80 GREEK DISHONESTY. 



In the arts and letters they were one nation; and 

 their jealousy of one another only served to stimulate 

 their inventiveness and industry. But in politics this 

 envious spirit had a very different effect; it divided 

 them, it weakened them ; the Ionian cities were en- 

 slaved again and again because they could not com- 

 bine. And one reason of their not being able to com- 

 bine was this ; they never trusted one another. It 

 was their inveterate dishonesty, their want of faith, 

 their disregard for the sanctity of oaths, their hanker- 

 ing after money, which had much to do with their 

 disunion, even in the face of danger. There are some 

 who desire to persuade us that the Greeks whom the 

 Romans described were entirely a different race from 

 the Greeks of the Persian wars. But an unprejudiced 

 study of original authorities gives no support to such a 

 theory. From the pirates to the orators, from the 

 heroic and treacherous Ulysses to the patriotic and 

 venal Demosthenes, we find almost all their best men 

 tainted with the same disease. Polybius complains 

 that the Greek statesmen would never keep their 

 hands out of the till. In the retreat of the Ten Thou- 

 sand a little banter is exchanged between a Spartan 

 and an Athenian which illustrates the state of public 

 opinion in Greece. They have come to a country 

 where it is necessary to rob the natives in order to 

 provide themselves with food. The Athenian says, 

 that as the Spartans are taught to steal, now is the 

 time for them to show that they have profited by their 

 education. The Spartan replies, that the Athenians 

 will no doubt be able to do their share as the Atheni- 

 ans appoint their best men to govern the State, and 

 their best men are invariably thieves. The same kind 

 of pleasantly, no doubt, goes on in Greece at the 



