The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [248]
10. So statesmen, by uniting for one purpose not only men’s persons and funds,
11. But also their abilities and virtues, if they are in agreement, can gain greater reputation in connection with the same action than by other means.
12. Ambition, although it is a more pretentious word than ‘covetousness’, is no less pernicious in the state;
13. For there is more daring in it; one does not find it in slothful and abject people, but in the most vigorous and impetuous,
14. And the surge which comes from the masses, raising ambition on the crest of the wave and sweeping it along by shouts of praise, often makes it unrestrained and unmanageable.
15. Therefore, just as Plato said that young people should be told from childhood that it is not proper to ornament their bodies,
16. Because within they possess virtue, a far more precious thing,
17. So let us moderate ambition, saying that we have in ourselves honour, an ornament uncorrupted, undefiled and unpolluted by envy and fault-finding,
18. Which increases along with reasoning and forethought concerning our acts and public measures.
19. Therefore we have no need of honours painted, modelled or cast in bronze, in which even that which is admired is really the work of another;
20. For the person who has a public statue raised to him is not the main object of admiration, but instead it is the sculptor who is praised.
21. When Rome was beginning to be full of portrait statues, Cato refused to let one be made of himself, saying,
22. ‘I prefer to have people ask why there is not a statue of me rather than why there is one.’
23. Such honours arouse envy, and the people think that they are themselves under obligations to men who have not received honours,
24. But that those who have received them are oppressors of the people, being in effect men who demand payment for their services.
25. But if it is not easy to reject some mark offered by the kindly sentiment of the people, when it is so inclined, then one may accept a dignified reward;
26. A mere inscription suffices, a tablet, a decree or a green branch such as Epimenides received from the Acropolis after saving the city.
27. Anaxagoras, giving up the honours which had been granted him, requested that on the day of his death the children be allowed a day off school.
28. And to the seven Persians who killed the usurping Magi, the privilege was granted that they and their descendants should wear their headdress tilted forward over the forehead; for this was their secret sign when they undertook their act.
29. And there is something that indicates public-mindedness, too, about the honour received by Pittacus;
30. For, when he was told to take as much as he wished of the land which he had gained for the citizens,
31. He took only as much as he could throw a javelin over.
32. And the Roman Cocles received as much as he – and he was lame – could plough around in one day.
33. For the honour should not be payment for the action, but a symbol, that it may last for a long time, as those just mentioned have lasted.
34. But of all the three hundred statues of Demetrius of Phalerum, not one lasted; they were all destroyed while he was still living; and those of Demades were melted down into chamber pots.
35. Things like that have happened to many honours, they having become offensive, not only because the recipient was worthless, but also because the gift bestowed was too great.
36. And therefore the best and surest way to ensure the duration of honours is to reduce their cost;
37. Those that are great and top-heavy are, like ill-proportioned statues, quickly overturned.
38. The statesman will not despise the true honour and favour founded upon the goodwill of those who remember his actions,
39. Nor will he disdain reputation and avoid ‘pleasing his neighbours’, as Democritus demanded.
40. For not even the greeting of dogs nor the affection of horses is to be spurned by huntsmen and horse-trainers,
41. But it is both