made "poverty
a blessing."

Charmides recounts that he once lived in a state of perpetual terror.
New taxes were decreed every day, each of which he was compelled to pay.
He was deprived of the liberty even of leaving the state. His lot was
worse than that of the meanest slave.

Behold! a fertile imagination came to his rescue. He embarked in a
speculation in which failure was inevitable. Good fortune attended him.
Within a brief time he was penniless and happy. The unfortunate
speculator who had gained possession of the wealth of Charmides lived
for a brief time in the agony of wealth; then he attempted to flee the
state, was apprehended and executed.

Charmides makes votive offerings to the gods of Athens for his escape
from the terror and servitude of property. "How comfortably I sleep!" he
cries. "The republic has confidence in me. I am no longer threatened. It
is I who threaten others. A free man, I can go or stay. I appear at the
theater. I am admitted free. The rich rise in trembling and offer me the
best seats. When I walk abroad in the streets they stand aside to offer
me an unobstructed passage. To-day I resemble a tyrant. Then I was a
slave. Then I paid tribute to the state. Now the state, my tributary,
supports me. I lose nothing; for I have nothing."

For a time democratic Athens was a veritable Bolshevist paradise. But
when the ranks of the rich became depleted, when none cared longer to
engage in any profitable industry, the public revenue fell until there
was no money to support the happy idlers. The rich were tortured in the
vain hope that they would produce hidden treasure; but the public
treasury remained empty.

This period of riotous profligacy followed the happy conclusion for
Athens of the Theban war. When the Athenian proletariat discovered that
the state was about to pass under the yoke of Philip they hunted down
the remnant of the wealthy class that still remained, executed some,
banished others and sold still others into slavery for "betraying the
Athenian state and leaving it helpless before its enemies."

Shortly afterwards Athens came under the despotism of Philip, who
speedily conscripted this proletariat for forced labor. For a hundred
years afterwards, however, Athenian writers in bewailing their loss of
liberty blamed the fall of Athens upon the "rich," who failed to arm
and equip a force to fight Philip.

All the wisdom of her philosophers, all the art and learning whose loss