"I am not ignorant that at entertainments and in conversation, these excesses are censured, and a regulation is required: and yet if an equal law were made, if equal penalties were prescribed, these very censurers would loudly complain, _that the State was utterly overturned, that snares and destruction were prepared for every illustrious house, that no men could be guiltless, and all men would be the prey of informers_. And yet bodily diseases grown inveterate and strengthened by time, cannot be checked but by medicines rigid and violent: it is the same with the soul: the sick and raging soul, itself corrupted and scattering its corruption, is not to be qualified but by remedies equally strong with its own flaming lusts. So many laws made by our ancestors, so many added by the deified Augustus; the former being lost in oblivion, and (which is more heinous) the latter in contempt, have only served to render luxury more secure. When we covet a thing yet unforbid, we are apt to fear that it may be forbid; but when once we can with impunity and defiance overleap prohibited bounds, there remains afterwards nor fear nor shame. How therefore did parsimony prevail of old? It was because, every one was a law to himself; it was because we were then only masters of one city: nor afterwards, while our dominion was confined only to Italy, had we found the same instigations to voluptuousness. By foreign conquests, we learned to waste the property of others; and in the Civil Wars, to consume our own. What a mighty matter is it that the Aediles remonstrate! how little to be weighed in the balance with others? It is wonderful that nobody represents, that Italy is in constant want of foreign supplies; that the lives of the Roman People are daily at the mercy of uncertain seas and of tempests: were it not for our supports from the provinces; supports, by which the masters, and their slaves, and their estates, are maintained; would our own groves and villas maintain us? This care therefore, Conscript Fathers, is the business of the Prince; and by the neglect of this care, the foundations of the State would be dissolved. The cure of other defects depends upon our own private spirits: some of us, shame will reclaim; necessity will mend the poor; satiety the rich. Or if any of the Magistrates, from a confidence of his own firmness and perseverance, will undertake to stem the progress of so great an evil; he has both my praises, and my acknowledgment, that he discharges me of part of my fatigues: but if such will only impeach corruptions, and when they have gained the glory, would leave upon me the indignation (indignation of their own raising); believe me, Conscript Fathers, I am not fond of bearing resentments: I already suffer many for the Commonwealth; many that are grievous and almost all unjust; and therefore with reason I intreat that I may not be loaded with such as are wantonly and vainly raised, and promise no advantage to you nor to me."