[87]
A most wretched custom, assuredly, is our electioneering 1 and scrambling for office. Concerning
this also we find a fine thought in Plato: “Those
who compete against one another,” he says, “to see
which of two candidates shall administer the government, are like sailors quarrelling as to which one of
them shall do the steering.” And he likewise lays
down the rule that we should regard only those as
adversaries who take up arms against the state, not
those who strive to have the government administered according to their convictions. This was the
spirit of the disagreement between Publius Africanus
and Quintus Metellus: there was in it no trace of
rancour.
1 (2) self-seeking,
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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