Book II - Wilbourhall.org

xviii INTRODUCTION. [lfading away slowly but perceptibly. In the eventsof these chapters may be seen a clearer foreshadowingthan in the plague itself of the permanent andfatal effects of a war which was to stamp joy andvivacity out of Greece, and totake poetry from thefairest of her cities. But adversity has its jewel tograce it :the war left Athens oratory to gild a declinespent in domestic and international strife, and philosophyto console an old age harassed by distressingand melancholy doubts.Thus the year 429 is a greatturning point in Athenian history ; and it is significantthat this,which is the death year of Pericles, isalso the birth year of Plato, destined to be the fairestornament of the decadence, as Pericles had been thechief glory of the maturity of Athens.Thucydides istoo difficult an author to attract thecurious, and he is rather too much given to philosophisingto please this class of readers. Hobbeswas a philosopher too, and knew this.*They be farmore in number that love to read of great armies,bloudy battles, and many thousands slain at oncethen that mind the Art by which affairs both ofArmies and Cities be conducted to their ends.'Now Thucydides wrote for them that mind the Artby which affairs be conducted to their ends ; consequentlyhe does not possess that faculty whichseems to be reserved as the special consolation ofperiods of decadence in literature— the faculty ofamusing without troubling the reader. And so, inorder that his work may not remain the peculiarpossession of the minority of readers ' that mind theArt by which affairs be conducted to their ends,'