Phocion   

when again, in a time of great danger, the people were very harsh
upon him, demanding a strict account how the public money had been
employed, and the like, he bade them, "First, good friends, make sure
you are safe." After a war, during which they had been very tractable
and timorous, when, upon peace being made, they began again to be
confident and overbearing, and to cry out upon Phocion, as having
lost them the honour of victory, to all their clamour he made only
this answer, "My friends, you are fortunate in having a leader who
knows you; otherwise, you had long since been undone."
Having a controversy with the Boeotians about boundaries, which he
counselled them to decide by negotiation, they inclined to blows.
"You had better," said he, "carry on the contest with the weapons
in which you excel (your tongues), and not by war, in which you are
inferior." Once when he was addressing them, and they would not hear
him or let him go on, said he, "You may compel me to act against my
wishes, but you shall never force me to speak against my judgment."
Among the many public speakers who opposed him, Demosthenes, for example,
once told him, "The Athenians, Phocion, will kill you some day when
they once are in a rage." "And you," said he, "if they once are in
their senses." Polyeuctus, the Sphettian, once on a hot day was urging
war with Philip, and being a corpulent man, and out of breath and
in a great heat with speaking, took numerous draughts of water as
he went on. "Here, indeed," said Phocion, "is a fit man to lead us
into a war! What think you he will do when he is carrying his corselet
and his shield to meet the enemy, if even here, delivering a prepared
speech to you, has almost killed him with exhaustion?" When Lycurgus
in the assembly made many reflections on his past conduct, upbraiding
him above all for having advised them to deliver up the ten citizens
whom Alexander had demanded, he replied that he had been the author
of much safe and wholesome counsel, which had not been followed.
There was a man called Archibiades, nicknamed the Lacedaemonian, who
used to go about with a huge, over-grown beard, wearing an old threadbare
cloak, and affecting a very stern countenance. Phocion once, when
attacked in council by the rest, appealed to this man for his support
and testimony. And when he got up and began to speak on the popular
side, putting his hand to his beard, "O Archibiades," said he, "it
is time you should shave." Aristogiton, a common accuser, was a terrible
man of war within the assembly, always inflaming the people to battle,
but when the muster-roll came to be produced, he appeared limping
on a crutch, with a bandage on his leg; Phocion descried him afar
off, coming in, and cried out to the clerk, "Put down Aristogiton,
too, as lame and worthless."
So that it is a little wonderful, how a man so severe and harsh upon
all occasions should, notwithstanding, obtain the name of the Good.
Yet, though difficult, it is not, I suppose, impossible for men's
tempers, any more than for wines, to be at the same time harsh and
agreeable to the taste; just as on the other hand many that are sweet
at the first taste are found, on further use, extremely disagreeable
and unwholesome. Hyperides, we are told, once said to the people,
"Do not ask yourselves, men of Athens, whether or not I am bitter,
but whether or not I am paid for being so," as though a covetous purpose
were the only thing that should make a harsh temper insupportable,
and as if men might not even more justly render themselves obnoxious
to popular dislike and censure, by using their power and influence
in the indulgence of their own private passions of pride and jealousy,
anger and animosity. Phocion never allowed himself from any feeling
of personal hostility to do hurt to any fellow-citizen, nor, indeed,
reputed any man his enemy, except so far as he could not but contend
sharply with such as opposed the measures he urged for the public
good; in which argument he was, indeed, a rude, obstinate, and uncompromising
adversary. For his general conversation, it was easy, courteous, and
obliging to all, to that point that he would befriend his very opponents
in their distress, and espouse the cause of those who differed most
from him, when they needed his patronage. His friends reproaching