Pagina 338 di 1391

Like State, like man,-the change in the latter begins with the

representative of timocracy; he walks at first in the ways of his

father, who may have been a statesman, or general, perhaps; and

presently he sees him 'fallen from his high estate,' the victim

of informers, dying in prison or exile, or by the hand of the

executioner. The lesson which he thus receives, makes him

cautious; he leaves politics, represses his pride, and saves

pence. Avarice is enthroned as his bosom's lord, and assumes the

style of the Great King; the rational and spirited elements sit

humbly on the ground at either side, the one immersed in

calculation, the other absorbed in the admiration of wealth. The

love of honour turns to love of money; the conversion is

instantaneous. The man is mean, saving, toiling, the slave of one

passion which is the master of the rest: Is he not the very image

of the State?