Phocion   

as to preserve the authority of the government. But if such a blessed
mixture and temperament may be obtained, it seems to be of all concords
and harmonies the most concordant and most harmonious. For thus we
are taught even God governs the world, not by irresistible force,
but persuasive argument and reason, controlling it into compliance
with his eternal purposes.
Cato the younger is a similar instance. His manners were little agreeable
or acceptable to the people, and he received very slender marks of
their favour; witness his repulse when he sued for the consulship,
which he lost, as Cicero says, for acting rather like a citizen in
Plato's commonwealth, than among the dregs of Romulus's posterity,
the same thing happening to him, in my opinion, as we observe in fruits
ripe before their season, which we rather take pleasure in looking
at and admiring than actually use; so much was his old-fashioned virtue
out of the present mode, among the depraved customs which time and
luxury had introduced, that it appeared, indeed, remarkable and wonderful,
but was too great and too good to suit the present exigencies, being
so out of all proportion to the times. Yet his circumstances were
not altogether like Phocion's, who came to the helm when the ship
of the state was just upon sinking. Cato's time was, indeed, stormy
and tempestuous, yet so, as he was able to assist in managing the
sails, and lend his helping hand to those who, which he was not allowed
to do, commanded at the helm, others were to blame for the result;
yet his courage and virtue made it in spite of all a hard task for
fortune to ruin the commonwealth, and it was only with long time and
effort and by slow degrees, when he himself had all but succeeded
in averting it, that the catastrophe was at last effected.
Phocion and he may be well compared together, not for any mere general
resemblances, as though we should say both were good men and great
statesmen. For, assuredly, there is difference enough among virtues
of the same denomination, as between the bravery of Alcibiades and
that of Epaminondas, the prudence of Themistocles and that of Aristides,
the justice of Numa and that of Agesilaus. But these men's virtue,
even looking to the most minute points of difference, bear the same
colour, stamp, and character impressed upon them, so as not to be
distinguishable. The mixture is still made in the same exact proportions
whether we look at the combination to be found in them, both of lenity
on the one hand, with austerity on the other; their boldness upon
some occasions, and caution on others; their extreme solicitude for
the public, and perfect neglect of themselves; their fixed and immovable
bent to all virtuous and honest actions, accompanied with an extreme
tenderness and scrupulosity as to doing anything which might appear
mean or unworthy; so that we should need a very nice and subtle logic
of discrimination to detect and establish the distinctions between
them.
As to Cato's extraction, it is confessed by all to have been illustrious,
as will be said hereafter, nor was Phocion's, I feel assured, obscure
or ignoble. For had he been the son of a turner, as Idomeneus reports,
it had certainly not been forgotten to his disparagement by Glaucippus,
the son of Hyperides, when heaping up a thousand spiteful things to
say against him. Nor, indeed, had it been possible for him, in such
circumstances, to have had such a liberal breeding and education in
his youth, as to be first Plato's and afterwards Xenocrates's scholar
in the Academy, and to have devoted himself from the first to the
pursuit of the noblest studies and practices. His countenance was
so composed that scarcely was he ever seen by any Athenian either
laughing or in tears. He was rarely known, so Duris has recorded,
to appear in the public baths, or was observed with his hand exposed
outside his cloak, when he wore one. Abroad, and in the camp, he was
so hardy in going always thin clad and barefoot, except in a time
of excessive and intolerable cold, that the soldiers used to say in
merriment, that it was like to be a hard winter when Phocion wore
his coat.
Although he was most gentle and humane in his disposition, his aspect