Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/250

 134 FUNERAL SPEECH OF PERICLES [ll will be doubly a gainer. She will not be left desolate, and she will be safer. For a man's counsel cannot have equal weight or worth, when he alone has no children to risk in the general danger. To those of you who have passed their prime, I say : "Congratulate yourselves that you have been happy during the greater part of your days; re- member that your life of sorrow will not last long, and be comforted by the glory of those who are gone. For the love of honour alone is ever young, and not riches, as some say, but honour is the delight of men when they are old and useless." 45 ' To you who are the sons and brothers of the departed, ,, , I see that the struggle to emulate them Sons ana brotlieis will find their e.xample will be an arduous one. tor all men hardtoimiiate^formen praise the dead, and, however pre- are jealous of the living, eminent your virtue may be, hardly but envy follows not the, i t i dead. Let the widows Will you be thought, I do not say to restrain their natural equal, but even to approach them. The weakness, and avoid jj^^jj^ ^^^,^ ti^gi^. j-j^^^ig and detractors, both praise and blame. . . . ^, , but when a m.an is out oi the way, the honour and good-will which he receives is unalloyed. And, if I am to speak of womanly virtues to those of you who will henceforth be widows, let me sum them up in one short admonition : To a woman not to show more weak- ness than is natural to her sex is a great glory, and not to be talked about for good or for evil among men. 46 * I have paid the required tribute, in obedience to the So have I paid a due '^w, making use of such fitting words tribute of words to the as I had. The tribute of deeds has dead. The city will pay ^^^^ ^^^ j,^ ^^^ f^j. t^e dead have them tn deeds, as by, , • 1 - • this funeral, so too by ^ecn honourably interred, and it re- ihe maintenance of their mains Only that their children should children. j^^ maintained at the public charge until they are grown up : this is the solid prize with which, as with a garland, Athens crowns her sons living and dead, after a struggle like theirs. For where the rewards of virtue are greatest, there the noblest citizens