"Be rather a mason, if that be your talent." 2. The poet should listen to good advice. "Make choice of a solid and wholesome censor." 3. The poet and artist should, in their verses and works, be the interpreters of virtue. "Let your soul and your morals, depicted in your works, Never present of you but noble images." Love, then, virtue; nourish your soul therewith. "The verse always savors of the baseness of the heart." 4. They must avoid jealousies and rivalries. "Flee, above all, flee base jealousies." 5. They must prefer glory to gain. "Work for glory and let no sordid gain Ever be the object of a noble writer." CHAPTER IX. DUTIES OF NATIONS AMONG THEMSELVES--INTERNATIONAL LAW. SUMMARY. =General principles of international law.=--They are the principles of the natural law applied to the relations nations sustain to each other. =Of war.=--War founded on the right of self-defense. The reasons for a just war. =Defensive and offensive wars.=--This division does not necessarily correspond to that of just or unjust wars.--Precautions and preparations.--Duties in times of war: to reconcile as much as possible the rights of humanity with those of patriotism.--Rights of war concerning the enemy's property.--Conquest.--Neutrality. =International treaties=: their character; their forms; their different species.--Essential conditions for public treaties: they are the same as for private contracts. =Observance of treaties.=--Obligatory character of treaties: testimony of Cardinal Richelieu. The human race being divided into divers particular societies called _States_ or _nations_, those different bodies stand toward each other as individuals; they are subject to the primitive laws existing naturally among all men, and they are obliged to practice certain duties toward each other. =112. International law.=--General principles.--It is this body of laws which is called _international law_, and which is nothing more than the natural law itself, or the moral law applied to nations. It is by virtue of this natural law that the nations ought to consider each other equals, and independent of each other; that they should not injure each other, and should make each other, on the contrary, reparation for injury done. Hence the right of self-defense in case of attack, of repelling and restraining by force whatever violence may threaten or oppress them. When nations practice toward each other the prescriptions of the natural law, they are in a state of _peace_ with each other; when they are obliged to resort to force to repel injustice, they are in a _state_ of _war_.