The immediate pressure
of private calamity was blinding them to the magnitude of the
interests at stake--Athens, with all her fond traditions, and all the
lustre of her name. That they were sure of victory he had already
declared to them on many infallible grounds. But seeing them so sunk
in despair, he would speak in a tone of loud assurance, and boldly
assert a fact which they seemed to have overlooked. They were lords of
the sea, absolute masters, that was to say, of half the world! Let
them keep a firm grasp on this empire, and they would soon recover
those pretty ornaments of empire--their gardens and their vineyards--
which they held so dear: but, that once relinquished, they would lose
all. Surely this knowledge should inspire them with a lofty contempt
of their foes, a contempt grounded, not on ignorance or shallow
enthusiasm, but on rational calculation. They could not now descend
from the eminence on which they stood. Athens, who had blazed so long
in unrivalled splendour before the eyes of the world, dared not suffer
her lustre to be abated: for her, obscurity meant extinction. Let them
keep this in mind, and not listen to counsels of seeming prudence and
moderation, which were suicidal in a ruling state. All their
calamities, except the plague, were the foreseen results of their own
decision.
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