though they were my friends." [5] "And do you remember," asked his
father, "certain other conclusions on which we were agreed? How we
felt there were certain things that the gods had permitted us to attain
through learning and study and training? The accomplishment of these is
the reward of effort, not of idleness; in these it is only when we have
done all that it is our duty to do that we are justified in asking for
blessings from the gods." [6] "I remember very well," said Cyrus, "that
you used to talk to me in that way: and indeed I could not but agree
with the arguments you gave. You used to say that a man had no right to
pray he might win a cavalry charge if he had never learnt how to ride,
or triumph over master-bowmen if he could not draw a bow, or bring
a ship safe home to harbour if he did not know how to steer, or be
rewarded with a plenteous harvest if he had not so much as sown grain
into the ground, or come home safe from battle if he took no precautions
whatsoever. All such prayers as these, you said, were contrary to the
very ordinances of heaven, and those who asked for things forbidden
could not be surprised if they failed to win them from the gods. Even as
a petition in the face of law on earth would have no success with men."

[7] "And do you remember," said his father, "how we thought that it
would be a noble work enough if a man could train himself really and
truly to be beautiful and brave and earn all he needed for his household
and himself? That, we said, was a work of which a man might well be
proud; but if he went further still, if he had the skill and the science
to be the guide and governor of other men, supplying all their wants and
making them all they ought to be, that, it seemed to us, would be indeed
a marvel." [8] "Yes, my father," answered Cyrus, "I remember it very
well. I agreed with you that to rule well and nobly was the greatest
of all works, and I am of the same mind still," he went on, "whenever
I think of government in itself. But when I look on the world at large,
when I see of what poor stuff those men are made who contrive to uphold
their rule and what sort of antagonists we are likely to find in them,
then I can only feel how disgraceful it would be to cringe before them
and not to face them myself and try conclusions with them on the field.
All of them, I perceive," he added, "beginning with our own friends
here, hold to it that the ruler should only differ from his subjec