Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/247

 41, 42] FUNERAL SPEECH OF PERICLES 131 although his representation of the facts will not bear the light of day. For we have compelled every land and every sea to open a path for our valour, and have everywhere planted eternal memorials of our friendship and of our enmity. Such is the city for whose sake these men nobly fought and died ; they could not bear the thought that she might be taken from them; and every one of us who survive should gladly toil on her behalf ' I have dwelt upon the greatness of Athens because 42 I want to show you that we are con- The pnUsc of the at. tending for a higher prize than those « the praise of these who enjoy none of these privileges, and ""^^M ify »'ndc her . j-uri-u Ti r .^ • gycat. Good and bad, to establish by manifest proof the merit %,, „„a ^,,, ^/,^;^ of these men whom I am now com- preferred death to dis- memorating. Their loftiest praise has '"^"°"''- been already spoken. For in magnifying the city I have magnified them, and men like them whose virtues made her glorious. And of how few Hellenes can it be said as of them, that their deeds when weighed in the balance have been found equal to their fame ! Methinks that a death such as theirs has been gives the true measure of a man's worth ; it may be the first revelation of his virtues, but is at any rate their final seal. For even those who come short in other ways may justly plead the valour with which they have fought for their country; they have blotted out the evil with the good, and have benefited the state more by their public services than they have injured her by their private actions. None of these men were enervated by wealth or hesitated to resign the pleasures of life ; none of them put off the evil day in the hope, natural to poverty, that a man, though poor, may one day becom.e rich. But, deeming that the punishment of their enemies was sweeter than any of these things, and that they could fall in no nobler cause, they determined at the hazard of their lives to be honourably avenged, and to leave the rest. They resigned to hope their unknown chance of happiness ; but in the face of death they resolved to rely upon them- K 2