But Rufus, another of the same well-bred gang, debating the point of his own character with two Senators whom he has entrapped, boldly asserts, in a more courtly strain, ‘——To be a spy on traitors, Is honourable vigilance.’ This sentiment of the respectability of the employment of a government spy, which had slept in Tacitus for near two thousand years, has not been without its modern patrons. The effects of such ‘honourable vigilance’ are very finely exposed in the following high-spirited dialogue between Lepidus and Arruntius, two noble Romans, who loved their country, but were not fashionable enough to confound their country with its oppressors, and the extinguishers of its liberty. ‘_Arr._ What are thy arts (good patriot, teach them me) That have preserv’d thy hairs to this white dye, And kept so reverend and so dear a head Safe on his comely shoulders? _Lep._ Arts, Arruntius! None but the plain and passive fortitude To suffer and be silent; never stretch These arms against the torrent; live at home, With my own thoughts and innocence about me, Not tempting the wolves’ jaws: these are my arts. _Arr._ I would begin to study ’em, if I thought They would secure me. May I pray to Jove In secret, and be safe? aye, or aloud? With open wishes? so I do not mention Tiberius or Sejanus? Yes, I must, If I speak out. ’Tis hard, that. May I think, And not be rack’d? What danger is’t to dream? Talk in one’s sleep, or cough! Who knows the law? May I shake my head without a comment? Say It rains, or it holds up, and not be thrown Upon the Gemonies? These now are things, Whereon men’s fortunes, yea, their fate depends: Nothing hath privilege ’gainst the violent ear. No place, no day, no hour (we see) is free (Not our religious and most sacred times) From some one kind of cruelty; all matter, Nay, all occasion pleaseth. Madman’s rage, The idleness of drunkards, women’s nothing, Jesters’ simplicity, all, all is good That can be catch’d at.’ ’Tis a pretty picture; and the duplicates of it, though multiplied without end, are seldom out of request. The following portrait of a prince besieged by flatterers (taken from Tiberius) has unrivalled force and beauty, with historic truth.