Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/249

 43,44] FUNERAL SPEECH OF PERICLES 133 fitting occasion both in word and deed. For the whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men ; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men. Make them your examples, and, esteeming courage to be freedom and freedom to be happiness, do not wci^^h too nicely the perils of war. The unfortunate who has no hope of a change for the better has less reason to throw away his life than the prosperous who, if he survive, is always liable to a change for the worse, and to whom any accidental fall makes the most serious difference. To a man of spirit, cowardice and disaster coming together are far more bitter than death striking him unperceived at a time when he is full of courage and animated by the general hope. 'Wherefore I do not now commiserate the parents of the 44 dead who stand here ; I would rather „, ., -tr 1 1 ^"^ parents of the comfort them. You know that your dead are to u com- life has been passed amid manifold forted rather than pitied. vicissitudes; and that they may be -^""'f «////.;» may , . yet have children who deemed iortunate who have gained ^,iji Ughten their sor- most honour, whether an honourable row and serve the state ; death like theirs, or an honourable '^^^^/f-^ should re- ... , , , member how large thetr sorrow like yours, and whose da3's share of happiness has have been so ordered that the term been, and be consoled of their happiness is likewise the term hH'e glory of those who of their life. I know how hard it is "^ * to make you feel this, when the good fortune of others will too often remind you of the gladness which once lightened your hearts. And sorrow is felt at the want of those blessinsfs, not which a man never knew, but which were a part of his life before they were taken from him. Some of you are of an age at which they may hope to have other children, and they ought to bear their sorrow better ; not only will the children who may hereafter be born make them forget their own lost ones, but the city