many a time bravely resolved to endure any sufferings, rather
than speak one word against our law.

32. Nay, indeed, in case it had so fallen out, that our nation
had not been so thoroughly known among all men as they
are, and our voluntary submission to our laws had not been
so open and manifest as it is, but that somebody had
pretended to have written these laws himself, and had read
them to the Greeks, or had pretended that he had met with
men out of the limits of the known world, that had such
reverent notions of God, and had continued a long time in
the firm observance of such laws as ours, I cannot but
suppose that all men would admire them on a reflection upon
the frequent changes they had therein been themselves
subject to; and this while those that have attempted to write
somewhat of the same kind for politic government, and for
laws, are accused as composing monstrous things, and are
said to have undertaken an impossible task upon them. And
here I will say nothing of those other philosophers who have
undertaken any thing of this nature in their writings. But
even Plato himself, who is so admired by the Greeks on
account of that gravity in his manners, and force in his words,
and that ability he had to persuade men beyond all other
philosophers, is little better than laughed at and exposed to
ridicule on that account, by those that pretend to sagacity in
political affairs; although he that shall diligently peruse his
writings will find his precepts to be somewhat gentle, and
pretty near to the customs of the generality of mankind. Nay,
Plato himself confesseth that it is not safe to publish the
true