Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/353

 TEMPER OF THE ATHENIANS. 331 leal folly. BU, over-estimation of the prospective chances arising out of success, to a degree more extravagant than that of which Athens was now guilty, is by no means peculiar to democracy. Other governments, opposed to democracy not less in temper than in form, an able despot like the emperor Napoleon, and a powerful aristocracy like that of England, 1 have found suc- cess to the full as misleading. That Athens should desire to profit by this unexpected piece of good fortune, was perfectly reasonable : that she should make use of it to regain advantages o o which former misfortunes had compelled herself to surrender, was a feeling not unnatural. And whether the demand was excessive, or by how much, is a question always among the most embarrassing for any government kingly, oligarchical, or democratical to determine. We may, however, remark that Kleon gave an impolitic turn to Athenian feeling, by directing it towards the entire and literal reacquisition of what had been lost twenty years before. Unless we are to consider his quadruple demand as a flourish, to ho 1 Let us read some remarks of Mr. Burke on the temper of England during the American war. " You remember that in the beginning of this American Avar, you were greatly divided: and a very strong body, if not the strongest, opposed itself to the madness which every art and every power were employed to render popular, in order that the errors of the rulers might be lost in the general blindness of the nation. This opposition continued until after our great, but most unfortunate, victory at Long Island. Then all the mounds and banks of our constancy were borne down ^t once ; and the frenzy of the American war broke in upon us like a deluge. This victory, which seemed to put an immediate end to all difficulties, perfected in us that spirit of domination which our unparalleled prosperity had but too long nurtured. "We had been so very powerful, and so very prosperous, that even the hum- blest of us were degraded into the devices and follies of kings. We lost all measure between means and ends ; and our headlong desires became our politics and our morals. All men who wished for peace, or retained any sentiments of moderation, were overborne or silenced: and this city (Bristol) was led by every artifice (and probably with the more manage- ment, because /was one of your members) to distinguish itself by its zeal for that fatal cause." Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol previous to the election (Works, vol. iii, p. 365). Compare Mr. Burke's Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, p. 174 of the sama rolume.