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[51]
But, Cyrus, answered Chrysantas, it is really enough if you make their souls better with your words of exhortation.
Do you really think, returned Cyrus, that one word spoken could all at once fill with a sense of honour the souls of those who hear, or keep them from actions that would be wrong, and convince them that for the sake of praise they must undergo every toil and every danger? Could it impress the idea indelibly upon their minds that it is better to die in battle than to save one’s life by running away?
But, Cyrus, answered Chrysantas, it is really enough if you make their souls better with your words of exhortation.
Do you really think, returned Cyrus, that one word spoken could all at once fill with a sense of honour the souls of those who hear, or keep them from actions that would be wrong, and convince them that for the sake of praise they must undergo every toil and every danger? Could it impress the idea indelibly upon their minds that it is better to die in battle than to save one’s life by running away?
Cyropaedia. Xenophon. Walter Miller (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1914.
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