Pt. 3 Periander spoke: “If four out of five sick patients perishes because a Doctor was unable to identify the disease, we’d excuse the Doctor for this. But we here at this council are judged by Apollo to be the true salt of this earth. That we should not have the wherewithal to diagnose the source of the evil that plagues our generation is a true shame upon us. It’s made worse because this malady is not some small, creeping germ deep in the veins of our belly, but instead a disease so superficial that it is obvious to all men! Still, it seems to me you are looking everywhere besides where the sickness truly is. The vices of the powerful are what throw this world into confusion. Yet here you desire to reform the issues of small men and think this will be sufficient to rescue us? It cannot be the vices of small men that have so depraved our generation, because one need only look to see the multitude of laws and statutes providing every possible fitting punishment - these are the laws reigning over small men, and to them they are so obedient that a few judges and lawyers have made the millions tremble. Among the normal people there is such a natural peace of calm waters that the rich cannot risk to oppress them, except in the most subtle ways, else risk their own necks by stirring the waters! Look how everyone of them walks safely to and fro, even with gold in their pockets, down the highways. The real scandal of our present hour is the sword that the powerful have wielded over the States. Such is the double-standard that fills the world with hatred! The power of these few attracts the attention of the common people, and seeing their ruthless ambition, which the latter aims to mimic, the public scene becomes a veritable war. Love that we’d otherwise give to our neighbors, which all animals grant unto their own species, disappears as we begin to turn on each other, just as whole nations turn on their neighbors. Our fellow people cease to appear like brothers, but instead appear as villainous creatures. It is by the trickle-down of strategy and sword-swinging from the highest offices of power that everyday people now behave with the instincts of beasts, seeking any and all means to oppress anyone identified as weaker. It isn’t as though we lack the proper categories for labeling wrongdoing under the law. Rather, they have multiplied so unnaturally as to be uncountable! There is no sane man who doubts that theft is wicked, but such things are today so meticulously persecuted by laws on books that so much as stealing a single chicken egg becomes a capital fault! Yet, when the powerful use loopholes and bylaws and institutions to steal a man’s entire income or estate, this is not seen as a crime, but as a noble profession! And what recourse have the masses? I ask you! To take a kingdom from a King is no small business, it upsets all the kingdom, and it cannot be done by one man alone. So they gather to effect the recovery of their land from the tyrant, and previously law-abiding men, in order to avoid the shame of being called thieves, change their names from thieves to ‘gallant men’, each becoming a hero. What truly aggravates this evil is that even Good Princes are forced to defend their estates from classes of ravenous ideologues who are inflamed by the examples of other revolutions! So the Ruler has his reprisal and the uprising is snuffed, but only for a time until lured again by the antagonism of instigators, the rabble return to their shameful revolutionary trade. Such methods of inciting cycles of plunder and reprisal in kingdoms has become a reputable art form. Today, instead of contemplating the miracles of Heaven and of Nature, man turns himself to the worship of cunning strategists and players of games. So he also takes up his hands to harm others, when those hands were created to work the earth. I say the remedy to our ills is the limitation of power. Princes who scapegoat the law and who use such tactics must be removed. The size of governments must be limited, and the powers of its offices checked. Instigators against just government must be culled. Kingdoms that grow too large cannot apply the degree of care that their leaders owe to their people or to themselves. Never was there a vast monarchy that was not eventually lost to the negligence of its leaders. The consolidation of power is our enemy.” To this, Solon returned: “We did not omit what you have called our attention to because we are ignorant, but because we are prudent. These problems you speak of began when the world of man was born! They cannot be eliminated by us sooner than a Doctor could restore the vision of someone born blind. As reformers, we might have prevented the abuses of which you speak if we’d caught them in the first hour, but this corruption is so deeply rooted that treating it in this late hour risks promoting even greater chaos. What we are here to do is call attention to the corruptions of private men and to be silent as it concerns Princes, because those powerful men have no superiors on earth. They have but one superior who is the Almighty. It is God that has given Princes the prerogative to command, and likewise to us the glory to obey them. The ruled can only correct the faults of their Rulers through Godly living. The hearts of Princes are in the very hands of the Almighty, so that when God sees the People deserve ill, He raises up a Pharaoh for them. Likewise, when people are obedient to God, he softens the hearts of rulers.” Solon finished, and his opinion was commended by all of the hearers. But, Cato the Elder interjected: “Wise Grecians, you do seem to have discovered all the wounds of our age, but I say that the disease is so established, so old and enduring, that the constitution of our race has simply given out. Good Doctors, your patient yet spits blood and putrid things, and the hair falls from his head! A Doctor is at a loss when the medicine he uses to treat one organ becomes damaging to another. Our afflictions are in every organ, and they’re equal in number to the stars in Heaven! This patient is beyond help. Our only recourse is to prayer and the Divine help that we implore from the grace of God. In the past, when mankind had sunk into a similar disorder, it was God who sent the Flood to wipe them from the face of the world. Similarly, when a man sees that the walls of his house are collapsing, and the foundation is ready to break, he is wiser to pull down the house and begin again, than to waste his time patching it. So I pray to the Almighty, and I counsel you to do the same, that He might open up the skies again and bring another flood. Incidentally, on the new Ark that is to be made, I think it better that no women are allowed on it, and that afterward all men of the world reproduce asexually. I have learned with utter certainty that so long as there are women in the world, men will be wicked.” The whole council rose into a clamor, with most tossing themselves to the ground and some holding their hands toward Heaven, praying humbly to God to not only preserve women, but also to