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31. Everybody, however, must resolutely hold1
fast to his own peculiar gifts, in so far as they are
peculiar only and not vicious, in order that propriety,
which is the object of our inquiry, may the more
easily be secured. For we must so act as not to
oppose the universal laws of human nature, but,
while safeguarding those, to follow the bent of our
own particular nature; and even if other careers
should be better and nobler, we may still regulate
our own pursuits by the standard of our own nature.
For it is of no avail to fight against one's nature or to
aim at what is impossible of attainment. From this
fact the nature of that propriety defined above comes
into still clearer light, inasmuch as nothing is proper
that “goes against the grain,” as the saying is—
that is, if it is in direct opposition to one's natural
genius.
1 Conduct must accord with individual endowments.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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