Whose right it is, so name; with them I speak:
as Empedocles has it; since a wise statesman will not despise true
honor and favor, consisting in the good-will and friendly disposition
of those who gratefully remember his services; nor will he contemn
glory by shunning to please his neighbors, as Democritus would have
him. For neither the fawning of dogs nor the affection of horses is to
be rejected by huntsmen and jockeys; nay, it is both profitable and
pleasant to breed in those animals which are brought up in our houses
and live with us, such a disposition towards one’s self as Lysimachus’s
dog showed to his master, and as the poet relates Achilles’s horses to
have had towards Patroclus.[74] And I am of opinion that bees would
fare better if they would make much of those who breed them and look
after them, and would admit them to come near them, than they do by
stinging them and driving them away; for now their keepers punish
them by smothering them with smoke; so they tame unruly horses with
short bits; and dogs that are apt to run away, by collaring them and
fastening them to clogs. But there is nothing which renders one man
so obsequious and submissive to another, as the confidence of his
good-will, and the opinion of his integrity and justice. Wherefore
Demosthenes rightly affirmed, that the greatest preservative of
states against tyrants is distrust. For the part of the soul by which
we believe is most apt to be caught. As therefore Cassandra’s gift of
prophecy was of no advantage to the citizens of Troy, who would not
believe her:
The God (says she) would have me to foretell
Things unbelieved; for when the people well
Have smarted, groaning under pressures sad,
They style me wise, till then they think me mad;
so the confidence the citizens had in Archytas, and their good-will
towards Battus, were highly advantageous to those who would make use of
them through the good opinion they had of them.
Now the first greatest benefit which is in the reputation of statesmen
is the confidence that is had in them, giving them an entrance into
affairs; and the second is, that the good-will of the multitude is an
armor to the good against those that are envious and wicked; for,
As when the careful mother drives the flies
From her dear babe, which sweetly sleeping lies,[75]
it chases away envy, and renders the plebeian equal in authority
to the nobleman, the poor man to the rich, and the private man to
the magistrates; and in a word, when truth and virtue are joined
with it, it is a strange and favorable wind, directly carrying men
into government. And on the other side behold and learn by examples
the mischievous effects of the contrary disposition. For those of
Italy slew the wife and children of Dionysius, having first violated
and polluted them with their lusts; and afterwards burning their
bodies, scattered the ashes out of the ship into the sea. But when
one Menander, who had reigned graciously over the Bactrians, died
afterwards in the camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated
his funeral; but coming to a contest about his relics, they were
difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that his ashes being
distributed, every one of them should carry away an equal share, and
they should all erect monuments to him. Again, the Agrigentines,
being got rid of Phalaris, made a decree, that none should wear a
blue garment; for the tyrant’s attendants had blue liveries. But the
Persians, because Cyrus was hawk-nosed, do to this day love such men
and esteem them handsomest.
29. That is of all loves the strongest and divinest, which is by cities
and states borne to any man for his virtue. But those false-named
honors and false testimonials of amity, which have their rise from
stage-plays, largesses, and fencings, are not unlike the flatteries
of whores; the people always with smiles bestowing an unconstant and
short-lived glory on him that presents them and gratifies them.
He therefore who said, the people were first overthrown by him which
first bestowed largesses on them, very well understood that the
multitude lose their strength, being rendered weaker by receiving. But
these bestowers must also know that they destroy themselves, when,
purchasing glory at great expenses, they make the multitude haughty and
arrogant, as having it in their power to give and take away some very
great matter.
