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 Plutarch
was a Greek writer (46 to 125 A.D.) whose biographies of Greek
and Roman greats were meant to spur men to develop more noble
character. In his life of Numa Pompilius he comments at length
on an unusual period of 43 years of peace in Rome, and offers an
analysis of the reasons for such a period.
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“The
love of virtue and justice flowed from Numa’s wisdom as from a
fountain, and the serenity of his spirit diffused itself, like a
calm, on all sides; so that the hyperboles of poets were flat
and tame to express what then existed; as that
“Over the iron shield
The spiders hang their threads”..
For
during the whole reign of Numa, there was neither war, nor
sedition, nor innovations in the state, nor any envy or ill-will
to his person, nor plot or conspiracy from views of ambition.
Either fear of the gods that were thought to watch over him, or
reverence for his virtue, or divine felicity of fortune that in
his days preserved human innocence, made his reign, by whatever
means, a living example and verification of that saying which
Plato, long afterwards, ventured to pronounce, that the sole and
only hope of respite or remedy for human evils was in some happy
conjunction of events which should unite in a single person the
power of a king and the wisdom of a philosopher, so as to
elevate virtue to control and mastery over vice.
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The
wise man is blessed in himself, and blessed also are the
auditors who can hear and receive those words which flow from
his mouth; and perhaps, too, there is no need of compulsion or
menaces to affect the multitude, for the mere sight itself of a
shining and conspicuous example of virtue in the life of their
prince will bring them spontaneously to virtue, and to a
conformity with that blameless and blessed life of goodwill and
mutual concord, supported by temperance and justice, which is
the highest benefit that human means can confer; and he is the
truest ruler who can best introduce it into the hearts and
practice of his subjects. It is the praise of Numa that no one
seems ever to have discerned this so clearly as he.”
Alexis
de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who studied America thoroughly in
the 1830’s, wrote a book about his experiences. He heard, in
early America, “pulpits aflame for righteousness” and he
said, “America is great because America is good. If America
ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” (From “Classic
Lines.”)
Dr.
Arnold Toynbee, historian of the rise and fall of civilizations,
named the “morality gap” as one of the most crucial issues
of our time.
It
is not our purpose to seek, directly, the salvation of this
nation. Christianity is a leavening influence which works from
the individual out, and our work is to save ourselves, and as
many others as will come to Christ, with reference to eternity.
But wise men know, “Righteousness exalteth a nation —” not
politics.
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