Chapter XX: Introduction: To the First Book,

BY THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR.

Cicero introduces his subject by showing that men were not born
for the mere abstract study of philosophy, but that the study
of philosophic truth should always be made as practical as
possible, and applicable to the great interests of
philanthropy and patriotism. Cicero endeavors to show the
benefit of mingling the contemplative or philosophic with the
political and active life, according to that maxim of
Plato--"Happy is the nation whose philosophers are kings, and
whose kings are philosophers."

This kind of introduction was the more necessary because many
of the ancient philosophers, too warmly attached to
transcendental metaphysics and sequestered speculations, had
affirmed that true philosophers ought not to interest
themselves in the management of public affairs. Thus, as M.
Villemain observes, it was a maxim of the Epicureans,
"Sapiens ne accedat ad rempublicam" (Let no wise man meddle
in politics). The Pythagoreans had enforced the same
principle with more gravity. Aristotle examines the question
on both sides, and concludes in favor of active life. Among
Aristotle's disciples, a writer, singularly elegant and pure,
had maintained the pre-eminence of the contemplative life
over the political or active one, in a work which Cicero
cites with admiration, and to which he seems to have applied
for relief whenever he felt harassed and discouraged in
public business. But here this great man was interested by
the subject he discusses, and by the whole course of his
experience and conduct, to refute the dogmas of that
pusillanimous sophistry and selfish indulgence by bringing
forward the most glorious examples and achievements of
patriotism. In this strain he had doubtless commenced his
exordium, and in this strain we find him continuing it at the
point in which the palimpsest becomes legible. He then
proceeds to introduce his illustrious interlocutors, and
leads them at first to discourse on the astronomical laws
that regulate the revolutions of our planet. From this, by a
very graceful and beautiful transition, he passes on to the
consideration of the best forms of political constitutions
that had prevailed in different nations, and those modes of
government which had produced the greatest benefits in the
commonwealths of antiquity.

This first book is, in fact, a splendid epitome of the
political science of the age of Cicero, and probably the most
eloquent plea in favor of mixed monarchy to be found in all
literature.

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