obvious that flocks and herds were more ready to obey their keepers
than men their rulers? Watch the cattle wending their way wherever
their herdsmen guide them, see them grazing in the pastures where they
are sent and abstaining from forbidden grounds, the fruit of their own
bodies they yield to their master to use as he thinks best; nor have
we ever seen one flock among them all combining against their
guardian, either to disobey him or to refuse him the absolute control
of their produce. On the contrary, they are more apt to show hostility
against other animals than against the owner who derives advantage
from them. But with man the rule is converse; men unite against none
so readily as against those whom they see attempting to rule over
them. [3] As long, therefore, as we followed these reflexions, we
could not but conclude that man is by nature fitted to govern all
creatures, except his fellow-man. But when we came to realise the
character of Cyrus the Persian, we were led to a change of mind: here
is a man, we said, who won for himself obedience from thousands of his
fellows, from cities and tribes innumerable: we must ask ourselves
whether the government of men is after all an impossible or even a
difficult task, provided one set about it in the right way. Cyrus, we
know, found the readiest obedience in his subjects, though some of
them dwelt at a distance which it would take days and months to
traverse, and among them were men who had never set eyes on him, and
for the matter of that could never hope to do so, and yet they were
willing to obey him. [4] Cyrus did indeed eclipse all other monarchs,
before or since, and I include not only those who have inherited their
power, but those who have won empire by their own exertions. How far
he surpassed them all may be felt if we remember that no Scythian,
although the Scythians are reckoned by their myriads, has ever
succeeded in dominating a foreign nation; indeed the Scythian would be
well content could he but keep his government unbroken over his own