Dean was emphatic the best course of action was to play leave-it-alone.
This view is corroborated by the phenomenon of remorse, in which the agent feels that he ought to, and could, have chosen a different course of action.
It was a course of action he had no intention of pursuing.
The historic importance of this event gave rise to the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" for a step which definitely commits a person to a given course of action.
Censure might more reasonably be bestowed on him because he deliberately advised a course of action than which nothing can be conceived better calculated to strengthen the hands of an absolute monarch.'
