ponnese. Complaints, whether of communities or individuals, it is
possible to adjust; but war undertaken by a coalition for sectional
interests, whose progress there is no means of foreseeing, does not
easily admit of creditable settlement.

"And none need think it cowardice for a number of confederates to pause
before they attack a single city. The Athenians have allies as numerous
as our own, and allies that pay tribute, and war is a matter not so much
of arms as of money, which makes arms of use. And this is more than ever
true in a struggle between a continental and a maritime power. First,
then, let us provide money, and not allow ourselves to be carried away
by the talk of our allies before we have done so: as we shall have the
largest share of responsibility for the consequences be they good or
bad, we have also a right to a tranquil inquiry respecting them.

"And the slowness and procrastination, the parts of our character that
are most assailed by their criticism, need not make you blush. If
we undertake the war without preparation, we should by hastening its
commencement only delay its conclusion: further, a free and a famous
city has through all time been ours. The quality which they condemn is
really nothing but a wise moderation; thanks to its possession, we
alone do not become insolent in success and give way less than others in
misfortune; we are not carried away by the pleasure of hearing ourselves
cheered on to risks which our judgment condemns; nor, if annoyed, are
we any the more convinced by attempts to exasperate us by accusation.
We are both warlike and wise, and it is our sense of order that makes
us so. We are warlike, because self-control contains honour as a
chief constituent, and honour bravery. And we are wise, because we are
educated with too little learning to despise the laws, and with too
severe a self-control to disobey them, and are brought up not to be
too knowing in useless matters--such as the knowledge which can give a
specious criticism of an enemy's plans in theory, but fails to assail
them with equal success in practice--but are taught to consider that
the schemes of our enemies are not dissimilar to our own, and that the
freaks of chance are not determinable by calculation. In practice we
always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his
plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief
in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provi