Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/196

 IV4 HISTORY OF GREECE. them on occasion, even braving their displeasure. Thus, when- ever he perceived them insolently and unseasonably confident, he shaped his speeches in such manner as to alarm and beat them down : when again he saw them unduly frightened, he tried to counteract it, and restore them confidence : so that the govern- ment was m name a democracy, but in reality an empire exer- cised by the first citizen in the state. But those who succeeded after his death, being more equal one with another, and each of them desiring preeminence over the rest, adopted the different course of courting the favor of the people, and sacrificing to that object even important state-interests. From whence arose many other bad measures, as might be expected in a great and imperial city, and especially the Sicilian expedition," etc. It will be seen that the judgment here quoted from Thucy- dides contradicts, in the most unqualified manner, the reproaches commonly made against Perikles, of having corrupted the Athe- nian people by distributions of the public money, and by giving way to their unwise caprices, for the purpose of acquiring and maintaining his own political power. Nay, the historian particu- larly notes the opposite qualities, self-judgment, conscious dig- nity, indifference to immediate popular applause or wrath, when set against what was permanently right and useful, as the special characteristic of that great statesman. A distinction might indeed be possible, and Plutarch professes to note such distinction, between the earlier and the later part of his long political career : he began, so that biographer says, by corrupt- ing the people in order to acquire power, but having acquired it, he employed it in an independent and patriotic manner, so that the judgment of Thucydides, true respecting the later part of his life, would not be applicable to the earlier. This distinction may be to a certain degree well founded, inasmuch as the power of opposing a bold and successful resistance to temporary aberra- tions of the public mind, necessarily implies an established influ- ence, and can hardly ever be exercised even by the firmest politician during his years of commencement : he is at that time necessarily the adjunct of some party or tendency which he finda already in operation, and has to stand forward actively and as- siduously befoie he can create for himself a separate peisona] influence. But while we admit the distinction to this extent,