Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/67

 merited and might demand the greatest Rewards, but like an Offender who had come to supplicate a Pardon for his Crimes. His Reception was answerable: "Brevi osculo, & nullo sermone exceptus, turba servientium immistus est." Yet in that worst Season of this worst of monarchical Tyrannies, Modesty, Discretion, and a Coolness of Temper, formed some Kind of Security even for the highest Merit. But at Athens, the nicest and best studied Behaviour was not a sufficient Guard for a Man of great Capacity. Some of their bravest Commanders were obliged to fly their Country, some to enter into the Service of it's Enemies, rather than abide a popular Determination on their Conduct, lest, as one of them said, their Giddiness might make the People condemn where they meant to acquit; to throw in a black Bean, even when they intended a white one.