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Yet we must admit that fortune has so much power even over good men,
that it has sometimes withheld from them their due meed of esteem and
praise, has sullied their reputations with unworthy calumnies, and
made it difficult for the world to believe in their virtue.
II. It would seem that democracies, when elated by success, are
especially prone to break out into wanton maltreatment of their
greatest men; and this is also true in the opposite case: for
misfortunes render popular assemblies harsh, irritable, and uncertain
in temper, so that it becomes a dangerous matter to address them,
because they take offence at any speaker who gives them wholesome
counsel. When he blames them for their mistakes, they think that he is
reproaching them with their misfortunes, and when he speaks his mind
freely about their condition, they imagine that he is insulting them.
Just as honey irritates wounds and sores, so does true and sensible
advice exasperate the unfortunate, if it be not of a gentle and
soothing nature: exactly as the poet calls sweet things agreeable,
because they agree with the taste, and do not oppose or fight against
it. An inflamed eye prefers the shade, and shuns strong lights: and a
city, when involved in misfortunes, becomes timid and weak through its
inability to endure plain speaking at a time when it especially needs
it, as otherwise its mistakes cannot be repaired.
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