same strain. When all the rest had spoken, the Corinthian orator, who
had reserved his eloquence till the end, came forward and delivered a
vehement harangue, containing hardly any specific charge against
Athens, but well calculated to inflame the passions and provoke the
pride of the Spartans. Though the acknowledged leader of Greece, and
champion of her liberties, Sparta, he said, had always been the last
to see the dangers which menaced the common country, and the last to
take measures for her defence. Spartan apathy and indolence had
brought the Greeks to the brink of ruin in the Persian War; and when
that danger was passed, the same fatal indifference had enabled Athens
to advance step by step on the path of aggrandisement; until now she
had grown so strong that the united force of the whole Peloponnesian
league would be required to put her down. Why had not the Spartans
listened to the warnings which they had heard, when the Athenians were
rebuilding their walls? Then they might have stopped the evil at its
source, and saved a multitude of cities from slavery and oppression.
"Consider," cried the orator, warming to his subject, "what manner of
men these Athenians are, and how vast is the difference between them
and you. While you are shut up in this inland valley, treading the
dull round of mechanical routine, they are continually pushing forward
the boundaries of their empire, toiling night and day to make their
city great, never satisfied with what they have, always thirsting for
more. Cautious, timid, and conservative as you are, hardly to be
roused from your sloth by the most imminent perils, how can you hope
to curb the flight of Athenian ambition, which knows no limit, and is
checked by no reverse?

"Men of Sparta, I speak as a friend, and you will not take my candour
amiss. New times require new manners, and if you would maintain your
great position you must move with the march of events, and abandon