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privileges and from remembering their ancestors and their
former ways. These are in fact the men who, possessed of clear
minds and far-sighted spirit, are not satisfied, like the brutish
mass, to see only what is at their feet, but rather look about them,
behind and before, and even recall the things of the past in order
to judge those of the future, and compare both with their present
condition. These are the ones who, having good minds of their
own, have further trained them by study and learning. Even if
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liberty had entirely perished from the earth, such men would
invent it. For them slavery has no satisfactions, no matter how
well disguised.
The Grand Turk16 was well aware that books and teaching
more than anything else give men the sense to comprehend their
own nature and to detest tyranny. I understand that in his
territory there are few educated people, for he does not want
many. On account of this restriction, men of strong zeal and
devotion, who in spite of the passing of time have preserved their
love of freedom, still remain ineffective because, however
numerous they may be, they are not known to one another; under
the tyrant they have lost freedom of action, of speech, and almost
of thought; they are alone in their aspiration. Indeed Momus, god
of mockery, was not merely joking when he found this to
criticize in the man fashioned by Vulcan, namely, that the maker
had not set a little window in his creature's heart to render his
thoughts visible. It is reported that Brutus, Cassius, and Casca,
on undertaking to free Rome, and for that matter the whole
world, refused to include in their band Cicero, that great
enthusiast for the public welfare if ever there was one, because
they considered his heart too timid for such a lofty deed; they
trusted his willingness but they were none too sure of his
courage. Yet whoever studies the deeds of earlier days and the
annals of antiquity will find practically no instance of heroes
who failed to deliver their country from evil hands when they set
about their task with a firm, whole-hearted, and sincere intention.
Liberty, as if to reveal her nature, seems to have given them new
strength. Harmodios and Aristogiton, Thrasybulus, Brutus the
Elder, Valerianus, and Dion achieved successfully what they
planned virtuously: for hardly ever does good fortune fail a
strong will. Brutus the Younger and Cassius were successful in
eliminating servitude, and although they perished in their attempt
16
The Ottoman Sultan of Constantinople was often called the Grand Turk.---M.N.R
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to restore liberty, they did not die miserably (what blasphemy it
would be to say there was anything miserable about these men,
either in their death or in their living!).17 Their loss worked great
harm, everlasting misfortune, and complete destruction of the
Republic, which appears to have been buried with them. Other
and later undertakings against the Roman emperors were merely
plottings of ambitious people, who deserve no pity for the
misfortunes that overtook them, for it is evident that they sought
not to destroy, but merely to usurp the crown, scheming to drive
away the tyrant, but to retain tyranny. For myself, I could not
wish such men to propser and I am glad they have shown by
their example that the sacred name of Liberty must never be used
to cover a false enterprise.
But to come back to the thread of our discourse, which I have
practically lost: the essential reason why men take orders
willingly is that they are born serfs and are reared as such. From
this cause there follows another result, namely that people easily
become cowardly and submissive under tyrants. For this
observation I am deeply grateful to Hippocrates, the renowned
father of medicine, who noted and reported it in a treatise of his
entitled Concerning Diseases. This famous man was certainly
endowed with a great heart and proved it clearly by his reply to
the Great King, who wanted to attach him to his person by
means of special privileges and large gifts. Hippocrates
answered frankly that it would be a weight on his conscience to
make use of his science for the cure of barbarians who wished to
slay his fellow Greeks, or to serve faithfully by his skill anyone
who undertook to enslave Greece. The letter he sent the king can
still be read among his other works and will forever testify to his
great heart and noble character.
17
Brutus and Cassias helped to assassinate Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. They committed
suicide after being defeated by Marcus Antonius at the Battles of Philippi in 42 B.C.---
M.N.R.
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By this time it should be evident that liberty once lost, valor
also perishes. A subject people shows neither gladness nor
eagerness in combat: its men march sullenly to danger almost as
if in bonds, and stultified; they do not feel throbbing within them
that eagerness for liberty which engenders scorn of peril and
imparts readiness to acquire honor and glory by a brave death
amidst one's comrades. Among free men there is competition as
to who will do most, each for the common good, each by
himself, all expecting to share in the misfortunes of defeat, or in
the benefits of victory; but an enslaved people loses in addition
to this warlike courage, all signs of enthusiasm, for their hearts
are degraded, submissive, and incapable of any great deed.
Tyrants are well aware of this, and, in order to degrade their
subjects further, encourage them to assume this attitude and
make it instinctive.
Xenophon, grave historian of first rank among the Greeks,
wrote a book in which he makes Simonides speak with Hieron,
Tyrant of Syracuse, concerning the anxieties of the tyrant. This
book is full of fine and serious remonstrances, which in my
opinion are as persuasive as words can be. Would to God that all
despots who have ever lived might have kept it before their eyes
and used it as a mirror! I cannot believe they would have failed
to recognize their warts and to have conceived some shame for
their blotches. In this treatise is explained the torment in which
tyrants find themselves when obliged to fear everyone because
they do evil unto every man. Among other things we find the
statement that bad kings employ foreigners in their wars and pay
them, not daring to entrust weapons in the hands of their own
people, whom they have wronged. (There have been good kings
who have used mercenaries from foreign nations, even among
the French, although more so formerly than today, but with the
quite different purpose of preserving their own people,
considering as nothing the loss of money in the effort to spare
French lives. That is, I believe, what Scipio the great African
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meant when he said he would rather save one citizen than defeat
a hundred enemies.) For it is plainly evident that the dictator
does not consider his power firmly established until he has
reached the point where there is no man under him who is of any
worth. Therefore there may be justly applied to him the reproach
to the master of the elephants made by Thrason and reported by
Terence:
Are you indeed so proud
Because you command wild beasts?
This method tyrants use of stultifying their subjects cannot be
more clearly observed than in what Cyrus did with the Lydians
after he had taken Sardis, their chief city, and had at his mercy
the captured Croesus, their fabulously rich king. When news was
brought to him that the people of Sardis had rebelled, it would
have been easy for him to reduce them by force; but being
unwilling either to sack such a fine city or to maintain an army
there to police it, he thought of an unusual expedient for
reducing it. He established in it brothels, taverns, and public
games, and issued the proclamation that the inhabitants were to
enjoy them. He found this type of garrison so effective that he
never again had to draw the sword against the Lydians. These
wretched people enjoyed themselves inventing all kinds of
games, so that the Latins have derived the word from them, and
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