Pagina 353 de 1391

He will take the slaves from their owners and make them his

body-guard; these are his trusted friends, who admire and look up

to him. Are not the tragic poets wise who magnify and exalt the

tyrant, and say that he is wise by association with the wise? And

are not their praises of tyranny alone a sufficient reason why we

should exclude them from our State? They may go to other cities,

and gather the mob about them with fine words, and change

commonwealths into tyrannies and democracies, receiving honours

and rewards for their services; but the higher they and their

friends ascend constitution hill, the more their honour will fail

and become 'too asthmatic to mount.' To return to the tyrant-How

will he support that rare army of his? First, by robbing the

temples of their treasures, which will enable him to lighten the

taxes; then he will take all his father's property, and spend it

on his companions, male or female.