Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/344

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336
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336 PHOCION. he carefully maintained it to all that were related to him, and chiefly to his son Ciesippus, whom he labored to bring to some good, and although he was a stupid and intractable young fellow, always endeavored, so far as in him lay, to correct and cover his faults and follies. Once, however, when the youngster was very impertinent and troublesome to him in the camp, interrupting him with idle questions, and putting forward his opinions and sug- gestions of how the war should be conducted, he could not forbear exclaiming, " Chabrias, Chabrias, how grate- ful I show myself for your friendship, in submitting to endure your son." Upon looking into public matters, and the way in which they were now conducted, he observed that the administra- tion of affairs was cut and parcelled out, like so much land by allotment, between the military men and the public speakers, so that neither these nor those should interfere with the claims of the others. As the one were to ad- dress the assemblies, to draw up votes and prepare mo- tions, men, for example, like Eubulus, Aristophon, De- mosthenes, Lycurgus, and Hyperides, and were to push their interests here ; so, in the mean time, Diopithes, Me- nestheus, Leosthenes, and Chares, were to make their profit by war and in military commands. Phocion, on the other hand, was desirous to restore and carry out the old system, more complete in itself, and more harmonious and uniform, which prevailed in the times of Pericles, Aristides, and Solon ; when statesmen showed themselves, to use Archilochus's words, — Mars' and the Muses' friends alike designed, To arts and arms indifferently inclined, and the presiding goddess of his country was, he did not fail to see, the patroness and protectress of both civil and military wisdom. With these views, while his advice at