The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [240]
15. Who will aid him and share his enthusiasm for what is noble;
16. And must avoid those who are always wrongfully and by violent means trying to divert him to various other uses.
17. A politician of the latter sort will be found to be no better than a builder or a carpenter who through ignorance and error makes use of such squares and rulers and levels as are sure to make his work crooked.
18. For friends are the living and thinking tools of the statesman, and he ought not to slip with them when they go wrong,
19. But he must be on the watch that they do not err even through ignorance.
20. It was this that disgraced Solon and brought him into disrepute among the citizens;
21. For when he made up his mind to lighten debts and to introduce the cancellation of debts, he told his friends about it, and they did a very wrong thing;
22. They secretly borrowed large sums of money before the law was published,
23. And later, after its publication, they were found to have bought splendid houses and much land with the loans they no longer needed to repay.
24. Solon, who was wronged by them, was nevertheless accused of sharing in their wrongdoing.
25. For the principles that govern a statesman’s conduct do not force him to act with severity against the moderate errors of his friends;
26. On the contrary, they make it possible for him, after he has once made the chief public interests safe,
27. Out of his abundant resources to assist his friends, take his stand beside them, and help them out of their troubles.
28. And there are also favours which arouse no ill-will, such as aiding a friend to gain an office,
29. Putting into his hands some honourable administrative function or some friendly foreign mission,
30. For example one which includes honours to a ruler or negotiations with a state concerning friendship and concord;
31. And if some public activity be laborious, but conspicuous and important,
32. The statesman can first appoint himself to the post and then choose his friend as assistant,
33. For such concession to one’s friends adorns those who give praise no less than those who receive it.
34. Then, besides, a man ought to ascribe to his friends a share in his own good and kindly acts of favour;
35. He should tell those who have been benefited to praise and show them affection as the originators and advisers of the favours.
36. But base and absurd requests he should reject, not harshly but gently,
37. Informing the askers by way of consolation that the requests are not in accord with their own excellence and reputation.
38. Epameinondas exemplifies this most admirably: after refusing to let the pedlar out of prison at Pelopidas’ request,
39. And then letting him out a little later when his mistress asked it, he said, ‘Favours of that sort, Pelopidas, are fit for courtesans to receive, but not for generals.’
40. But Cato acted harshly and arbitrarily when he was quaestor, and Catulus the censor, one of his most intimate friends, asked for the acquittal of a man who was being tried,
41. By saying: ‘It is a disgrace that you, whose duty it is to train us young men to honourable conduct, have to be thrown out by our servants.’
42. For he might, while refusing the favour in fact, have avoided harshness of speech,
43. By producing the impression that the offensive quality of his action was not due to his own will, but was forced upon him by law and justice.
Chapter 22
1. The administration of affairs frequently gives the man in public life this sort of chance to help his friends.
2. Hand over to one friend a case at law which will bring in a good fee as advocate in a just cause,
3. To another introduce a rich man who needs legal oversight and protection, and help another to get some profitable contract or lease.
4. Epameinondas even told a friend to go to a certain rich man and ask for a talent, saying that it was he who bade him give it;
5. And when the man who had been asked for it came and asked him the reason, he replied: