When [rude] animals, they crawled forth upon the first-formed earth, the mute and dirty herd fought with their nails and fists for their acorn and caves, afterward with clubs, and finally with arms which experience had forged:  till they found out words and names, by which they ascertained their language and sensations:  thenceforward they began to abstain from war, to fortify towns, and establish laws:  that no person should be a thief, a robber, or an adulterer.  For before Helen’s time there existed [many] a woman who was the dismal cause of war:  but those fell by unknown deaths, whom pursuing uncertain venery, as the bull in the herd, the strongest slew.  It must of necessity be acknowledged, if you have a mind to turn over the aeras and anuals of the world, that laws were invented from an apprehension of the natural injustice [of mankind].  Nor can nature separate what is unjust from what is just, in the same manner as she distinguishes what is good from its reverse, and what is to be avoided from that which is to be sought, nor will reason persuade men to this, that he who breaks down the cabbage-stalk of his neighbor, sins in as great a measure, and in the same manner, as he who steals by night things consecrated to the gods.  Let there be a settled standard, that may inflict adequate punishments upon crimes, lest you should persecute any one with the horrible thong, who is only deserving of a slight whipping.  For I am not apprehensive, that you should correct with the rod one that deserves to suffer severer stripes:  since you assert that pilfering is an equal crime with highway robbery, and threaten that you would prune off with an undistinguishing hook little and great vices, if mankind were to give you the sovereignty over them.  If he be rich, who is wise, and a good shoemaker, and alone handsome, and a king, why do you wish for that which you are possessed of?  You do not understand what Chrysippus, the father [of your sect], says:  “The wise man never made himself shoes nor slippers:  nevertheless, the wise man is a shoemaker.”  How so?  In the same manner, though Hermogenes be silent, he is a fine singer, notwithstanding, and an excellent musician:  as the subtle [lawyer] Alfenus, after every instrument of his calling was thrown aside, and his shop shut up, was [still] a barber; thus is the wise man of all trades, thus is he a king.  O greatest of great kings, the waggish boys pluck you by the beard; whom unless you restrain with your staff, you will be jostled by a mob all about you, and you may wretchedly bark and burst your lungs in vain.  Not to be tedious:  while you, my king, shall go to the farthing bath, and no guard shall attend you, except the absurd Crispinus; my dear friends will both pardon me in any matter in which I shall foolishly offend, and I in turn will cheerfully put up with their faults; and though a private man, I shall live more happily than you, a king.

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