Phocion   

Demades, the orator, when in the height of the power which he obtained
at Athens, by advising the state in the interest of Antipater and
the Macedonians, being necessitated to write and speak many things
below the dignity, and contrary to the character, of the city, was
wont to excuse himself by saying he steered only the shipwrecks of
the commonwealth. This hardy saying of his might have some appearance
of truth, if applied to Phocion's government. For Demades, indeed,
was himself the mere wreck of his country, living and ruling so dissolutely,
that Antipater took occasion to say of him, when he was now grown
old, that he was like a sacrificed beast, all consumed except the
tongue and the belly. But Phocion's was a real virtue, only overmatched
in the unequal contest with an adverse time, and rendered, by the
ill fortunes of Greece, inglorious and obscure. We must not, indeed,
allow ourselves to concur with Sophocles in so far diminishing the
force of virtue as to say that-
"When fortune fails, the sense we had before
Deserts us also, and is ours no more."
Yet thus much, indeed, must be allowed to happen in the conflicts
between good men and ill fortune, that instead of due returns of honour
and gratitude, obloquy and unjust surmises may often prevail, to weaken,
in a considerable degree, the credit of their virtue.
It is commonly said that public bodies are most insulting and contumelious
to a good man, when they are puffed up with prosperity and success.
But the contrary often happens; afflictions and public calamities
naturally embittering and souring the minds and tempers of men, and
disposing them to such peevishness and irritability that hardly any
word or sentiment of common vigour can be addressed to them, but they
will be apt to take offence. He that remonstrates with them on their
errors is presumed to be insulting over their misfortunes, and any
free-spoken expostulation is construed into contempt. Honey itself
is searching in sore and ulcerated parts; and the wisest and most
judicious counsels prove provoking to distempered minds, unless offered
with those soothing and compliant approaches which made the poet,
for instance, characterize agreeable things in general by a word expressive
of a grateful and easy touch, exciting nothing of offence or resistance.
Inflamed eyes require a retreat into dusky places, amongst colours
of the deepest shades, and are unable to endure the brilliancy of
light. So fares it in the body politic, in times of distress and humiliation;
a certain sensitiveness and soreness of humour prevail, with a weak
incapacity of enduring any free and open advice, even when the necessity
of affairs most requires such plain dealing, and when the consequences
of any single error may be beyond retrieving. At such times the conduct
of public affairs is on all hands most hazardous. Those who humour
the people are swallowed up in the common ruin; those who endeavour
to lead them aright perish the first in their attempt.
Astronomers tell us, the sun's motion is neither exactly parallel
with that of the heavens in general, nor yet directly and diametrically
opposite, but describing an oblique line, with insensible declination
he steers his course in such a gentle, easy curve, as to dispense
his light and influence, in his annual revolution, at several seasons
in just proportions to the whole creation. So it happens in political
affairs; if the motions of rulers be constantly opposite and cross
to the tempers and inclinations of the people, they will be resented
as arbitrary and harsh; as, on the other side, too much deference,
or encouragement, as too often it has been, to popular faults and
errors, is full of danger and ruinous consequences. But where concession
is the response to willing obedience, and a statesman gratifies his
people, that he may the more imperatively recall them to a sense of
the common interest, then, indeed, human beings, who are ready enough
to serve well and submit to much, if they are not always ordered about
and roughly handled, like slaves, may be said to be guided and governed
upon the method that leads to safety. Though it must be confessed
it is a nice point, and extremely difficult, so to temper this lenity