Greek Fire by Winston Graham

means,” said Gallanova.
    George smiled gently. “ The trouble I see with all these leaders up to now is that ruthlessness and reflectiveness seldom grow on the same stem. Whether a dictator is wholly bad, like Hitler, or partly good, like Metaxas, he is always too much a man of action to be also a man of thought. He has no background of ideas deep enough to maintain him on his way. Plato pointed the solution, but no one has yet followed it.”
    George was at his most effective in small groups. His persuasive voice did not have to be raised to betray its lack of tone.
    â€œDo men like to be autocratically governed?” cried Mme Telechos. “They are all too fond of equality these days.”
    â€œI am all for equality,” said Lascou, “but equality on different levels. There can’t be complete equality of reward where there isn’t equality of service. The intellectuals, the philosophers, the governing élite—they are the brains of a nation and should have equality among themselves; so should the black-coated workers, the heart and the viscera; so should the manual workers, the limbs of the state. But these classes are not the equal of each other. Let each man be equal with his neighbour and let every man be judged according to his service to the community.”
    â€œMankind has always been rather unoriginal in his forms of government,” said Galianova yawning. “Perhaps that’s because womankind has had so little to do with it.”
    Everyone laughed. George said: “The finest example of the art of government was in this city as it existed two thousand five hundred years ago. The reward of energy, resource, intellect, reached its highest peak. I think you found there love of life, admiration for strength and beauty, the constant exercise of reason, the acceptance of responsibility … and with it went a self-governing genius never since equalled in the world.”
    There was a murmur of approval.
    â€œI’m not at all sure,” said Gene, “that it was quite as good as that.”
    Silence fell. Servants moved dishes discreetly in the background.
    â€œOh,” said Jon Manos, “what did your night school say?”
    â€œNo one,” said Gene ignoring him and addressing Lascou, “ is a greater admirer than I am of the city state as it existed in Athens in those days. But I think in honesty you have to admit that distance lends a certain glamour to the view. Surely the whole thing, good as it was, was rather a contradiction within itself. Wasn’t it? It was a state where one man in four lived the ideal life—at the expense of the other three. It was therefore at most 25 per cent of ideal. Then it was a military state constantly at war with one of its neighbouring states, and I’ve seen enough fighting to feel that that was not ideal. Thirdly, for all its excellence it was in a continual state of revolution within itself, and that too isn’t a particular recommendation. Given those provisos, I’d agree it was a thousand times better than anything that had gone before and a hundred times better than what came after. I’m only trying to see it in its perspective.”
    â€œPerfection of course isn’t possible,” said George. “ I wasn’t claiming perfection for the system but giving it as an example to be admired and studied. It’s not impossible that it could be improved upon.”
    â€œAs Plato suggested it could be improved upon?” said Gene.
    â€œAthens was the practical state, in operation. Plato’s was the contemplative ideal, never properly attempted. I beheve that Greece is the one country, right as to size, malleability and temperament, where it might be possible, given the right men at the top, to fuse the ideal and the practical and set up an example of government for the world to copy.”
    Somebody spoke at the end of the table and talk broke out here and there for