Cyropaedia: the education of Cyrus by Henry Graham Dakyns (macos ebook reader TXT) 📖

all was ready he began: "Son of Armenia, I would counsel you, in the first place, to speak the truth, so that at least you may stand free from what deserves the utmost hate: beyond all else, be assured, manifest lying checks the sympathy of man and man. Moreover," said he, "your own sons, your daughters, and your wife are well aware of all that you have done, and so are your own Armenians who are here: if they perceive that you say what is not true, they must surely feel that out of your own lips you condemn yourself to suffer the uttermost penalty when I learn the truth." "Nay," answered the king, "ask me whatever you will, and I will answer truly, come what come may." [10] "Answer then," said Cyrus, "did you once make war upon Astyages, my mother's father, and his Medes?" "I did," he answered. "And were you conquered by him, and did you agree to pay tribute and furnish troops whenever he required, and promise not to fortify your dwellings?" "Even so," he said. "Why is it, then, that to-day you have neither brought the tribute nor sent the troops, and are building forts?" "I set my heart on liberty: it seemed to me so fair a thing to be free myself and to leave freedom to my sons." [11] "And fair and good it is," said Cyrus, "to fight for freedom and choose death rather than slavery, but if a man is worsted in war or enslaved by any other means and then attempts to rid himself of his lord, tell me yourself, would you honour such a man as upright, and a doer of noble deeds, or would you, if you got him in your power, chastise him as a malefactor?" "I would chastise him," he answered, "since you drive me to the truth." [12] "Then answer me now, point by point," said Cyrus. "If you have an officer and he does wrong, do you suffer him to remain in office, or do you set up another in his stead?" "I set up another." "And if he have great riches, to you leave him all his wealth, or do you make him a beggar?" "I take away from him all that he has." "And if you found him deserting to your enemies, what would you do?" "I would kill him," he said: "why should I perish with a lie on my lips rather than speak the truth and die?"
[13] But at this his son rent his garments and dashed the tiara from his brows, and the women lifted up their voices in wailing and tore their cheeks, as though their father was dead already, and they themselves undone. But Cyrus bade them keep silence, and spoke again. "Son of Armenia, we have heard your own judgment in this case, and now tell us, what ought we to do?" But the king sat silent and perplexed, wondering whether he should bid Cyrus put him to death, or act in the teeth of the rule he had laid down for himself. [14] Then his son Tigranes turned to Cyrus and said, "Tell me, Cyrus, since my father sits in doubt, may I give counsel in his place and say what I think best for you?"
Now Cyrus remembered that, in the old hunting days, he had noticed a certain man of wisdom who went about with Tigranes and was much admired by him, and he was curious to know what the youth would say. So he readily agreed and bade him speak his mind.
[15] "In my view, then," said Tigranes, "if you approve of all that my father has said and done, certainly you ought to do as he did, but if you think he has done wrong, then you must not copy him."
"But surely," said Cyrus, "the best way to avoid copying the wrongdoer is to practise what is right?"
"True enough," answered the prince.
"Then on your own reasoning, I am bound to punish your father, if it is right to punish wrong."
"But would you wish your vengeance to do you harm instead of good?"
"Nay," said Cyrus, "for then my vengeance would fall upon myself."
[16] "Even so," said Tigranes, "and you will do yourself the greatest harm if you put your own subjects to death just when they are most valuable to you."
"Can they have any value," asked Cyrus, "when they are detected doing wrong?"
"Yes," answered Tigranes, "if that is when they turn to good and learn sobriety. For it is my belief, Cyrus, that without this virtue all others are in vain. What good will you get from a strong man or a brave if he lack sobriety, be he never so good a horseman, never so rich, never so powerful in the state? But with sobriety every friend is a friend in need and every servant a blessing."
[17] "I take your meaning," answered Cyrus; "your father, you would have me think, has been changed in this one day from a fool into a wise and sober-minded man?"
"Exactly," said the prince.
"Then you would call sober-mindedness a condition of our nature, such as pain, not a matter of reason that can be learnt? For certainly, if he who is to be sober-minded must learn wisdom first, he could not be converted from folly in a day."
[18] "Nay, but, Cyrus," said the prince, "surely you yourself have known one man at least who out of sheer folly has set himself to fight a stronger man than he, and on the day of defeat his senselessness has been cured. And surely you have known a city ere now that has marshalled her battalions against a rival state, but with defeat she changes suddenly and is willing to obey and not resist?"
