nts we made on their coasts.

_Cosmo_.--You seem to have understood beyond all other men what
advantages are to be drawn from a maritime power, and how to make it the
surest foundation of empire.

_Pennies_.--I followed the plan, traced out by Themistocles, the ablest
politician that Greece had ever produced. Nor did I begin the
Peloponnesian War (as some have supposed) only to make myself necessary,
and stop an inquiry into my public accounts. I really thought that the
Republic of Athens could no longer defer a contest with Sparta, without
giving up to that State the precedence in the direction of Greece and her
own independence. To keep off for some time even a necessary war, with a
probable hope of making it more advantageously at a favourable
opportunity, is an act of true wisdom; but not to make it, when you see
that your enemy will be strengthened, and your own advantages lost or
considerably lessened, by the delay, is a most pernicious imprudence.
With relation to my accounts, I had nothing to fear. I had not embezzled
one drachma of public money, nor added one to my own paternal estate; and
the people had placed so entire a confidence in me that they had allowed
me, against the usual forms of their government, to dispose of large sums
for secret service, without account. When, therefore, I advised the
Peloponnesian War, I neither acted from private views, nor with the
inconsiderate temerity of a restless ambition, but as became a wise
statesman, who, having weighed all the dangers that may attend a great
enterprise, and seeing a reasonable hope of good success, makes it his
option to fight for dominion and glory, rather than sacrifice both to the
uncertain possession of an insecure peace.

_Cosmo_.--How were you sure of inducing so volatile a people to persevere
in so steady a system of conduct as that which you had laid down--a
system attended with much inconvenience and loss to particulars, while it
presented but little to strike or inflame the imagination of the public?
Bold and arduous enterprises, great battles, much bloodshed, and a speedy
decision, are what the multitude desire in every war; but your plan of
operation was the reverse of all this, and the execution of it required
the temper of the Thebans rather than of the Athenians.

_Pericles_.--I found, indeed, many symptoms of their impatience, but I
was able to restrain it by the authority I had gained; for during my
whole Ministry I never ha