Yes, he said; I know that they have a washed-out and ridiculous appearance.
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peck.wisdom 23,094 posts
ClearAnd democracy has her own good, of which the insatiable desire brings her to dissolution?
And the insatiable desire of wealth and the neglect of all other things for the sake of money-getting was also the ruin of oligarchy?
The good which oligarchy proposed to itself and the means by which it was maintained was excess of wealth—am I not right?
[“And so where they choose to carry [the arrows], the winds allow the wounds; the sword has strength of arm: and whatever nation of men there is, they wage war with swords.”--Lucan, viii. 384.]
You know, I said, that dyers, when they want to dye wool for making the true sea-purple, begin by selecting their white colour first; this they prepare and dress with much care and pains, in order that the white ground may take the purple hue in full perfection. The dyeing then proceeds; and whatever is dyed in this manner becomes a fast colour, and no washing either with lyes or without them can take away the bloom. But, when the ground has not been duly prepared, you will have noticed how poor is the look either of purple or of any other colour.
Sextus of Chaeronea, a Stoic philosopher, nephew of Plutarch.
And does not tyranny spring from democracy in the same manner as democracy from oligarchy—I mean, after a sort?
Secutoriani (a word coined by C.), the Sececutores, light-armed gladiators, who were pitted against others with net and trident.
Say then, my friend, In what manner does tyranny arise?—that it has a democratic origin is evident.
“Et, quo ferre velint, permittere vulnera ventis Ensis habet vires; et gens quaecumque virorum est, Bella gerit gladiis.”
Of the opinion respecting things to be feared, what they are and of what nature, which the law implants through education; and I mean by the words ‘under all circumstances’ to intimate that in pleasure or in pain, or under the influence of desire or fear, a man preserves, and does not lose this opinion. Shall I give you an illustration?
Corn. Sc. Afr. Minor, who came into the family by adoption, who destroyed Carthage.
Scipio, the name of two great soldiers, P. Corn. Scipio Africanus, conqueror of Hannibal, and P.
Last of all comes the most beautiful of all, man and State alike, tyranny and the tyrant; these we have now to consider.
And the means we choose to make use of in so great a hazard should be as much as possible at our own command: wherefore I should advise to choose weapons of the shortest sort, and such of which we are able to give the best account. A man may repose more confidence in a sword he holds in his hand than in a bullet he discharges out of a pistol, wherein there must be a concurrence of several circumstances to make it perform its office, the powder, the stone, and the wheel: if any of which fail it endangers your fortune. A man himself strikes much surer than the air can direct his blow:
I should like to hear what you are saying once more, for I do not think that I perfectly understand you.
Let him then be set over against democracy; he may truly be called the democratic man.
Yes, I said; his life is motley and manifold and an epitome of the lives of many;—he answers to the State which we described as fair and spangled. And many a man and many a woman will take him for their pattern, and many a constitution and many an example of manners is contained in him.
[“The first shout and charge decides the business.”--Livy, xxv. 41.]