So sovereign a good do I, for my part, esteem it to be loved, that I
do verily believe spontaneous blessings are outpoured from gods and
men on one so favoured.

This is that choice possession which, beyond all others, the monarch
is deprived of.

But if you require further evidence that what I say is true, look at
the matter thus: No friendship, I presume, is sounder than that which
binds parents to their children and children to their parents,
brothers and sisters to each other,[9] wives to husbands, comrade to
comrade.

[9] Or, "brothers to brothers."

If, then, you will but thoughtfully consider it, you will discover it
is the ordinary person who is chiefly blest in these relations.[10]
While of tyrants, many have been murderers of their own children, many
by their children murdered. Many brothers have been murderers of one
another in contest for the crown;[11] many a monarch has been done to
death by the wife of his bosom,[12] or even by his own familiar
friend, by him of whose affection he was proudest.[13]

[10] Or, "that these more obvious affections are the sanctities of
private life."

[11] Or, "have caught at the throats of brothers"; lit. "been slain
with mutually-murderous hand." Cf. Pind. Fr. 137; Aesch. "Sept. c.
Theb." 931; "Ag." 1575, concerning Eteocles and Polynices.