So he readily agreed and bade him speak his mind.
[15] "In my view, then," said Tigranes, "if you approve of all that my father has said and done, certainly you ought to do as he did, but if you think he has done wrong, then you must not copy him." "But surely," said Cyrus, "the best way to avoid copying the wrongdoer is to practise what is right ?" "True enough," answered the prince.
"Then on your own reasoning, I am bound to punish your father, if it is right to punish wrong." "But would you wish your vengeance to do you harm instead of good ?" "Nay," said Cyrus, "for then my vengeance would fall upon myself." [16] "Even so," said Tigranes, "and you will do yourself the greatest harm if you put your own subjects to death just when they are most valuable to you." "Can they have any value," asked Cyrus, "when they are detected doing wrong ?" "Yes," answered Tigranes, "if that is when they turn to good and learn sobriety.

For it is my belief, Cyrus, that without this virtue all others are in vain.

What good will you get from a strong man or a brave if he lack sobriety, be he never so good a horseman, never so rich, never so powerful in the state?
But with sobriety every friend is a friend in need and every servant a blessing." [17] "I take your meaning," answered Cyrus; "your father, you would have me think, has been changed in this one day from a fool into a wise and sober-minded man ?" "Exactly," said the prince.
"Then you would call sober-mindedness a condition of our nature, such as pain, not a matter of reason that can be learnt?
For certainly, if he who is to be sober-minded must learn wisdom first, he could not be converted from folly in a day." [18] "Nay, but, Cyrus," said the prince, "surely you yourself have known one man at least who out of sheer folly has set himself to fight a stronger man than he, and on the day of defeat his senselessness has been cured.

And surely you have known a city ere now that has marshalled her battalions against a rival state, but with defeat she changes suddenly and is willing to obey and not resist ?" [19] "But what defeat," said Cyrus, "can you find in your father's case to make you so sure that he has come to a sober mind ?" "A defeat," answered the young man, "of which he is well aware in the secret chambers of his soul.

He set his heart on liberty, and he has found himself a slave as never before: he had designs that needed stealth and speed and force, and not one of them has he been able to carry through.