Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/113

OLIGARCHY AND DEMOCRACY. 91 Me to imagine ; and from neither of them would Athens have escaped, if her foreign enemy had manifested reasonable alacrity. Considering the immense peril, the narrow escape, and the im- paired condition in which Athens was left, notwithstanding her sscape, we might well have expected in the people a violence of reactionary hostility such as every calm observer, while making allowance for the provocation, must nevertheless have condemned ; and perhaps somewhat analogous to that exasperation which, un- der very similar circumstances, had caused the bloody massacres at Korkyra. 1 And when we find that this is exactly the occasion which Thucydides, an observer rather less than impartial, selects to eulogize their good conduct and moderation, we are made deeply sensible of the good habits which their previous democ- racy must have implanted in them, and which now served as a corrective to the impulse of the actual moment. They had be- come familiar with the cementing force of a common sentiment ; they had learned to hold sacred the inviolability of law and jus- tice, even in respect to their worst enemy ; and what was of not less moment, the frequency and freedom of political discussion had taught them not only to substitute the contentions of the tongue for those of the sword, but also to conceive their situation with its present and prospective liabilities, instead of being hurried away by blind retrospective vengeance against the past. There are few contrasts in Grecian history more memorable or more instructive, than that between this oligarchical conspiracy, conducted by some of the ablest hands at Athens, and ths demo- cratical movement going on at the same time in Samor;, among the Athenian armament and the Samian citizens. In the former, we have nothing but selfishness and personal ambition, from the beginning : first, a partnership to seize for their own advantage the powers of government; next, after this object has been accomplished, a breach among the partners, arising out of disap- pointment alike selfish. We find appeal made to nothing but the worst tendencies ; either tricks to practise upon the credulity of the people, or extra-judicial murders to work upon their fear. In the latter, on the contrary, the sentiment invoked is that of common patriotism, and equal, public-minded sympathy. That 1 Sec about the events in Korkyra, vol, vi, ch. 1, p. 283.