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THE PERSIAN WARS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES, 103fear from the Persians. The whole object of the confederacywas therefore at an end. And yet we do not hear that anyvoices were then raised againstAthens. On the other side, itmay with propriety be asked, if justice did not require ofthe Athenians, voluntarily to restore to the allies their liberty,But this question will hardly be put by a practical statesman*To free the allies from their subordination would have beento deprive Athens of its splendour to dry upa chief source;of the revenues of the republic ; perhaps to pave the way toits ruin. What Athenian statesman would have dared tomake such a proposition? Had he made it,could he havecarried itthrough ? Would he not rather have insured hisown downfal? There are examples where single rulers,weary of power, have freely resigned it but a ; people neveryet voluntarily gave up authority over subject nations.Perhaps these remarks may contribute to rectify thejudgments of Isocrates, 1 in his celebrated accusation of the2dominion of the sea; which he considered as the source ofall the misery of Athens and of Greece. The views whichhe entertained were certainly just but the evils ; proceededfrom the abuses ;and it were justas easy to show, that hiscelebrated Athens, but for that dominion, never would haveafforded him a subjectfor his panegyrics.But how those evils could result from that abuse ;howthey prepared the downfal of Athens, when Sparta appearedas the deliverer of Greece ;how the rule of these deliverers,much worse than that of the first oppressors,inflicted onGreece wounds, which were not only deep, but incurable ;in general,the causes which produced the ruin of thatcountry, remain for investigation in one of the later chapters, to which we must make our way through some previousresearches.JWe shall be obliged to recur frequently to Isocrates. It is impossible toread the venerable and aged orator, who was filled with the purest patriotismwhich a Grecian could feel, without respecting and loving him. But he^wasa politicalwriter }without being a practical statesman ; and, like St Pierreand other excellent men of the same class, he believed much to be possiblewhich was not so. The historian must consult him with caution. Thispanegyrist of antiquity often regarded it in too advantageous a light,and is,besides, little concerned about the accuracy of his historical delineations.* Isocrat Op. p. 172. ed. Steph.