Since, then, man is the best friend to man, and also his most formidable enemy, an important question to be discussed is the secret of influence and popularity—­the art of winning men’s affections.  For to govern by bribes or by force is not really to govern at all; and no obedience based on fear can be lasting—­“no force of power can bear up long against a current of public hate”.  Adventurers who ride rough-shod over law (he is thinking again of Caesar) have but a short-lived reign; and “liberty, when she has been chained up a while, bites harder when let loose than if she had never been chained at all".[1] Most happy was that just and moderate government of Rome in earlier times, when she was “the port and refuge for princes and nations in their hour of need”.  Three requisites go to form that popular character which has a just influence over others; we must win men’s love, we must deserve their confidence, and we must inspire them with an admiration for our abilities.  The shortest and most direct road to real influence is that which Socrates recommends—­“for a man to be that which he wishes men to take him for".[2]

[Footnote 1:  It is curious to note how, throughout the whole of this argument, Cicero, whether consciously or unconsciously, works upon the principle that the highest life is the political life, and that the highest object a man can set before him is the obtaining, by legitimate means, influence and authority amongst his fellow-citizens.]

[Footnote 2: 

  “Not being less but more than all
  The gentleness he seemed to be”. 
  —­Tennyson:  ’In Memoriam’.]

Then follow some maxims which show how thoroughly conservative was the policy of our philosopher.  The security of property he holds to be the security of the state.  There must be no playing with vested rights, no unequal taxation, no attempt to bring all things to a level, no cancelling of debts and redistribution of land (he is thinking of the baits held out by Catiline), none of those traditional devices for winning favour with the people, which tend to destroy that social concord and unity which make a common wealth.  “What reason is there”, he asks, “why, when I have bought, built, repaired, and laid out much money, another shall come and enjoy the fruits of it?”

And as a man should be careful of the interests of the social body, so he should be of his own.  But Cicero feels that in descending to such questions he is somewhat losing sight of his dignity as a moralist.  “You will find all this thoroughly discussed”, he says to his son, “in Xenophon’s Economics—­a book which, when I was just your age, I translated from the Greek into Latin”. [One wonders whether young Marcus took the hint.] “And if you want instruction in money matters, there are gentlemen sitting on the Exchange who will teach you much better than the philosophers”.