[19] "But what defeat," said Cyrus, "can you find in your father's case to make you so sure that he has come to a sober mind?"
"A defeat," answered the young man, "of which he is well aware in the secret chambers of his soul. He set his heart on liberty, and he has found himself a slave as never before: he had designs that needed stealth and speed and force, and not one of them has he been able to carry through. With you he knows that design and fulfilment went hand in hand; when you wished to outwit him, outwit him you did, as though he had been blind and deaf and dazed; when stealth was needed, your stealth was such that the fortresses he thought his own you turned into traps for him; and your speed was such that you were upon him from miles away with all your armament before he found time to muster the forces at his command."
[20] "So you think," said Cyrus, "that merely to learn another is stronger than himself is defeat enough to bring a man to his senses?"
"I do," answered Tigranes, "and far more truly than mere defeat in battle. For he who is conquered by force may fancy that if he trains he can renew the war, and captured cities dream that with the help of allies they will fight again one day, but if we meet with men who are better than ourselves and whom we recognise to be so, we are ready to obey them of our own free will." [21] "You imagine then," said Cyrus, "that the bully and the tyrant cannot recognise the man of self-restraint, nor the thief the honest man, nor the liar the truth-speaker, nor the unjust man the upright? Has not your own father lied even now and broken his word with us, although he knew that we had faithfully observed every jot and tittle of the compact Astyages made?" [22] "Ah, but," replied the prince, "I do not pretend that the bare knowledge alone will bring a man to his senses, it cannot cure him unless he pays the penalty as my father pays it to-day." "But," answered Cyrus, "your father has suffered nothing at all so far: although he fears, I know, that the worst suffering may be his." [23] "Do you suppose then," asked Tigranes, "that anything can enslave a man more utterly than fear? Do you not know that even the men who are beaten with the iron rod of war, the heaviest rod in all the world, may still be ready to fight again, while the victims of terror cannot be brought to look their conquerors in the face, even when they try to comfort them?" "Then, you maintain," said Cyrus, "that fear will subdue a man more than suffering?" [24] "Yes," he answered, "and you of all men know that what I say is true: you know the despondency men feel in dread of banishment, or on the eve of battle facing defeat, or sailing the sea in peril of shipwreck--they cannot touch their food or take their rest because of their alarm: while it may often be that the exiles themselves, the conquered, or the enslaved, can eat and sleep better than men who have not known adversity. [25] Think of those panic-stricken creatures who through fear of capture and death have died before their day, have hurled themselves from cliffs, hanged themselves, or set the knife to their throats; so cruelly can fear, the prince of horrors, bind and subjugate the souls of men. And what, think you, does my father feel at this moment? He, whose fears are not for himself alone, but for us all, for his wife, and for his children." [26] And Cyrus said, "To-day and at this time, it may be with him as you say: but I still think that the same man may well be insolent in good fortune and cringing in defeat: let such an one go free again, and he will return to his arrogance and trouble us once more." [27] "I do not deny it, Cyrus," said the prince. "Our offences are such that you may well mistrust us: but you have it in your power to set garrisons in our land and hold our strong places and take what pledges you think best. And even so," he added, "you will not find that we fret against our chains, for we shall remember we have only ourselves to blame. Whereas, if you hand over the government to some who have not offended, they may either think that you mistrust them, and thus, although you are their benefactor, you cannot be their friend, or else in your anxiety not to rouse their enmity you may leave no check on their insolence, and in the end you will need to sober them even more than us." [28] "Nay, but by all the gods," cried Cyrus, "little joy should I ever take in those who served me from necessity alone. Only if I recognise some touch of friendship or goodwill in the help it is their duty to render, I could find it easier to forgive them all their faults than to accept the full discharge of service paid upon compulsion by those who hate me."
Then Tigranes answered, "You speak of friendship, but can you ever find elsewhere so great a friendship as you may find with us?" "Surely I can," he answered, "and with those who have never been my enemies, if I choose to be their benefactor as you would have me yours." [29] "But to-day, and now, can you find another man in the world whom you could benefit as you can benefit my father? Say you let a man live who has never done you wrong, will he be grateful for the boon? Say he need not lose his children and his wife, will he love you for that more than one who knows he well deserved the loss? Say he may not sit upon the throne of Armenia, will