ὡς χαρίεν ἔσθ’ ἄνθρωπος ὅταν ἄνθρωπος ᾖ
“Yes, that is from Menander. How shall I tell you? It means so many things and so many different things at different times. Sometimes, I think, it may mean simply, that it is a duty to be a man and not a brute. Let me explain ….”
“I know!” broke in Aleko, whose eyes had been fixed on the entrance of the narrow street. “You mean, to be like you and not like that fruit-seller over there who is kicking his donkey because he has laden it too heavily, and it cannot walk.” Kyr Themistocli smiled.
“Well, … yes, if you like, my boy … yes. Sometimes it means that it is a glorious thing to be all that a man can be! to be afraid of no evil talk, to hold your head very high, to remember that we have sprung from a race which has given light to all the civilized world, to become all that an ancient Greek of the best might have been. I do not mean that there were no bad men among them! Which race has been without? There were Ephialtes[11] … Antipater[12] … and many others. But to approach the noblest, … to touch the hem of their garment … who would not be proud? Sometimes, Aleko, it means that like Socrates, one must give work, and strength, and patience, and forgiveness to others, and look for nothing in return. Sometimes it means that a man, to be a man, must give the thing that is hardest to give of all—his life even!”
“But …” began Aleko hesitatingly.
“What, my child? Ask all that you wish.”
“If a man—a great man, and a good man as you say—gives his life, then it is finished; he cannot help anyone, or be great, or strong, any more.”
“Ah, no! Many people have said that, little one, but I must make you see further. There are those who will say, if this man had not done this deed of sacrifice, if he had kept his own valuable life, he might have done many more great things later on. Ah, but they forget ….” and the blind man stretched out his arms as though appealing to an unseen audience. “They forget that all the useful and good things which he might still have done, are as nothing before the wonderful example he has given, before …. Oh, how shall I tell you, my child? … before the way in which he has made thousands of men’s and women’s hearts beat with noble thoughts,—before the way in which he has made the little children of his land lift up their heads, and say, ‘I, too, will be like him some day!’ No, Aleko, no! What he has done lasts through the years; and the bravery of great men of whom you will read some day, such a deed for instance as that of Paul Melas[13] in our own time, makes all the world nobler and stronger for them, even after their names come to be forgotten!”
There was silence for some minutes, then Aleko said:—
“When I am twenty-one years old, and my time comes to serve in the army, if there be a war while I am a soldier, then I may be very brave and perhaps …” his eyes brightened as he spoke, “they may print it in the newspaper, and someone will read it to you, and you will say, ‘That is Aleko, I know him.’ But if there is no war, … then what can I do?”