widowhood and celibacy are commonly practised. No one takes a wife
unless he takes her away from some one else. Now men vie with one
another in wasting what they have stolen, and in collecting
together what they have wasted with the keenest avarice; they
become utterly reckless, scorn poverty in others, fear personal
injury more than anything else, break the peace by their riots, and
by violence and terror domineer over those who are weaker than
themselves. No wonder that they plunder provinces and offer the
seat of judgment for sale, knocking it down after an auction to the
highest bidder, since it is the law of nations that you may sell
what you have bought.

X. However, my enthusiasm has carried me further than I intended,
the subject being an inviting one. Let me, then, end by pointing
out that the disgrace of these crimes does not belong especially to
our own time. Our ancestors before us have lamented, and our
children after us will lament, as we do, the ruin, of morality, the
prevalence of vice, and the gradual deterioration of mankind; yet
these things are really stationary, only moved slightly to and fro
like the waves which at one time a rising tide washes further over
the land, and at another an ebbing one restrains within a lower
water mark. At one time the chief vice will be adultery, and
licentiousness will exceed all bounds; at another time a rage for
feasting will be in vogue, and men will waste their inheritance in
the most shameful of all ways, by the kitchen; at another,
excessive care for the body, and a devotion to personal beauty
which implies ugliness of mind; at another time, injudiciously
granted liberty will show itself in wanton recklessness and
defiance of authority; sometimes there will be a reign of cruelty
both in public and private, and the madness of the civil wars will