84.
Do not be ashamed of the slowness and procrastination with which they are so fond of
charging1 you;
if you begin the war in haste, you will end it at your leisure, because you
took up arms without sufficient preparation.
Remember that we have always been citizens of a free and most illustrious state,
[2]
and
that for us the policy which they condemn may well be the truest good sense and
discretion.
It is a policy which has saved us from growing insolent in prosperity or giving way
under adversity, like other men.
We are not stimulated by the allurements of flattery into dangerous courses of which we
disapprove; nor are we goaded by offensive charges into compliance with any man's
wishes.
[3]
Our habits of discipline make us both brave and wise; brave, because the
spirit of loyalty quickens the sense of honour, and the sense of honour inspires
courage; wise, because we are not so highly educated that we have learned to despise the
laws, and are too severely trained and of too loyal a spirit to disobey them. We have not acquired that useless over-intelligence which makes a man an excellent
critic of an enemy's plans, but paralyses him in the moment of action. We think that the wits of our enemies are as good as our own, and that the element of
fortune cannot be forecast in words.
[4]
Let us assume that they have common prudence, and let our preparations be, not words,
but deeds2.
Our hopes ought not to rest on the probability of their making mistakes, but on our own
caution and foresight.
We should remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is
trained in the severest school.
1 Too much haste, too little speed. Our discretion and discipline are the secret of our greatness. We must no under value our enemies, and we must not rely on fortune.
2 Reading παρασκευαζώμεθα.
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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