tively humble, he had the vanity to seek to
outshine his superiors in birth--not more by the splendour of genius
than by the magnificence of parade. At the Olympic games, the
base-born son of Neocles surpassed the pomp of the wealthy and
illustrious Cimon; his table was hospitable, and his own life soft and
luxuriant [147]; his retinue numerous beyond those of his
contemporaries; and he adopted the manners of the noble exactly in
proportion as he courted the favour of the populace. This habitual
ostentation could not fail to mingle with the political hostilities of
the aristocracy the disdainful jealousies of offended pride; for it is
ever the weakness of the high-born to forgive less easily the being
excelled in genius than the being outshone in state by those of inferior
origin. The same haughtiness which offended the nobles began also to
displease the people; the superb consciousness of his own merits wounded
the vanity of a nation which scarcely permitted its greatest men to
share the reputation it arrogated to itself. The frequent calumnies
uttered against him obliged Themistocles to refer to the actions he had
performed; and what it had been illustrious to execute, it became
disgustful to repeat. "Are you weary," said the great man, bitterly,
"to receive benefits often from the same hand?" [148] He offended the
national conceit yet more by building, in the neighbourhood of his own
residence, a temple to Diana, under the name of Aristobule, or "Diana of
the best counsel;" thereby appearing to claim to himself the merit of
giving the best counsels.

It is probable, however, that Themistocles would have conquered all
party opposition, and that his high qualities would have more than
counterbalanced his defects in the eyes of the people, if he had still
continued to lead the popular tide. But the time had come when the
demagogue was outbid by an aristocrat--when the movement he no longer
headed left him behind, and the genius of an individual could no
longer keep pace with the giant strides of an advancing people.

XXII. The victory at Salamis was followed by a democratic result.
That victory had been obtained by the seamen, who were mostly of the
lowest of the populace--the lowest of the populace began, therefore,
to claim, in political equality, the reward of military service. And
Aristotle, whose penetrating intellect could not fail to notice the
changes which an event so glorious to Greece produced in At