Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/260

 144 SPEECH OF PERICLES [n you believed me to have somewhat more of the statesman in me than others, it is not fair that I should now be charged with anything like crime, 6i ' I allow that for men who are in prosperity and free to / am not chaugcd, choose it is great folly to make war. but you are changed by But when they must either submit and mtsforhme. Such a ^j- once surrender independence, or chance is tmbecontinp, i r i i i i the citizens of Athens: strike and be free, then he who shuns yon should forget your and not he who meets the danger is sorrozvs, and think only deserving of blame. For my own part, of the public pood,, , 111 1 am the same man and stand where I did. But you are changed ; for you have been driven by misfortune to recall the consent which you gave when you were yet unhurt, and to think that my advice was wrong because your own characters are weak. The pain is present and comes home to each of you, but the good is as yet unrealised by any one ; and your minds have not the strength to persevere in your resolution, now that a great reverse has overtaken you unawares. Anything which is sudden and unexpected and utterly beyond calculation, such a disaster for instance as this plague coming upon other misfortunes, enthralls the spirit of a man. Nevertheless, being the citizens of a great city and educated in a temper of greatness, you should not succumb to calamities however overwhelming, or darken the lustre of your fame. For if men hate the presumption of those who claim a reputation to which they have no right, they equally condemn the faint-heartedness of those who fall below the glory which is their own. You should lose the sense of your private sorrows and cling to the deliverance of the state. 62 'As to your sufferings in the war, if you fear that they may be very great and after all fruitless, I have shown you already over and over again that such a fear is groundless. If you are still unsatisfied I will indicate "one element of "• Or, taking i-napov v.av absolutely: 'a consideration which, how- ever obvious, appears to have escaped you.' Or, again, taking ^i^idovs