[146]
Although I should grant to you that it would be a scandalous thing, (and the
fact I will examine into presently,) still you must inevitably grant to me that it is a much
more scandalous thing that the laws should be departed from in that state which is entirely
held together by the laws; for this is the bond of this dignity which we enjoy in the
republic, this is the foundation of our liberty, this is the source of justice. The mind, and
spirit, and wisdom, and intentions of the city are all situated in the laws. As our bodies
cannot, if deprived of the mind, so the state, if deprived of law, cannot use its separate
parts, which are to it as its sinews, its blood, and its limbs. The ministers of the law are
the magistrates; the interpreters of the law are the judges; lastly, we are all servants of
the laws, for the very purpose of being able to be freemen. What is the reason, O Naso, why you sit in that place?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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