Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/359

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329
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329

PUBLIC FUNERAL AT ATHENS 329

distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his condition. There is no exclusiveness in our public life, and in our private intercourse we are not suspicious of one another, nor angry with our neighbor if he does what he likes ; we do not put on sour looks at him which, though harmless, are not pleasant. While we are thus unconstrained in our private intercourse, a spirit of reverence pervades our public acts; we are pre- vented from doing wrong by respect for authority and for the laws, having an especial regard to those which are ordained for the protection of the injured as well as to those unwritten laws which bring upon the trans- gressor of them the reprobation of the general senti- ment.

" And we have not forgotten to provide for our weary spirits many relaxations from toil ; we have regular games and sacrifices throughout the year ; at home the style of our life is refined ; and the delight which we daily feel in all these things helps to ban- ish melancholy. Because of the greatness of our city the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us ; so that we enjoy the goods of other countries as freely as of our own.

" Then, again, our military training is in many respects superior to that of our adversaries. Our city is 'thrown open to the world, and we never expel a foreigner or prevent him from seeing or learning any- thing of which the secret if revealed to an enemy might profit him. AVe rely not upon management or trickery, but upon our own hearts and hands. And in the matter of education, whereas they from early