37.
'Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others.
We1 do not copy our neighbours, but are an example to them.
It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of
the many and not of the few.
But while the law secures equal justice to all alike in their private disputes,
the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any
way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege,
but as the reward of merit.
Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may benefit his country whatever be the obscurity
of his condition.
[2]
There is no exclusiveness in our public life,
and in our private intercourse we are not suspicious of one another, nor angry with our
neighbour if he does what he likes; we do not put on sour looks at him which, though
harmless, are not pleasant.
[3]
While we are thus unconstrained in our private intercourse, a spirit of reverence
pervades our public acts; we are prevented from doing wrong by respect for the
authorities and for the laws, having an especial regard to those which are ordained for
the protection of the injured as well as to those unwritten laws which bring upon the
transgressor of them the reprobation of the general sentiment.
1 Our government is a democracy, but we honour men of merit, whether rich or poor. Our public life is free from exclusiveness, our private from suspicion; yet we revere alike the injunctions of law and custom.
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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