单项选择题
| Our constitution does not copy the laws of
neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves.
Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called
a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their
private differences; if to social standing advancement in public life falls to
reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere
with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way; If a man is able to serve the
state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which
we enjoy in our government a jealous surveillance over enact other, we do not
feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even
to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although
they inflict no positive penalty. But all this in our private relations does not
make us lawless as citizens. Against this is our chief safeguard, teaching us to
obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of
the injured whether they are actually on the protection of the injured, whether
they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which although
unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace. Further, we provide plenty of means for the mind to refresh itself from business. We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to banish the spleen; while the magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbour, so that to the citizen the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his own. If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very, cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, here we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger. So spoke Pericles to the Athenians many centuries before Christ. |