monarchy! It has come to be generally believed that to adopt some violent course belongs somehow to the nature of man, even if it involves taking an unfair advantage. Every person who excels in any business thinks it right that he should enjoy more advantages than his inferior. If he meets with a success he ascribes it to the force of his individual temperament, and if he fails in anything he refers it to the workings of the supernatural. A man, however, who tries to gain advancement by plots and injuries is in the first place held to be crafty and crooked, malicious and vicious: (and this I know you would allow no one to say or think about you, even if you might rule the whole world by it): again, if he succeeds, he is thought to have gained an unjust advantage, and if he fails, to have met with merited misfortune. [-3-] This being so, any one might reproach us quite as much, even if we had nothing of the sort in mind at the beginning and were to begin to devise it only now. For to let the situation get the better of us and not restrain ourselves and not make a right use of the gifts of Fortune is much worse than for a man to do wrong through ill-luck. The latter sort are often compelled by their very disasters and in consideration of their own need of profit to behave against their will in an irregular way: the others voluntarily abandon self-control even if to do so is contrary to their own interests. And when men neither have any love of simplicity in their souls nor are able to show moderation in regard to the blessings bestowed upon them, how could one expect that they would either rule well over others or behave themselves uprightly in trouble? Let us make our decision on the basis that we are in neither of the classes mentioned and do not desire to act in any way unreasonably, but will choose whatever course after deliberation appears to us best. I shall speak quite frankly, for I could not for my part express myself in any other way, and I am aware that you do not enjoy hearing lies mingled with flattery.