refrain from sending a flood. Cato’s opinion was unanimously rejected. Then Seneca spoke: “Wise men, we do not need to deal so roughly to succeed in our Universal Reformation, despite your insistence otherwise. As the disorder of the world has grown to such a great height, we ought to approach it with a careful hand. There can be no worse humiliation to the Doctor than when his patient dies with his prescription still in his body. All men shall look and say that the medicine itself was the death-dealer. Going from one extreme to another is rash. A wise man recognizes that it is in the nature of mankind to resist sudden mutation. If it is true, then, that his nature has been failing for thousands of years, only a fool would believe it could be restored in a couple days. In an effective Reformation, the qualities of the ones doing the reforming must be matched to the qualities of those who are being reformed. As philosophers, we might have succeeded if the only ones in need of reforming were printers, paper sellers and ink-spillers. For us to fix the faults of other domains would undoubtedly introduce other faults. The shoe cobbler does not correct the painter. It is just the conceit of the intelligentsia to pretend to know more than they know. Truthfully, we philosophers are out of line the moment we take our heads out of our books! The only ones to do the Reforming are those who are intimately acquainted with the vices they are dealing with. Nothing could make a man refuse to hear instruction more than a teacher who doesn’t know what he is talking about. Which of you on this council is acquainted with the particular corruptions of judges, attorneys, pharmacists, tailors, cobblers, butchers, or any of a thousand other vocations? And yet here we are to correct the errors of them all?! The Reformation can only proceed properly when navigation is given over to sailors, when war is given over to soldiers, the sheep to the shepherds, and the steer to the herdsman. It can only be from out of bitterness if you think there aren’t at least three or four honest men in these professions, and to them I say it must be given to correct their own trade. This is the only way.” Pittachus and Chilo praised this speech, saying that it was impossible to find a better solution. The others hated Seneca’s opinion, and they rebuked him for dishonoring Apollo, who had thought their group sufficient for the business at hand. They said it was very unwise to begin the Reformation by admitting to their weakness, for it is the very spirit of business that depends on the reputations of businessmen! They could not believe that this cherished sage of the Latins would have been so dismissive of the jurisdiction given to their council by the gods. At this moment a depression came over the council. Despite their disagreement with Seneca, they knew the honor of his opinion meant there was small hope for their Reformation to go through. So far, they had relied very little on Mazzoni because he was a novice among them. Mazzoni was aware of this, but not letting it discourage him, he stood and finally spoke up: “I understand Apollo did not admit me to this revered congregation on account of my merit, but only out of his graciousness. Until now I’ve thought it more appropriate for me to listen, rather than speak, but now I’d like to speak about a business with which I am so versed that I dare say I am the only expert present here. You all seem to me like Doctors who waste time in consulting and disputing, yet you’ve never even seen the sick party! Your goal is to cure the present age, and while you have all been laying out your reasons for the sickness, none of you has been so wise to go and see the sick party! I advise that we send for the present Age to come before us so that we can examine him. If we are able to question the Age and perhaps see his diseased parts naked, the cure will be easy.” The whole group was so taken by Mazzoni’s motion that they immediately asked for the present Age to be called before them. So the Age was called to the palace at Delphi. The council took a moment to appreciate him. He was a man of many years, but he possessed such a strong complexion that they thought he might live many ages longer. He was, however, short of breath and his voice was weak. This made the philosophers curious because his reddish face was a sign of natural vigor, and so they couldn’t understand why the Age was so feeble. They said to him: “A hundred years ago, your face was so yellow that you appeared to have jaundice, yet back then you spoke strongly and seemed better than you are now. Please, tell us what grieves you.” The Age answered: “Soon after I was born, this sickness fell upon me. My face is fresh and red because people have colored it with pigments. In a way, my sickness is like the ebbing and flowing of the sea. It always contains the same water, though it rises and falls. When my looks are outwardly good, my disease is greater inside, as it is now. When my face looks ill, I am the best within. As for what torments me, you only need to remove my jacket to see that people have used it to cover a rotten carcass. Take off my jacket and view me as I was made by nature.” So the philosophers stripped off the Age’s jacket and found a wretch covered everywhere with four inches thick of scale. The men called for razors to be brought in, and they took to shaving off the plaque with great care, but it had so far eaten into the giant’s bones that not a single piece of good flesh remained. A wave of despair swept over the council of men, and they put the patient’s clothes back on and dismissed him. Shortly, they concluded that the disease was incurable. So they shut themselves up in the palace for a time, abandoning the case of the public welfare and resolving instead to secure the safety of their reputations. Mazzoni was writing down what the rest of the reformers were dictating to him, a Manifesto perhaps, where they determined to tell the world about the great care Apollo showed for his virtuous men of esteem; also, his care for the well-being of mankind. In the Manifesto, they set the market price of sardines, cabbages, and pumpkins, as well as some other commodities. They had just underwritten this document when Thales reminded them that certain peddlers, who sold peas and black cherries, were selling in such small volumes that it would be shameful not to adjust the market favorably here **(5)**. The assembly thanked Thales and added to the Manifesto that the volume for sale of those goods should be increased. Then they threw open the palace doors and read the Reformation out to the throngs of people who’d gathered in the marketplace. The announcement was so applauded that the whole city rang with the clamor of joy. **For the masses have always been satisfied by trifles, while men of judgment know that as long as there be men, there will be vices - that men live on earth indeed not well, but as little ill as possible, and the height of human wisdom lies with having the discretion to be content leaving the world as we found it.**