30. Yet are we not therefore to act sordidly in the distribution of
honorary presents, when there is plenty enough. For the people more
hate a rich man who gives nothing of his own, than they do a poor man
that robs the public treasury; attributing the former to pride and a
contempt of them, but the latter to necessity. First, therefore, let
these largesses be made gratis, for so they more oblige the receivers,
and strike them with admiration; then, on some occasion that has a
handsome and laudable pretence, with the honor of some God wholly
drawing the people to devotion; for so there is at the same time bred
in them a strong apprehension and opinion that the Deity is great
and venerable, when they see those whom they honor and highly esteem
so bountifully and readily expending their wealth upon his honor. As
therefore Plato forbade young men who were to be liberally educated
to learn the Lydian and Phrygian harmony,—one of which excites the
mournful and melancholy part of our soul, whilst the other increases
its inclination to pleasure and sensual delight,—so do you, as much
as possibly you can, drive out of the city all such largesses as
either foster and cherish brutality and savageness, or scurrility and
lasciviousness; and if that cannot be, at least shun them, and oppose
the many when they desire such spectacles; always making the subjects
of our expenses useful and modest, having for their end what is good
and necessary, or at least what is pleasant and acceptable, without any
prejudice or injury.
31. But if your estate be but indifferent, and by its centre and
circumference confined to your necessary use, it is neither ungenerous
nor base to confess your poverty and give place to such as are provided
for those honorary expenses, and not, by taking up money on usury,
to render yourself at the same time both miserable and ridiculous by
such services. For they whose abilities fall short cannot well conceal
themselves, being compelled either to be troublesome to their friends,
or to court and flatter usurers, so that they get not any honor or
power, but rather shame and contempt by such expenses. It is therefore
always useful on such occasions to call to mind Lamachus and Phocion.
For Phocion, when the Athenians at a solemn sacrifice called upon him,
and often importuned him to give them something, said to them, I should
be ashamed to give to you, and not pay this Callicles,—pointing to an
usurer who was standing by. And as for Lamachus, he always put down in
his bill of charges, when he was general, the money laid out for his
shoes and coat. And to Hermon, when he refused the undertaking of an
office because of his poverty, the Thessalians ordained a puncheon of
wine a month, and a bushel and a half of meal every four days. It is
therefore no shame to confess one’s poverty; nor are the poor in cities
of less authority than those who feast and exhibit public shows, if
they have but gotten freedom of speech and reputation by their virtue.
A statesman ought therefore chiefly to moderate himself on such
occasions, and neither, being himself on foot, go into the field
against well-mounted cavaliers, nor, being himself poor, vie with those
that are rich about race matches, theatrical pomps, and magnificent
tables and banquets; but he should rather strive to be like those who
endeavor to manage the city by virtue and prudence, always joined with
eloquence; in which there is not only honesty and venerableness, but
also a gracefulness and attractiveness,
Far more to be desired than Croesus’ wealth.
For a good man is neither insolent nor odious; nor is a discreet person
self-conceited,
Nor with a look severe walks he amongst
His fellow-citizens;
but he is, on the contrary, courteous, affable, and of easy access
to all, having his house always open, as a port of refuge to those
that will make use of him, and showing his care and kindness, not
only by being assistant in the necessities and affairs of those that
have recourse to him, but also by condoling with those that are in
adversity, and congratulating and rejoicing with such as have been
successful; neither is he troublesome or offensive by the multitude and
train of domestics attending him at bath, or by taking up of places
in the theatres, nor remarkable by things invidious for luxury and
sumptuousness; but he is equal and like to others in his clothes, diet,
education of his children, and the garb and attendance of his wife, as
desiring in his comportment and manner of living to be like the rest
of the people. Then he exhibits himself an intelligent counsellor, an
unfeed advocate and courteous arbitrator between men and their wives,
and friends at variance amongst themselves; not spending a small part
of the day for the service of the commonweal at the tribunal or in the
hall of audience, and employing all the rest, and the whole remainder
of his life, in drawing to himself every sort of negotiations and
affairs, as the north-east wind does the clouds; but always employing
his cares on the public, and reputing polity (or the administration
of the state) as a busy and active life, and not, as it is commonly
thought, an easy and idle service; he does by all these and such
like things turn and draw the many, who see that all the flatteries
and enticements of others are but spurious and deceitful baits, when
compared to his care and providence. The flatterers indeed of Demetrius
vouchsafed not to give the other potentates of his time, amongst
whom Alexander’s empire was divided, the title of kings, but styled
Seleucus master of the elephants, Lysimachus treasurer, Ptolemaeus
admiral, and Agathocles governor of the isles. But the multitude,
though they may at the beginning reject a good and prudent man, yet
coming afterwards to understand his veracity and the sincerity of his
disposition, esteem him a public-spirited person and a magistrate; and
of the others, they think and call one a maintainer of choruses, a
second a feaster, and a third a master of the exercises. Moreover, as
at the banquets made by Callias or Alcibiades, Socrates only is heard,
and to Socrates all men’s eyes are directed; so in sound and healthy
states Ismenias bestows largesses, Lichas makes suppers, and Niceratus
provides choruses; but it is Epaminondas, Aristides, and Lysander
that govern, manage the state, and lead forth the armies. Which if
any one considers, he ought not to be dejected or amazed at the glory
gotten amongst the people from theatres, banqueting-halls, and public
buildings; since it lasts but a short time, being at an end as soon as
the prizes and plays are over, and having in them nothing honorable or
worthy of esteem.
