nor yet repining at their honors, or sparing to speak freely in
commendation of their good actions, if they say or do any thing
advantageous to the public. For thus will our reprehension, when it
is requisite, be credited, and we shall render them averse to vice,
increasing their virtue, and showing, by comparing them, how much the
one is more worthy and beseeming them than the other.
But I indeed am also of opinion, that a statesman should in just causes
give testimony to his enemies, stand by them when they are accused by
sycophants, and discredit imputations brought against them if they are
repugnant to their characters; as Nero himself, a little before he put
to death Thraseas, whom of all men he both most hated and feared, when
one accused him for giving a wrong and unjust sentence, said: I wish
Thraseas was but as great a lover of me, as he is a most upright judge.
Neither is it amiss for the daunting of others who are by Nature more
inclined to vice, when they offend, to make mention of some enemy of
theirs who is better behaved, and say, Such a one would not have spoken
or acted thus. And some again, when they transgress, are to be put in
mind of their virtuous progenitors. Thus Homer says,