The treatise ‘De Officiis’, known as Cicero’s ’Offices, to which we pass next, is addressed by the author to his son, while studying at Athens under Cratippus; possibly in imitation of Aristotle, who inscribed his Ethics to his son Nicomachus.  It is a treatise on the duties of a gentleman—­“the noblest present”, says a modern writer, “ever made by parent to a child".[1] Written in a far higher tone than Lord Chesterfield’s letters, though treating of the same subject, it proposes and answers multifarious questions which must occur continually to the modern Christian as well as to the ancient philosopher.  “What makes an action right or wrong?  What is a duty?  What is expediency?  How shall I learn to choose between my principles and my interests?  And lastly (a point of casuistry which must sometimes perplex the strictest conscience), of two ’things honest’,[2] which is most so?”

[Footnote 1:  Kelsall.]

[Footnote 2:  The English “Honesty” and “Honour” alike fail to convey the full force of the Latin honestus.  The word expresses a progress of thought from comeliness and grace of person to a noble and graceful character—­all whose works are done in honesty and honour.]

The key-note of his discourse throughout is Honour; and the word seems to carry with it that magic force which Burke attributed to chivalry—­“the unbought grace of life—­the nurse of heroic sentiment and manly enterprise”. Noblesse oblige,—­and there is no state of life, says Cicero, without its obligations.  In their due discharge consists all the nobility, and in their neglect all the disgrace, of character.  There should be no selfish devotion to private interests.  We are born not for ourselves only, but for our kindred and fatherland.  We owe duties not only to those who have benefited but to those who have wronged us.  We should render to all their due; and justice is due even to the lowest of mankind:  what, for instance (he says with a hardness which jars upon our better feelings), can be lower than a slave?  Honour is that “unbought grace” which adds a lustre to every action.  In society it produces courtesy of manners; in business, under the form of truth, it establishes public credit.  Again, as equity, it smooths the harsh features of the law.  In war it produces that moderation and good faith between contending armies which are the surest basis of a lasting peace.  And so in honour are centred the elements of all the virtues—­wisdom and justice, fortitude and temperance; and “if”, he says, reproducing the noble words of Plato, as applied by him to Wisdom, “this ‘Honour’ could but be seen in her full beauty by mortal eyes, the whole world would fall in love with her”.

Such is the general spirit of this treatise, of which only the briefest sketch can be given in these pages.