[158]
And it is not true, as certain people maintain, that
the bonds of union in human society were instituted
in order to provide for the needs of daily life; for,
they say, without the aid of others we could not
[p. 163]
secure for ourselves or supply to others the things
that Nature requires; but if all that is essential to our
wants and comfort were supplied by some magic
wand, as in the stories, then every man of first-rate
ability could drop all other responsibility and devote
himself exclusively to learning and study. Not at
all. For he would seek to escape from his loneliness
and to find someone to share his studies; he would
wish to teach, as well as to learn; to hear, as well as
to speak. Every duty, therefore, that tends effectively to maintain and safeguard human society should
be given the preference over that duty which arises
from speculation and science alone.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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