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33“That this is true in the nature of things most of you understand; at any rate you fulfil all your duties without urging. That is precisely why I have called you together, to make you witnesses as well as spectators of my words and deeds. 2But you are not the sort of men I have been mentioning, and it is for this very reason that you receive praise; yet you observe how some few of you, in addition to having worked many injuries without suffering any penalty at all for them, are also threatening us. Now I do not believe it a good thing in any case for a ruler to be overridden by his subjects, 3nor do I believe there could ever be any safety if those appointed to obey a person attempted to get the better of him. Consider what sort of order would exist in a household if the young should despise their elders, or what order in schools if the scholars should pay no heed to their instructors! What health would there be for the sick if the afflicted should not obey their physicians in all points, or what safety for voyagers if the sailors should turn a deaf ear to their captains? 4Indeed, it is in accordance with a natural law, both necessary and salutary, that the principles of ruling and of being ruled have been placed among men, and without them it is impossible for anything at all to continue to exist for even the shortest time. Now it is the duty of the one stationed over another both to discover and to command what is requisite, and it is the duty of the one subject to authority to obey without questioning and to carry out his orders. 5It is for this reason in particular that prudence is everywhere honoured above folly and understanding above ignorance.
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