Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/170

 J48 HISTORY OF GREECE. greatness, reflect that it was all acquired by men of daring, ac- quainted with their duty, and full of an honorable sense of shame in their actions," 1 such is the association which he presents between the greatness of the state as an object of common passion, and the courage, intelligence, and mutual esteem, of individual citizens, as its creating and preserving causes : poor as well as rich being alike interested in the partnership. But the claims of patriotism, though put forward as essentially and deservedly paramount, are by no means understood to reign exclusively, or to absorb the whole of the democratical activity. Subject to these, and to those laws and sanctions which protect both the public and individuals against wrong, it is the pride of Athens to exhibit a rich and varied fund of human impulse, an unrestrained play of fancy and diversity of private pursuit, coupled with a reciprocity of cheerful indulgence between one individual and another, and an absence even of those " black looks " which so much embitter life, even if they never pass into enmity of fact. This portion of the speech of Perikles deserves peculiar attention, because it serves to correct an assertion, often far too indiscriminately made, respecting antiquity as contrasted with modern societies, an assertion that the ancient societies sacrificed the individual to the state, and that only in modern times has individual agency been left free to the proper extent. This is preeminently true of Sparta : it is also true, in a great degree, of the ideal societies depicted by Plato and Aristotle : but it is pointedly untrue of the Athenian democracy, nor can we with any confidence predicate it of the major part of the Gre- cian cities. I shall hereafter return to this point when I reach the times of the great speculative philosophers : in the mean time I cannot pass over this speech of Perikles without briefly noticing the inference which it suggests, to negative the supposed exorbitant 1 Thucyd. ii, 43. TTJV r/}f TroAewf dvva/iiv Acatf' qpepav Ipyu ial ipaaTae yiyvofievovf avTrjf, nal brav vfj.lv fj.eyah.Ti 66^y elvai, vovc OTI ToX/j.uvref KOI yiyvuoKOvref T deovra, KOI h> roif epyoif alcr^vvo- tevoi uvtiptf ai-ru EK.Triaa.vTO, etc. Alvxwofitvot : compare Demosthen. Orat. Funebris, c. 7, p. 1396. At pen /op 6iu TUV bhiyuv dwaarelai (Jeof ftev tvepyufrvTai rotf iroX'craif, V oil iraoioraaiv.