1What, then, is his duty? 1That of good parents, who are accustomed to rebuke their children sometimes gently, sometimes with threats, and at times even to admonish them with blows. 1Does any sane man disinherit his son for a first offence? 1Unless great and many injuries have overcome his patience, unless what he fears is more than what he condemns, he does not take up the pen of final decree; 1he first tries many things by which to recall a character still wavering and already set on a worse course; 1as soon as it is past hope, he tries the last resort. 1No one comes to exacting punishment except one who has exhausted the remedies.
2What a parent must do, a prince must do also, whom we have called Father of his Country, not led by empty flattery. 2For other titles have been given as honours; 2we have called them Great and Fortunate and August, and heaped on ambitious majesty every title we could, granting them this much; 2but we have called him Father of his Country so that he might know that the power given him was a father's power, which is most restrained, caring for its children and putting its own interests after theirs. 3Slowly let a father cut off his own limbs; even when he has cut them off, let him long to restore them, and in cutting let him groan, after hesitating much and long; 3for he who condemns quickly is close to condemning gladly; 3he who punishes too much is close to punishing unjustly.