Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/245

 38-40] FUNERAL SPEECH OF PERICLES 129 ready to face * the perils which they face And here is the proof. The Lacedaemonians come into Attica not by themselves, but with their whole confederacy following; i we go alone into a neighbour's country ; and although our ' opponents are fighting for their homes and we on a foreign soil, we have seldom any difficulty in overcoming them. ! Our enemies have never yet felt our united strength ; the care of a navy divides our attention, and on land we are i obliged to send our own citizens everywhere. But they, if they meet and defeat a part of our army, are as proud as if they had routed us all, and when defeated they pretend to have been vanquished by us all. ■ ' If then we prefer to meet danger with a light heart but without laborious training, and with We are „ot enervated a courage which is gained by habit and by culture, or vulgarised not enforced by law, are we not greatly *-^ ""'• ^^'  "'^, . o o- . . interested in public the gamers? Since we do not antici- „ff„i,s^ believing that pate the pain, although, when the hour nothing is lost by fne comes, we can be as brave as those '^'*'"'*-"'"'- Our good- , 11 1 ness to others spnnirs Who never allow themselves to rest; „ot from interest, but and thus too our city is equally ad- from the generous con- mirable in peace and in war. For we f'^'"" of freedom. ^^ are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ, not for talk and ostentation, but when there is a real use for it. To avow poverty with us is no disgrace ; the true disgrace is in doing nothing to avoid it. An Athenian citizen docs not neglect the state because he takes care of his own household ; and even those of us who are engaged in business have a very fair idea of politics. We alone regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a useless character; and if few of us are originators, we are all sound judges of a policy. The great impediment to action '* Or, 'perils such as our strength can bear;' or 'perils which are enough to daunt us.' VOL. I. K