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Since the occasion has thus brought public morals under my notice, the subject itself seems to call upon me to look back, and briefly to describe the conduct of our ancestorsConduct of our ancestors] Instituta majorum. The principles adopted by our ancestors, with regard both to their own conduct, and to the management of the state. That this is the meaning, is evident from the following account. in peace and war; how they managed the state, and how powerful they left it; and how, by gradual alteration, it became, from being the most virtuous, the most vicious and depraved.