be any other peoples more savage than these, it is fair 

 to conclude that they at least professed to love it even although 

 they did not follow it. How much more, then, do those who 

 by the most equitable laws govern this most splendidly equipped 

 Republic, not only love but reverence it, and most religiously 

 cultivate its practice ! But again I fear lest I should overstep 

 the bounds of that moderation which in discourse, as in all the 

 affairs of life, it is decent to respect. For it is not, they say, the 

 prerogative of a young man of so slight rank, so to disparage 

 authority and reputation, as to venture to exhort to the admini- 

 stration of justice the persons who have that object constantlv in 

 view. Now, no one of sound mind shall ever upbraid me with 

 this; for I know full well how you yourselves, most august 

 fathers, have loved and respected justice. But what is there to 

 forbid my exhortations, my prayers and deprecations ? More- 

 over, if the functions of a herald and orator — which I sufficiently 

 feel to be foreign to the feeble power of my gifts of nature — - 

 has been assigned to me by you. Most Serene Prince and Illus- 

 trious Fathers, permit me freely to discuss those things which 

 you yourselves have enjoined; and let not the audacity of aban- 

 doned persons dare to deprive me of the mandate you have com- 

 mitted to me. 



But I would, if I did not seem to be importunate, August 

 Citizens, commend to your remembrance a few things which with 

 your permission it is impossible to pass over. If you wish to 

 safeguard your most splendid sovereignty and your own liberty 

 • — if you desire to take counsel for the Republic, for your wives, 

 your children, and your hearths — let the love or the recollection 

 of these concern you, and think that the foundations of the best 

 and most sacred peace are already overthrown when you deem, 

 as did the Athenians, that all memory of your dissensions is to be 

 buried in eternal oblivion. For at the period during which the 

 State was bitterly infested with civil hatreds and animosities, it 

 fell little short of being followed by the destruction of wealth 

 and of the liberal arts, the most grievous death of the citizens, 

 and, finally, by the ruin, the fall, the reduction to ashes, of the 

 State itself. Oh, miserable condition of the State to be admini- 

 stered ! Oh, most wretched plague in a Republic where a 



