n: for men gaze upon
them with wonder, but do not eat them: and the stern antique virtue of
Cato, displayed as it was in a corrupt and dissolute age, long after
the season for it had gone by, gained him great glory and renown, but
proved totally useless, as it was of too exalted a type to suit the
political exigencies of the day. When Cato began his career, his
country was not already ruined, as was that of Phokion. The ship of
the state was indeed labouring heavily in the storm, but Cato,
although he was not permitted to take the helm and guide the vessel,
exerted himself so manfully, and gave so much assistance to those who
were more powerful than himself, that he all but triumphed over
fortune. The constitution was, no doubt, finally overthrown; but its
ruin was due to others, and only took place after a long and severe
struggle, during which Cato very nearly succeeded in saving it. I have
chosen Phokion to compare with him, not because of the general
resemblance of their characters as good and statesmanlike men, for a
man may possess the same quality in various forms, as, for example,
the courage of Alkibiades was of a different kind to that of
Epameinondas; the ability of Themistokles was different to that of
Aristeides; and the justice of Numa Pompilius was different to that of
Agesilaus. But in the case of Phokion and Cato, their virtues bore the
same stamp, form, and ethical complexion down to the most minute
particulars. Both alike possessed the same mixture of kindness and
severity, of caution and daring: both alike cared for the safety of
others and neglected their own: both alike shrank from baseness, and
were zealous for the right; so that one would have to use a very nice
discrimination to discover the points of difference between their
respective dispositions.

IV. Cato is admitted by all writers to have been a man of noble
descent, as will be explained in his life: and I imagine that the
family of Phokion was not altogether mean and contemptible. If his
father had really been a pestle maker, as we are told by Idomeneus,
who may be sure that Glaukippus, the son of Hypereides, who collected
and flung at him such a mass of abuse, would not have omitted to
mention his low birth, nor would he have been so well brought up as to
have been a scholar of Plato while a lad, and afterwards to have
studied under Xenokrates in the Academy; while from his youth up he
always took an interest in liberal branches of lear