And what marvel if you purchase so great a thing at so great and high a price? For the sake of this that men deem liberty, some hang themselves, others cast themselves down from the rock; aye, time has been when whole cities came utterly to an end: while for the sake of Freedom that is true, and sure, and unassailable, do you grudge to God what He gave, when He claims it?
Will you not study, as Plato says, to endure, not death alone, but torture, exile, stripes—in a word, to render up all that is not your own?
Else you will be a slave amid slaves, were you ten thousand times a consul; aye, not a whit the less, though you climb the Palace steps.
And you shall know how true the saying of Cleanthes, that though the words of philosophers may run counter to the opinions of the world, yet have they reason on their side.
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