Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

ON xMERCY, I. xxv. 2-xxvi 1delight in the afflictions of mankind ; then indeedthe dread disease of that man's " mind has reachedthe farthest limit of insanity, when cruelty haschanged into pleasure and to kill a human beingnow becomes a joy. Hot upon the heels of such aman follow loathing, hatred, poison, and the sword ;he is assailed by as many perils as there are many mento whom he is himself a peril, and he is beset sometimesby the plots of individuals, at times, indeed,by an uprising of the community. For whole citiesare not roused by the trivial destruction of singleindividuals ; but that which begins to rage widespreadand aims at all becomes the mark of everyweapon. Tiny snakes pass unnoticed and noorganized hunt is made for them ; but when oneexceeds the usual size and grows into a monster,when it poisons springs with its venom, with itsbreath scorches and destroys, then, wherever itadvances, it is attacked \\ith engines of war. Pettyevils may elude us and escape, but we go out againstthe great ones. So, too, one sick person causes noconfusion even in his own household ; but whenrepeated deaths show that a plague prevails, thereis a general outcry and flight of the community,and threatening hands are hfted toward the godsthemselves. If a fire is discovered beneath somesingle roof, the family and the neighbours pour onwater ; but a widespread conflagration that has nowconsumed many homes is put down only by thedestruction of half the city.The cruelty even of men in private station hasbeen avenged by the hands of slaves despite theircertain risk of crucifixion ; nations and peoples haveset to work to extirpate the cruelty of tyrants, when425