On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
think that men ought to conduct themselves in public life , and whether you , in your publio conduct , will be intent upon anything else , than that we , the citizen * , may be as good as possible . Have we not frequently agreed that this is what a politician should do ? Have we agreed or not ? Answer . We have agreed : I will answer for you . * If , then , this be what a good man should do for his country , pray look back and tell me , whether Pericles and Cimon , and Miltiades and The *
mistocles , still appear to you to have been good citizens . ' C . * They do . ' S , * Then , if they were so , each of them must have made his countrymen better than they were before . Did they , or not V C . ' They did . * S . * Then , when Pericles began to speak in the public assemblies , the Athenians were worse men than they were when he last addressed them V
C * Perhaps so / S . * Not perhaps * but they positively must , if he was a good citizen ; by our former admissions / C . i What then V S . c Nothing : but tell me this , whether the Athenians are Baid to have been made better by Pericles , or , on the contrary , to have been corrupted by him . For I hear it said that Pericles made the Athenians idlers and
cowards , and gossips and covetous , being the first who accustomed them to receive pay . ' * C . ' Those who told you so are Spartans at heart . ' S . One thing , however , I was not told , but we both of us know it ; that Pericles was in high reputation , and never was condemned on any disgraceful charge by the Athenians , at first , when they were comparatively bad men ; but after he had made them virtuous men , towards the end of his life , they found him guilty of peculation , and were near passing 5
sentence of death upon him . C . * What then ? Does this prove Pericles a bad statesman V S . * A superintendent of asses , at least , or of horses or oxen , would be thought a very bad one , if the animals did not kick , and start , and bite , when they were intrusted to him , but did all this when they quitted his charge . Is not that person , in your opinion , a bad guardian of any animal , who sends him forth more savage than he received him ? ' C . ' I will say yes , to please you / S . * Will you
also- please me by answering whether man is an animal or not ? ' C . * Unquestionably / S . ' And Pericles was a superintendent of men . ' C . ' Yes / S . 'Ought they not then , if lie , their superintendent , had been a good politician , to have become more just , not more unjust , under his care ? ' C . ' Yes . ' S . * But the just , as Homer says , are gentle . What say you ? ' C . 'The same / S . 'Now , he left them more ferocious than he received them , and that too towards himself ,
towards whom he least desired it / C . ' Do you wish me to agree with you V S . * If you think I speak the truth . ' C . ' Be it so , then / S . « And if more ferocious , then more unjust , and worse / C . Be it so . ' S . * Then Pericles was not a good statesman / C * So say you / S . * And you too , from your own admission . And what of Cimon ? Did not those whom he served banish him by ostracism , that for ten years they might not hear his voice ? And did they not banish Themistocles , and sentence Miltiades to a dungeon ? If these had been good statesmen , they would not have been so treated . * A good coachman does not at first keep his seat , but after he has trained his horses , and learned to be a better driver , then fall off . This does not happen either in driving or in any thing else : does it , think you ? ' C No / S . Then we were
? For Attending as juryipen , and at the public assemblies
Untitled Article
834 Plato * * Dialogutt ; the Gorgias .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1834, page 834, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2640/page/16/
-