not hearers, but eyewitnesses,--who have desired to
obtain military command: of those who have gained their object, some
are even to this day exiles from the city, while others have lost their
lives. And even they who seem to have fared best, have not only gone
through many perils and terrors during their office, but after their
return home they have been beset by informers worse than they once were
by their foes, insomuch that several of them have wished that they
had remained in a private station rather than have had the glories
of command. If, indeed, such perils and terrors were of profit to the
commonwealth, there would be reason in undergoing them; but the very
contrary is the case. Again, you will find persons who have prayed
for offspring, and when their prayers were heard, have fallen into the
greatest pains and sufferings. For some have begotten children who were
utterly bad, and have therefore passed all their days in misery, while
the parents of good children have undergone the misfortune of losing
them, and have been so little happier than the others that they would
have preferred never to have had children rather than to have had
them and lost them. And yet, although these and the like examples are
manifest and known of all, it is rare to find any one who has refused
what has been offered him, or, if he were likely to gain aught by
prayer, has refrained from making his petition. The mass of mankind
would not decline to accept a tyranny, or the command of an army, or any
of the numerous things which cause more harm than good: but rather,
if they had them not, would have prayed to obtain them. And often in a
short space of time they change their tone, and wish their old prayers
unsaid. Wherefore also I suspect that men are entirely wrong when they
blame the gods as the authors of the ills which befall them (compare
Republic): 'their own presumption,' or folly (whichever is the right
word)--

'Has brought these unmeasured woes upon them.' (Homer. Odyss.)

He must have been a wise poet, Alcibiades, who, seeing as I believe, his
friends foolishly praying for and doing things which would not really
profit them, offered up a common prayer in behalf of them all:--

'King Zeus, grant us good whether prayed for or unsought by us; But that
which we ask amiss, do thou avert.' (The author of these lines, which
are probably of Pythagorean origin, is unknown. They are found also in
the Anthology (Anth. Pal.).)

In m