ng accusations against
enemies who have done them a wrong.

"And surely we have a right to find fault with our neighbors if any
one ever had. There are important interests at stake to which, as far
as we can see, you are insensible. And you have never considered what
manner of men are these Athenians with whom you will have to fight,
and how utterly unlike yourselves. They are revolutionary, equally
quick in the conception and in the execution of every new plan; while
you are conservative--careful only to keep what you have, originating
nothing, and not acting even when action is most necessary. They are
bold beyond their strength; they run risks which prudence would
condemn; and in the midst of misfortune they are full of hope. Whereas
it is your nature, tho strong, to act feebly; when your plans are most
prudent, to distrust them; and when calamities come upon you, to think
that you will never be delivered from them. They are impetuous, and
you are dilatory; they are always abroad, and you are always at home.
For they hope to gain something by leaving their homes; but you are
afraid that any new enterprise may imperil what you have already. When
conquerors, they pursue their victory to the utmost; when defeated,
they fall back the least. Their bodies they devote to their country as
tho they belonged to other men; their true self is in their mind,
which is most truly their own when employed in her service. When they
do not carry out an intention which they have formed, they seem to
have sustained a personal bereavement; when an enterprise succeeds,
they have gained a mere instalment of what is to come; but if they
fail, they at once conceive new hopes and so fill up the void. With
them alone to hope is to have, for they lose not a moment in the
execution of an idea. This is the lifelong task, full of danger and
toil, which they are always imposing upon themselves. None enjoy their
good things less, because they are always seeking for more. To do
their duty is their only holiday, and they deem the quiet of inaction
to be as disagreeable as the most tiresome business. If a man should
say to them, in a word, that they were born neither to have peace
themselves nor to allow peace to other men, he would simply speak the
truth.

"In the face of such an enemy, Lacedaemonians, you persist in doing
nothing. You do not see that peace is best secured by those who use
their strength justly, but whose attitude shows that they hav