Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/262

 146 SPEECH OF PERICLES [ll Stronger than his enemy rests, Hke our own, on grounds of reason. Courage fighting in a fair field is fortified by the intelHgence which looks down upon an enemy ; an intelligence relying, not on hope, which is the strength of helplessness, but on that surer foresight which is given by reason and observation of facts. 63 'Once more, you are bound to maintain the imperial Your empire k at ^^5"^'^ .^^ ^^"^ ^'^y >" ^^^^^ >'«" a" stake, and it is too late take pride ; for you should not covet to resign it; for you the glory unless you will endure the ?ri f 7? '''T'? toil. And do not imagine that you are the hatred of mankind. ~ . . fighting about a simple issue, freedom or slavery ; you have an empire to lose, and there is the danger to which the hatred of your imperial rule has exposed you. Neither can you resign your power, if, at "" this crisis, any timorous or inactive spirit is for thus playing the honest man. For by this time your empire has become a tyranny which in the opinion of mankind may have been unjustly gained, but which cannot be safely surrendered. The men of whom I was speaking, if they could find followers, would soon ruin a city, and if they were to go and found a state of their own, would equally ruin that. For inaction is secure only when arrayed by the side of activity ; nor is it expedient or safe for a sovereign, but only for a subject state, to be a servant. 64 ' You must not be led away by the advice of such citizens as these, nor be angry with me ; Nothing has hap- ^ 1 1 • • c ,- pened, except the plague, ^"^^ ^he resolution in favour of war was but what we all antici- your own as much as mine. What if pated ivhen ive agreed the enemy has come and done what on war. Do not lose, • 1 1 - , the spirit which has ^^ ^as Certain to do when you refused wade Athens great to yield ? What too if the plague and, even though she followed? That was an unexpected fall, will render her , , , . • 1 . 1 r ,, glorious for all time. ^'o^^'' ^^^ ^^^ might have foreseen all the rest. I am well aware that your hatred of me is aggravated by it. But how unjustly, unless to me you also ascribe the credit of any extraordinary