Among moderns, the Abbé de Mably, in an elaborate discussion, adopts the conclusion of Cicero, as well as his treatment of it by dialogue, making his interlocutor, Lord Stanhope, ask, "What other remedy can be applied to this evil than disobedience?" and representing him as "pulverizing without difficulty the miserable commonplaces in opposition."--_Des Droits et des Devoirs du Citoyen_, Lettre IV. OEuvres (Paris, 1797), Tom. XI. pp. 249, 251. Cicero was not alone among ancients in submission to an overruling law, nowhere pictured in greater sovereignty than by Sophocles, in a famous verse of the _OEdipus Tyrannus_:-- Ϻέγας ἐν τούτοις Θεός, οὐδὲ γηράσκει.--v. 845 [871]. Great in these laws is God, and grows not old. [209] Versus ad Astralabium Filium: Opera (ed. Cousin), Tom. I. pp. 341, 342. And now, Sir, the rule is commended to us. The good citizen, who sees before him the shivering fugitive, guilty of no crime, pursued, hunted down like a beast, while praying for Christian help and deliverance, and then reads the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is a despotic mandate "to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law."[210] Again let me speak frankly. Not rashly would I set myself against any requirement of law. This grave responsibility I would not lightly assume. But here the path of duty is clear. By the Supreme Law, which commands me to do no injustice, by the comprehensive Christian Law of Brotherhood, _by the Constitution, which I have sworn to support_, I AM BOUND TO DISOBEY THIS ACT. Never, in any capacity, can I render voluntary aid in its execution. Pains and penalties I will endure, but this great wrong I will not do. "Where I cannot obey actively, there I am willing to lie down and to suffer what they shall do unto me": such was the exclamation of him to whom we are indebted for the "Pilgrim's Progress," while in prison for disobedience to an earthly statute.[211] Better suffer injustice than do it. Better victim than instrument of wrong. Better even the poor slave returned to bondage than the wretched Commissioner. [210] Fugitive Slave Act, September 18, 1850, Sec. 5.