Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/275

 FOURTH FEAR OF THE WAR-REVOLT OF MiTYLENE. 253 disclaims appealing to them: the orator deprecates, not less than Kleon, the influence of compassionate sentiment, or of a spirit of mere compromise and moderation. 1 He farther discards considerations of justice or the analogies of criminal judica- ture, 2 and rests his opposition altogether upon reasons of pub- lic prudence, bearing upon the future welfare and security of Athens. 1 Thucyd. iii, 48 : compare the speech of Kleon. iii, 40. vpelf 6e yvovref ufieivu rude elvat, Kal ftf/re OCKTU TrAeov vElpavTEt; HIJTE eTrieiKeip, olf oil 6 1 kyu iu npocruyea'&ai, UTT' avrtiv 6e rH>v ncpaivcvfievuv, etc. Dr. Arnold distinguishes oZ/crof (or eAeo?) from 7rfetKta,by saying that ' the former is a feeling, the latter a habit : OIKTO?, pity or compassion, may occasionally touch those who are generally very far from hcing eirteiKelf mild or gentle. 'Emeucs'ia relates to all persons, oZ/crof, to particular individuals." The distinction here taken is certainly in itself just, and iTTieiK?if sometimes has the meaning ascribed to it by Dr. Arnold : but in this passage I believe it has a different meaning. The contrast between olnTuf and krcisLKEia as Dr. Arnold explains them would be too feeble, and too little marked, to serve the purpose of Kleon and Diodotus. 'Eir is.iK.tia here rather means the disposition to stop short of your full rights ; a spirit of fairness and adjustment ; an abatement on your part likely to be requited by abatement on the part of your adversary : compare Thucyd. i, 76; iv, 19; v, 86; viii, 93. 2 Thucyd. iii 44. eyw di irap7)7$ov ovre uvTepcJv Ttepl MirvAjyvaujv ovre KaTTjyopijauv ov yap irepl TJJC eKeivuv adiKiac rifj.lv 6 uyuv, el aupovovfj.ev, u)Cku. Trepl rr/ ^ueTf/saf cv/3ov?.tac . . . . d i K at orepof y&p &v avrct 6 Aoyof irpbf TT/V vvv vftETepav bpyrjv kf Mirv- , rdxn uv iTrianaaaiTo fi,uelf Se ov 6iKa6[ieda , wore TUV 6iK.aiuv delv, iM>.a, (3ov'kev6[ie-&a irepl So Mr. Burke, in his speech on Conciliation with America (Burke's Works, vol. iii, pp. 69-74), in discussing the proposition of prosecuting the acts of the refractory colonies as criminal : " The thing seems a great deal too big for my ideas of jurisprudence. It should seem, to my way of con- ceiving such matters, that there is a wide difference in reason and policy, Between the mode of proceeding on the irregular conduct of scattered .ndividuals, or even of bands of men who disturb order within the state, and the civil dissensions which may from time to time agitate the several communities which compose a great empire. It looks to me to be narrow ind pedantic, to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people," etc. "My consideration is narrow, confined, and wholl7 limited to the policy of the question."