may call us or send us we must go, without any regard for our
private fortunes, sometimes without sparing even our own blood, nor
must we ever refuse to obey any of her commands. "What shall I
gain," says my opponent, "if I do this bravely and gratefully?" You
will gain the doing of it--the deed itself is your gain. Nothing
beyond this is promised. If any advantage chances to accrue to you,
count it as something extra. The reward of honourable dealings lies
in themselves. If honour is to be sought after for itself, since a
benefit is honourable, it follows that because both of these are of
the same nature, their conditions must also be the same. Now it has
frequently and satisfactorily been proved, that honour ought to be
sought after for itself alone.

II. In this part of the subject we oppose the Epicureans, an
effeminate and dreamy sect who philosophize in their own paradise,
amongst whom virtue is the handmaid of pleasures, obeys them, is
subject to them, and regards them as superior to itself. You say,
"there is no pleasure without virtue." But wherefore is it superior
to virtue? Do you imagine that the matter in dispute between them
is merely one of precedence? Nay, it is virtue itself and its
powers which are in question. It cannot be virtue if it can follow;
the place of virtue is first, she ought to lead, to command, to
stand in the highest rank; you bid her look for a cue to follow.
"What," asks our opponent, "does that matter to you? I also declare
that happiness is impossible without virtue. Without virtue I
disapprove of and condemn the very pleasures which I pursue, and to
which I have surrendered myself. The only matter in dispute is
this, whether virtue be the cause of the highest good, or whether
it be itself the highest good." Do you suppose, though this be the
only point in question, that it is a mere matter of precedence? It