The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [244]
10. Each following his own reasoning that in matters of the highest importance their agreement upon the best policy may not seem to be prearranged.
11. Now the statesman is always by nature ruler of the state, like the queen bee in the hive,
12. And bearing this in mind he ought to keep public matters in his own hands;
13. But offices which are called ‘authoritative’ and are elective he ought not to seek too eagerly or often, for love of office is neither dignified nor popular;
14. Nor should he refuse them, if the people offer them and call him to them in accordance with the law,
15. But even if they be too small for a man of his reputation, he should accept them and exercise them with zeal.
16. For it is right that men who are adorned with the highest offices should in turn adorn the lesser,
17. And that statesmen should show moderation, giving up and yielding some part of the weightier offices, and adding dignity and grandeur to the minor offices,
18. That we may not be despised in connection with the latter, nor envied on account of the former.
19. And when entering upon any office whatsoever, one must not only call to mind those considerations of which Pericles reminded himself when he assumed the cloak of a general:
20. ‘Take care, Pericles; you are ruling free men, you are ruling Greeks, Athenian citizens,’
21. But one must also say to oneself: ‘You who rule are a subject, ruling a state controlled by proconsuls, the agents of peace;
22. ‘These are not the spearmen of the plain, nor is this ancient Sardis, nor the famed Lydian power.’
23. One should imitate the actors, who, while putting into the performance their own passion, character and reputation,
24. Yet listen to the prompter and do not go beyond the degree of liberty in rhythms and metres permitted by those in authority over them.
25. For to fail in one’s part in public life brings not mere hissing or catcalls or stamping of feet.
26. Furthermore when we see little children trying playfully to bind their fathers’ shoes on their feet or fit their crowns upon their heads, we only laugh,
27. But the officials in the cities, when they foolishly urge the people to imitate the deeds, ideals and actions of their ancestors, however unsuitable they may be to the present times and conditions, stir up the common folk,
28. And though what they do is laughable, what is done to them is no laughing matter, unless they are merely treated with utter contempt.
Chapter 26
1. The statesman, while making his native state readily obedient to its laws, must not further humble it;
2. Nor, when the leg has been fettered, go on and subject the neck to the yoke,
3. As some do who, by referring everything, great or small, to the sovereign power,
4. Bring the reproach of slavery upon their country, or rather wholly destroy its constitutional government, making it timid and powerless in everything.
5. For just as those who have become accustomed neither to dine nor to bathe except by the physician’s orders do not even enjoy that degree of health which nature grants them,
6. So those who invite the government’s decision on every decree, meeting of a council, granting of a privilege or administrative measure,
7. Force their government to be their master more than it desires.
8. And the cause of this is chiefly the greed and contentiousness of the foremost citizens;
9. For either, in cases in which they are injuring their inferiors, they force them into exile from the state,
10. Or, in matters concerning which they differ among themselves, since they are unwilling to occupy an inferior position among their fellow-citizens, they call in those who are mightier;
11. And as a result senate, popular assembly, courts and the entire local government lose their authority.
12. But the statesman should soothe the ordinary citizens by granting them equality, and the powerful by concessions in return,
13. Thus keeping them within the bounds of the local government and solving their difficulties