ought he to refrain from speaking positively himself when he cannot
know precisely; his agents may step in and do it in his place; but he
should reserve his own appeal for the supreme crises of supreme
danger, and not dissipate his credit."

"By heaven, a most admirable suggestion!" cried Cyrus, "and one much
more to my mind! [20] As for enforcing obedience, I hope I have had
some training in that already; you began my education yourself when I
was a child by teaching me to obey you, and then you handed me over to
masters who did as you had done, and afterwards, when we were lads, my
fellows and myself, there was nothing on which the governors laid more
stress. Our laws themselves, I think, enforce this double lesson:--
'Rule thou and be thou ruled.' And when I come to study the secret of
it all, I seem to see that the real incentive to obedience lies in the
praise and honour that it wins against the discredit and the
chastisement which fall on the disobedient." [21] "That, my son," said
the father, "is the road to the obedience of compulsion. But there is
a shorter way to a nobler goal, the obedience of the will. When the
interests of mankind are at stake, they will obey with joy the man
whom they believe to be wiser than themselves. You may prove this on
all sides: you may see how the sick man will beg the doctor to tell
him what he ought to do, how a whole ship's company will listen to the
pilot, how travellers will cling to the one who knows the way better,
as they believe, than they do themselves. But if men think that
obedience will lead them to disaster, then nothing, neither penalties,
nor persuasion, nor gifts, will avail to rouse them. For no man
accepts a bribe to his own destruction." [22] "You would have me
understand," said Cyrus, "that the best way to secure obedience is to
be thought wiser than those we rule?" "Yes," said Cambyses, "that is
my belief."