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第6章

pericles-第6章

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as tame and gentle and familiar as formerly with the populace; so as
readily to yield to their pleasures and to comply with the desires
of the multitude; as a steersman shifts with the winds。 Quitting
that loose; remiss; and; in some cases; licentious court of the
popular will; he turned those soft and flowery modulations to the
austerity of aristocratical and regal rule; and employing this
uprightly and undeviatingly for the country's best interests; he was
able generally to lead the people along; with their own wills and
consents; by persuading and showing them what was to be done; and
sometimes; too; urging and pressing them forward extremely against
their will; he made them; whether they would or no; yield submission
to what was for their advantage。 In which; to say the truth; he did
but like a skilful physician; who; in a complicated and chronic
disease; as he sees occasion; at one while allows his patient the
moderate use of such things as please him; at another while gives
him keen pains and drug to work the cure。 For there arising and
growing up; as was natural; all manner of distempered feelings among a
people which had so vast a command and dominion; he alone; as a
great master; knowing how to handle and deal fitly with each one of
them; and; in an especial manner; making that use of hopes and
fears; as his two chief rudders; with the one to check the career of
their confidence at any time; with the other to raise them up and
cheer them when under any discouragement; plainly showed by this; that
rhetoric; or the art of speaking; is; in Plato's language; the
government of the souls of men; and that her chief business is to
address the affections and passions; which are as it were the
strings and keys to the soul; and require a skilful and careful
touch to be played on as they should be。 The source of this
predominance was not barely his power of language; but; as
Thucydides assures us; the reputation of his life; and the
confidence felt in his character; his manifest freedom from every kind
of corruption; and superiority to all considerations of money。
Notwithstanding he had made the city of Athens; which was great of
itself; as great and rich as can be imagined; and though he were
himself in power and interest more than equal to many kings and
absolute rulers; who some of them also bequeathed by will their
power to their children; he; for his part; did not make the
patrimony his father left him greater than it was by one drachma。
  Thucydides; indeed; gives a plain statement of the greatness of
his power; and the comic poets; in their spiteful manner; more than
hint at it; styling his companions and friends the new
Pisistratidae; and calling on him to abjure any intention of
usurpation; as one whose eminence was too great to be any longer
proportionable to and compatible with a democracy or popular
government。 And Teleclides says the Athenians had surrendered up to
him…

  〃The tribute of the cities; and with them; the cities too;
     to do with them as he pleases; and undo;
   To build up; if he likes; stone walls around a town; and again;
     if so he likes; to pull them down;
   Their treaties and alliances; power; empire; peace; and war;
     their wealth and their success forever more。〃

  Nor was all this the luck of some happy occasion; nor was it the
mere bloom and grace of a policy that flourished for a season; but
having for forty years together maintained the first place among
statesmen such as Ephialtes and Leocrates and Myronides and Cimon
and Tolmides and Thucydides were; after the defeat and banishment of
Thucydides; for no less than fifteen years longer; in the exercise
of one continuous unintermitted command in the office; to which he was
annually re…elected; of General; he preserved his integrity unspotted;
though otherwise he was not altogether idle or careless in looking
after his pecuniary advantage; his paternal estate; which of right
belonged to him; he so ordered that it might neither through
negligence he wasted or lessened; nor yet; being so full of business
as he was; cost him any great trouble or time with taking care of
it; and put it into such a way of management as he thought to be the
most easy for himself; and the most exact。 All his yearly products and
profits he sold together in a lump; and supplied his household needs
afterwards by buying everything that he or his family wanted out of
the market。 Upon which account; his children; when they grew to age;
were not well pleased with his management; and the women that lived
with him were treated with little cost; and complained of his way of
housekeeping; where everything was ordered and set down from day to
day; and reduced to the greatest exactness; since there was not there;
as is usual in a great family and a plentiful estate; anything to
spare; or over and above; but all that went out or came in; all
disbursements and all receipts; proceeded as it were by number and
measure。 His manager in all this was a single servant; Evangelus by
name; a man either naturally gifted or instructed by Pericles so as to
excel every one in this art of domestic economy。
  All this; in truth; was very little in harmony with Anaxagoras's
wisdom; if; indeed; it be true that he; by a kind of divine impulse
and greatness of spirit; voluntarily quitted his house; and left his
land to lie fallow and to be grazed by sheep like a common。 But the
life of a contemplative philosopher and that of an active statesman
are; I presume; not the same thing; for the one merely employs; upon
great and good objects of thought; an intelligence that requires no
aid of instruments nor supply of any external materials; whereas the
other; who tempers and applies his virtue to human uses; may have
occasion for affluence; not as a matter of necessity; but as a noble
thing; which was Pericles's case; who relieved numerous poor citizens。
  However; there is a story that Anaxagoras himself; while Pericles
was taken up with public affairs; lay neglected; and that; now being
grown old; he wrapped himself up with a resolution to die for want
of food; which being by chance brought to Pericles's ear; he was
horror…struck; and instantly ran thither; and used all the arguments
and entreaties he could to him; lamenting not so much Anaxagoras's
condition as his own; should he lose such a counsellor as he had found
him to be; and that; upon this; Anaxagoras unfolded his robe; and
showing himself; made answer: 〃Pericles;〃 said he; 〃even those who
have occasion for a lamp supply it with oil。〃
  The Lacedaemonians beginning to show themselves troubled at the
growth of the Athenian power; Pericles; on the other hand; to
elevate the people's spirit yet more; and to raise them to the thought
of great actions; proposed a decree; to summon all the Greeks in what;
part soever; whether of Europe or Asia; every city; little as well
as great; to send their deputies to Athens to a general assembly; or
convention; there to consult and advise concerning the Greek temples
which the barbarians had burnt down; and the sacrifices which were due
from them upon vows they had made to their gods for the safety of
Greece when they fought against the barbarians; and also concerning
the navigation of the sea; that they might henceforward pass to and
fro and trade securely and be at peace among themselves。
  Upon this errand there were twenty men; of such as were above
fifty years of age; sent by commission; five to summon the Ionians and
Dorians in Asia; and the islanders as far as Lesbos and Rhodes; five
to visit all the places in the Hellespont and Thrace; up to Byzantium;
and other five besides these to go to Boeotia and Phocis and
Peloponnesus; and from hence to pass through the Locrians over to
the neighbouring continent as far as Acarnania and Ambracia; and the
rest to take their course through Euboea to the Oetaeans and the
Malian Gulf; and to the Achaeans of Phthiotis and the Thessalians; all
of them to treat with the people as they passed; and persuade them
to come and take their part in the debates for settling the peace
and jointly regulating the affairs of Greece。
  Nothing was effected;

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