32. Those that are versed in the keeping and breeding of bees look
on that hive to be healthiest and in best condition, where there is
most humming, and which is fullest of bustle and noise; but he to
whom God has committed the care of the rational and political hive,
reputing the felicity of the people to consist chiefly in quietness
and tranquillity, will receive and to his power imitate the rest of
Solon’s ordinances, but will doubt and wonder what it was that induced
him to decree, that he who, when there arises a sedition in the city,
adheres to neither party should be reputed infamous. For in the body,
the beginning of its change from sickness to health is not wrought by
the parts that are infected with the disease, but when the temperature
of such parts as are sound, growing powerful, drives away what is
contrary to nature; and in a state, where the people are disturbed by
a sedition not dangerous and mortal, but which will after a while be
composed and allayed, it is of necessity that there be a mixture of
much that is uninfected and sound, and that it continue and cohabit in
it. For thither flows from the wise what is fit and natural, and passes
into the part that is diseased. But when cities are in an universal
commotion, they are in danger of being utterly destroyed, unless, being
constrained by some necessity and chastisement from abroad, they are by
the force of their miseries reduced to wisdom. Yet does it not become
you in the time of a sedition to sit as if you were neither sensible
nor sorry, praising your own unconcernedness as a quiet and happy
life, and taking delight in the error of others. But on such occasions
chiefly should you put on the buskin of Theramenes, and conferring
with both parties, join yourself to neither. For you will not seem a
stranger by not being a partaker in injustice, but a common friend
to them all by your assistance; nor will you be envied for your not
sharing in the calamity, when you appear equally to condole with every
one of them. But the best is, by your providential care to prevent
the raising of any sedition; and in this consists the greatest and
most excellent point, as it were, of the political art. For you are
to consider that, the greatest benefits a city can enjoy being peace,
liberty, plenty, abundance of men, and concord, the people have at this
time no need of statesmen for the procuring of peace; since all war,
whether with Greeks or barbarians, is wholly taken away and banished
from us. As for liberty, the people have as much as the emperors think
fit to grant them, and more perhaps would not be expedient. The prudent
man therefore will beg the Gods to grant to his fellow-citizens the
unenvied plenty of the earth, and the kind temper of the seasons, and
that wives may bear “children like to their parents,”[76] and also
safety for all that is born and produced.
