Even the worst criminals
seek to give some specious colour to their villainy; and the condemned
felon, who will face death without a tremor, shudders at the cry of
execration which greets his appearance at the scaffold. So hard it is,
even for the most depraved, to stifle the last embers of the moral
sense. We cannot suppose, then, that an educated Athenian of the fifth
century would publicly have claimed for his state the right of rapine
and murder. For this is the line of argument pursued by the
representative of Athens in the Melian Debate. The substance of what
he says may briefly be stated as follows "You are weak--we are strong;
Melos is a paltry island, Athens is queen of the Aegaean, and the
existence of an independent city in these waters is an insult to her
empire. Let us waste no time in discussions about abstract law and
right. For the mighty there is but one law--to get what they can, and
to keep it; and the weak have no rights, except by the sufferance of
the strong. This rule of conduct we know to be universal among men,
and we believe that the gods themselves are governed by it. [1]
To sum up the whole case in one word: you must yield or perish."
[1]
Desire of power, on earth a vicious weed,
Yet sprung from high, is of celestial seed;
In God 'tis glory; and when men aspire,
'Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire.
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