{oude eokei andros ge thnetou pais emmenai alla theoio.}
"Od." iv. 691; {theioi basilees}. Cf. Carlyle, "Heroes"; Plat. "Meno," 99 D: Soc. "And may we not, Meno, truly call those men divine who, having no understanding, yet succeed in many a grand deed and word?" And below: Soc. "And the women too, Meno, call good men divine; and the Spartans, when they praise a good man, say, 'that he is a divine man'" (Jowett). Arist. "Eth. N." vii. 1: "That virtue which transcends the human, and which is of an heroic or godlike type, such as Priam, in the poems of Homer, ascribes to Hector, when wishing to speak of his great goodness:
Not woman-born seemed he, but sprung from gods."
And below: "And exactly as it is a rare thing to find a man of godlike nature--to use the expression of the Spartans, 'a godlike man,' which they apply to those whom they expressively admire--so, too, brutality is a type of character rarely found among men" (Robert Williams).
[7] Reading {etheloponia tis}, or if {philoponia}, transl. "just as some strange delight in labour may quicken in the heart of many an individual soldier." See "Anab." IV. vii. 11.
Happy must that leader be whose followers are thus attached to him: beyond all others he will prove a stout and strong commander. And by strong, I mean, not one so hale of body as to tower above the stoutest of the soldiery themselves; no, nor him whose skill to hurl a javelin or shoot an arrow will outshine the skilfullest; nor yet that mounted on the fleetest charger it shall be his to bear the brunt of danger foremost amid the knightliest horsemen, the nimblest of light infantry. No, not these, but who is able to implant a firm persuasion in the minds of all his soldiers: follow him they must and will through fire, if need be, or into the jaws of death.[8]
[8] Or, "through flood and fire or other desperate strait." Cf. "Anab." II. vi. 8.
Lofty of soul and large of judgment[9] may he be designated justly, at whose back there steps a multitude stirred by his sole sentiment; not unreasonably may he be said to march "with a mighty arm,"[10] to whose will a thousand willing hands are prompt to minister; a great man in every deed he is who can achieve great ends by resolution rather than brute force.
[9] See "Ages." ix. 6, "of how lofty a sentiment."
[10] See Herod. vii. 20, 157; Thuc. iii. 96.
So, too, within the field of private industry, the person in authority, be it the bailiff, be it the overseer,[11] provided he is able to produce unflinching energy, intense and eager, for the work, belongs to those who haste to overtake good things[12] and reap great plenty. Should the master (he proceeded), being a man possessed of so much power, Socrates, to injure the bad workman and reward the zealous --should he suddenly appear, and should his appearance in the labour field produce no visible effect upon his workpeople, I cannot say I envy or admire him. But if the sight of him is followed by a stir of movement, if there come upon[13] each labourer fresh spirit, with mutual rivaly and keen ambition, drawing out the finest qualities of each,[14] of him I should say, Behold a man of kingly disposition. And this, if I mistake not, is the quality of greatest import in every operation which needs the instrumentality of man; but most of all, perhaps, in agriculture. Not that I would maintain that it is a thing to be lightly learnt by a glance of the eye, or hearsay fashion, as a tale that is told. Far from it, I assert that he who is to have this power has need of education; he must have at bottom a good natural disposition; and, what is greatest of all, he must be himself a god- like being.[15] For if I rightly understand this blessed gift, this faculty of command over willing followers, by no means is it, in its entirety, a merely human quality, but it is in part divine. It is a gift plainly given to those truly initiated[16] in the mystery of self-command. Whereas despotism over unwilling slaves, the heavenly ones give, as it seems to me, to those whom they deem worthy to live the life of Tantalus in Hades, of whom it is written[17] "he consumes unending days in apprehension of a second death."
[11] According to Sturz, "Lex." s.v., the {epitropos} is (as a rule, see "Mem." II. viii.) a slave or freedman, the {epistates} a free man. See "Mem." III. v. 18.
[12] Apparently a homely formula, like "make hay whilst the sun shines," "a stitch in time saves nine."
[13] Cf. Hom. "Il." ix. 436, xvii. 625; "Hell." VII. i. 31.
[14] Reading {kratiste ousa}, or if with Heindorf, {kratisteusai}, transl. "to prove himself the best."
[15] See "Cyrop." I. i. 3; Grote, "Plato," vol. iii. 571.
[16] See Plat. "Phaed." 69 C; Xen. "Symp." i. 10.
[17] Or, "it is said." See Eur. "Orest." 5, and Porson ad loc.