There remains therefore to a statesman, of all those things that are
subject to his charge, this alone, which is inferior to none of the
other benefits, the keeping of those who are co-inhabitants of the
same city in perpetual concord and friendship, and the taking away of
all contentions, animosities, and heart-burnings. In which he shall,
as in the differences between friends, so converse with the party
appearing to be most injured, as if he himself seemed also a sharer
in the injury and equally offended at it, endeavoring afterwards so
to appease him, by showing him how much those who pass by injuries
excel such as strive to contend and conquer, not only in good-nature
and sweetness of disposition, but also in prudence and magnanimity,
and how, by remitting a little of their right in small matters, they
get the better in the greatest and most important. He shall afterwards
admonish them both in general and apart, instructing them in the
weakness of the Grecian affairs, which it is better for intelligent men
to make the best of, and to live in peace and concord, than to engage
in a contest for which fortune has left no reward. For what authority,
what glory is there remaining for the conquerors? What power is there,
which the least decree of a proconsul cannot abolish or transfer
elsewhere, and which, though it should continue, would yet have any
thing worth our pains? But since, as a conflagration in a town does not
frequently begin in sacred and public places, but a lamp negligently
left in a house, or the burning of a little trash or rubbish, raises a
great fire and works a common mischief; so sedition in a state is not
always kindled by contentions about public affairs, but oftentimes the
differences arising from private concerns and jangles, being propagated
into the public, have disturbed a whole city. It is no less becoming
a statesman to remedy and prevent all these, so that some of them may
never have any being, others may quickly be extinguished, and others
hindered from increasing or taking hold of the public, and confined
amongst the adversaries themselves. And as himself ought to take care
for this, so should he advertise others, that private disturbances are
the occasion of public ones, and little of great ones, if they are
neglected and suffered to proceed without taking care to apply fit
remedies to them in the beginning.
In this manner is the greatest and most dangerous disturbance that
ever happened in Delphi said to have been occasioned by Crates, whose
daughter Orgilaus, the son of Phalis, being about to marry, it happened
that the cup they were using in the espousals brake asunder of itself;
which he taking for an ill omen, left his bride, and went away with
his father. Crates a little after, charging them with taking away a
certain golden vessel, used in the sacrifices, caused Orgilaus and his
brother, unheard, to be precipitated from the top of a rock to the
bottom, and afterwards slew several of their most intimate friends,
as they were at their devotions in the temple of Providence. After
many such things were perpetrated, the Delphians, putting to death
Crates and his companions in the sedition, out of their estates which
they called excommunicated, built the temples in the lower part of
the town. In Syracuse also there were two young men, betwixt whom
there was an extraordinary intimacy, one of which, having taken into
his custody his friend’s catamite, vitiated him in his absence. The
other at his return, by way of retaliation, debauched his companion’s
wife. Then one of the ancient senators, coming into the council,
proposed the banishing of them both before the city was ruined by
their filling it with enmity. Yet did not he prevail; but a sedition
arising on this occasion by very great calamities overturned a most
excellently constituted commonweal. You have also a domestical example
in the enmity between Pardalus and Tyrrhenus, which wanted little of
destroying Sardis by embroiling it in revolt and war on little and
private differences. A statesman therefore is not to slight the little
offences and heart-burnings which, as diseases in a body, pass speedily
from one to another, but to take them in hand, suppress, and cure them.
For, as Cato says, by attention and carefulness great matters are made
little, and little ones reduced to nothing. Now there is no better
artifice of inuring men to this, than the showing one’s self easily
pacified in his own private differences, persisting without rancor in
matters of the first importance, and managing none with obstinacy,
contending wrath, or any other passion, which may work sharpness or
bitterness in necessary disputes. For as they bind certain round
muffles about the hands of those who combat at buffets, that in their
contests there may not arrive any fatal accident, the blows being soft
and such as can do no great harm; so in such suits and processes with
one’s fellow-citizens, it is best to manage the dispute by making use
of pure and simple pretences, and not by sharpening and empoisoning
matters, as if they were weapons, with calumnies, malice, and threats,
to render them pernicious, great, and public. For he who in this
manner carries himself with those with whom he has affairs will have
others also subject to him. But contentions about public matters,
where private grudges are taken away, are soon appeased, and bring no
difficult or fatal mischiefs.
WHICH ARE THE MOST CRAFTY, WATER-ANIMALS OR THOSE CREATURES THAT
BREED UPON THE LAND?