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brothers and sisters to each other,[9] wives to husbands, comrade to
comrade.
[9] Or, "brothers to brothers."
If, then, you will but thoughtfully consider it, you will discover it
is the ordinary person who is chiefly blest in these relations.[10]
While of tyrants, many have been murderers of their own children, many
by their children murdered. Many brothers have been murderers of one
another in contest for the crown;[11] many a monarch has been done to
death by the wife of his bosom,[12] or even by his own familiar
friend, by him of whose affection he was proudest.[13]
[10] Or, "that these more obvious affections are the sanctities of
private life."
[11] Or, "have caught at the throats of brothers"; lit. "been slain
with mutually-murderous hand." Cf. Pind. Fr. 137; Aesch. "Sept. c.
Theb." 931; "Ag." 1575, concerning Eteocles and Polynices.
[12] See Grote, "H. G." xi. 288, xii. 6; "Hell." VI. iv. 36; Isocr.
"On the Peace," 182; Plut. "Dem. Pol." iii. (Clough, v. p. 98);
Tac. "Hist." v. 8, about the family feuds of the kings of Judaea.
[13] "It was his own familiar friend who dealt the blow, the nearest
and dearest to his heart."
How can you suppose, then, that being so hated by those whom nature
predisposes and law compels to love him, the tyrant should be loved by
any living soul beside?
IV
Again, without some moiety of faith and trust,[1] how can a man not
feel to be defrauded of a mighty blessing? One may well ask: What
fellowship, what converse, what society would be agreeable without
confidence? What intercourse between man and wife be sweet apart from
trustfulness? How should the "faithful esquire" whose faith is
mistrusted still be lief and dear?[2]
[1] "How can he, whose faith's discredited, the moral bankrupt . . ."
[2] Or, "the trusty knight and serving-man." Cf. "Morte d'Arthur,"
xxi. 5, King Arthur and Sir Bedivere.
Well, then, of this frank confidence in others the tyrant has the
scantiest share.[3] Seeing his life is such, he cannot even trust his
meats and drinks, but he must bid his serving-men before the feast
begins, or ever the libation to the gods is poured,[4] to taste the
viands, out of sheer mistrust there may be mischief lurking in the cup
or platter.[5]
[3] Or, "from this . . . is almost absolutely debarred."
[4] "Or ever grace is said."
[5] Cf. "Cyrop." I. iii. 4.
Once more, the rest of mankind find in their fatherland a treasure
worth all else beside. The citizens form their own body-guard[6]
without pay or service-money against slaves and against evil-doers. It
is theirs to see that none of themselves, no citizen, shall perish by
a violent death. And they have advanced so far along the path of
guardianship[7] that in many cases they have framed a law to the
effect that "not the associate even of one who is blood-guilty shall
be accounted pure." So that, by reason of their fatherland,[8] each
several citizen can live at quiet and secure.
[6] "Are their own 'satellites,' spear-bearers." Cf. Thuc. i. 130;
Herod. ii. 168; vii. 127.
[7] "Pushed so far the principle of mutual self-aid."
[8] "Thanks to the blessing of a fatherland each citizen may spend his
days in peace and safety."
But for the tyrant it is again exactly the reverse.[9] Instead of
aiding or avenging their despotic lord, cities bestow large honours on
the slayer of a tyrant; ay, and in lieu of excommunicating the
tyrannicide from sacred shrines,[10] as is the case with murderers of
private citizens, they set up statues of the doers of such deeds[11]
in temples.
[9] "Matters are once more reversed precisely," "it is all 'topsy-
turvy.'"
[10] "And sacrifices." Cf. Dem. "c. Lept." 137, {en toinun tois peri
touton nomois o Drakon . . . katharon diorisen einai}. "Now in the
laws upon this subject, Draco, although he strove to make it
fearful and dreadful for a man to slay another, and ordained that
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