sorts of wickedness shall we every day abandon ourselves?  I do not find what Sextus Peduceus did, in faithfully restoring the treasure that C. Plotius had committed to his sole secrecy and trust, a thing that I have often done myself, so commendable, as I should think it an execrable baseness, had we done otherwise; and I think it of good use in our days to recall the example of P. Sextilius Rufus, whom Cicero accuses to have entered upon an inheritance contrary to his conscience, not only not against law, but even by the determination of the laws themselves; and M. Crassus and Hortensius, who, by reason of their authority and power, having been called in by a stranger to share in the succession of a forged will, that so he might secure his own part, satisfied themselves with having no hand in the forgery, and refused not to make their advantage and to come in for a share:  secure enough, if they could shroud themselves from accusations, witnesses, and the cognisance of the laws: 

          “Meminerint Deum se habere testem, id est (ut ego arbitror)
          mentem suam.”

     ["Let them consider they have God to witness, that is (as I
     interpret it), their own consciences.”—­Cicero, De Offic., iii. 10.]

Virtue is a very vain and frivolous thing if it derive its recommendation from glory; and ’tis to no purpose that we endeavour to give it a station by itself, and separate it from fortune; for what is more accidental than reputation?

     “Profecto fortuna in omni re dominatur:  ea res cunctas ex
     libidine magis, quhm ex vero, celebrat, obscuratque.”

     ["Fortune rules in all things; it advances and depresses things
     more out of its own will than of right and justice.” 
     —­Sallust, Catilina, c. 8.]

So to order it that actions may be known and seen is purely the work of fortune; ’tis chance that helps us to glory, according to its own temerity.  I have often seen her go before merit, and often very much outstrip it.  He who first likened glory to a shadow did better than he was aware of; they are both of them things pre-eminently vain glory also, like a shadow, goes sometimes before the body, and sometimes in length infinitely exceeds it.  They who instruct gentlemen only to employ their valour for the obtaining of honour: 

          “Quasi non sit honestum, quod nobilitatum non sit;”

          ["As though it were not a virtue, unless celebrated”
          —­Cicero De Offic. iii. 10.]

what do they intend by that but to instruct them never to hazard themselves if they are not seen, and to observe well if there be witnesses present who may carry news of their valour, whereas a thousand occasions of well-doing present themselves which cannot be taken notice of?  How many brave individual actions are buried in the crowd of a battle?  Whoever shall take upon him to watch another’s behaviour in such a confusion is not very busy himself, and the testimony he shall give of his companions’ deportment will be evidence against himself: