Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/331

 43-45] SPEECH OF DIODOTUS 215 if perchance there be some degree of excuse for them, would I have you spare them, unless it be clearly for the good of the state. For I conceive that we are now con- cerned, not with the present, but with the future. When Cleon insists that the infliction of death will be expedient and will secure you against revolt in time to come, I, like him taking the ground of future expediency, stoutly main- tain the contrary position ; and I would not have you be misled by the apparent fairness of his proposal, and reject the solid advantages of mine. You are angry with the Mytilenaeans, and the superior justice of his argument may for the moment attract you ; but we are not at law with them, and do not want to be told what is just ; we are considering a question of policy, and desire to know how we can turn them to account. ' To many offences less than theirs states have affixed 45 the punishment of death ; nevertheless. Experience abuu- excited by hope, men still risk their dantly proves that the lives. No one when venturing on a P""'"y ^/f/^' *' "",, deterrent. Men. ami perilous enterprise ever yet passed ^^-^ „,^^^ ^,/^,/,^,^ ^^, a sentence of failure on himself And rarried away by tlmr what city when entering on a revolt P^^sshns and by trust ... , , . , m fortune. ever imagmed that the power which she had, whether her own or obtained from her allies, did not justify the attempt? All are by nature prone to err both in public and in private life, and no law will prevent them. Men have gone through the whole catalogue of penalties in the hope that, by increasing their severity, they may suffer less at the hands of evil-doers. In early ages the punishments, even of the worst offences, would naturally be milder; but as time went on and mankind continued to transgress, they seldom stopped short of death. And still there are transgressors. Some greater terror then has yet to be discovered ; certainly death is no deterrent. For poverty inspires necessity with daring; and wealth engenders avarice in pride and insolence ; and the various conditions of human life, as they severally fall