The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [242]
12. For blame which is mingled with praise and contains nothing insulting, but merely frankness of speech,
13. And arouses not anger, but a pricking of the conscience and repentance,
14. Appears both kindly and healing; but abusive speech is not at all fitting for statesmen.
15. Jeering and scurrility bring disgrace upon the speakers of them rather than upon those spoken of,
16. And moreover they bring confusion into the conduct of affairs and they disturb councils and assemblies.
17. Therefore Phocion did well when he stopped speaking and yielded the floor to a man who was reviling him,
18. And then, when the fellow had at last become silent, came forward again saying:
19. ‘Well, then, about the cavalry and the heavy infantry you have heard already;
20. ‘It remains for me to discuss the light infantry and the targeteers.’
21. But since many men find it hard to endure that sort of thing quietly, and abusive speakers are often, and not without general benefit, made to shut their mouths by the retorts they evoke,
22. Let the reply be brief in wording, showing no temper and no extreme rancour,
23. But urbanity mingled with playfulness and grace which somehow or other has a sting in it.
24. There are men who enter upon every kind of public service, as Cato did, claiming that the good citizen ought, so far as in him lies, to omit no trouble or diligence;
25. And they commend Epameinondas because, when through envy and as an insult he had been appointed telmarch by the Thebans, he did not neglect his duties,
26. But saying that not only does the office distinguish the man, but also the man the office,
27. He advanced the telmarchy to a position of great consideration and dignity,
28. Though previously it had been nothing but a sort of supervision of the alleys for the removal of dung and the draining of water in the streets.
29. All such are helped by the remark of Antisthenes which has been handed down to memory;
30. For when someone expressed surprise that he himself carried a dried fish through the marketplace, he said, ‘Yes, but it is for myself’;
31. But I, on the other hand, say to those who criticise me for standing and watching tiles being measured or concrete or stones being delivered,
32. That I attend to these things, not for myself, but for my native town.
33. For there are many other things in regard to which a man would be petty who attended to them himself for his own sake,
34. But if he does it for the public and for the state’s sake, he is not ignoble;
35. On the contrary his attention to duty and his zeal are all the greater when applied to little things.
Chapter 24
1. But there are others who think the conduct of Pericles was more dignified and splendid, one of whom is Critolaus the Peripatetic,
2. Who claims that just as the Salaminia and the Paralus, ships at Athens, were not sent out to sea for every service, but only for necessary and important missions,
3. So the statesman should reserve himself for the most momentous and important matters.
4. The statesman ought to find the people fond of him when he comes to them and to leave a longing for him when he is not there;
5. Which Scipio Africanus accomplished by spending much of his time in the country,
6. Thereby at one and the same time removing the weight of envy and giving a breathing space to those who thought they were oppressed by his glory.
7. Timesias of Clazomenae was in other respects a good man in his service to the state, but by doing everything himself he had aroused rancour;
8. But of this he was unaware until the following incident took place:
9. Some boys were playing a game of knocking a knucklebone out of a hole when he was passing by;
10. And the boy who had struck at it said: ‘I’d like to knock the brains out of Timesias as truly as this has been knocked out of the hole.’
11. Timesias, hearing this and understanding that dislike of him had permeated all the people,
12. Returned home and told his wife what had happened; and directing her to pack up and follow him, he