Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/248

 ing? Which would they admire most, the Villainy or the Meanness of such a Conduct?

I add, that the same People were as proud of their Slavery and Dependance as the Athenians were of their Liberty; and tho' a Man among them were opprest, disgrac'd, impoverish'd, insulted, or imprison'd by the Tyrant, he would still regard it as the highest Merit to love, serve, and obey him; and even to die for his smallest Glory or Satisfaction: These noble Greeks would probably ask me, whether I spoke of a human Society, or of some inferior, servile Species.

' then I might inform my Athenian Audience, that these People, however, wanted not Spirit and Bravery. If a Man, says I, tho' their intimate Friend, should throw out, in a private Company, a Raillery against them, nearly approaching any of those, with which your Generals and Demagogues every Day regale each other, in the Face of the whole City, they never can forgive him; but in order to revenge themselves, they oblige him immediately to run them thro' the Body, or be himself murder'd. And if a Man, who is an absolute Stranger to them, should desire them, at the Peril of their own Life, to cut the Throat of their Bosom-companion▪ they immediately obey, and think them-