DEM. O happy man! Unconscious of your glorious destiny, Now mean and unregarded; but to-morrow, The mightiest of the mighty, Lord of Athens. S.-S. Come, master, what's the use of making game? Why can't ye let me wash my guts and tripe, And sell my sausages in peace and quiet? DEM. O simple mortal, cast those thoughts aside! Bid guts and tripe farewell! Look here! Behold! (_pointing to the audience_) The mighty assembled multitude before ye! S.-S. (_with a grumble of indifference_). I see 'em. DEM. You shall be their lord and master, The sovereign and the ruler of them all, Of the assemblies and tribunals, fleets and armies; You shall trample down the Senate under foot, Confound and crush the generals and commanders, Arrest, imprison, and confine in irons, And feast and fornicate in the Council House. S.-S. Are there any means of making a great man Of a sausage-selling fellow such as I? DEM. The very means you have, must make ye so, Low breeding, vulgar birth, and impudence, These, these must make ye, what you're meant to be. S.-S. I can't imagine that I'm good for much. DEM. Alas! But why do ye say so? What's the meaning Of these misgivings? I discern within ye A promise and an inward consciousness Of greatness. Tell me truly: are ye allied To the families of gentry? S.-S. Naugh, not I; I'm come from a common ordinary kindred, Of the lower order. DEM. What a happiness! What a footing will it give ye! What a groundwork For confidence and favour at your outset! S.-S. But bless ye! only consider my education! I can but barely read.... in a kind of way. DEM. That makes against ye!--the only thing against ye-- The being able to read, in any way: For now no lead nor influence is allowed To liberal arts or learned education, But to the brutal, base, and underbred. Embrace then and hold fast the promises Which the oracles of the gods announce to you. [Footnote: Aristoph. Knights. 155.--Translation by Frere.] We have here an illustration, one among many that might be given, of the political equality that prevailed in Athens. It shows us how completely that distinction between the military or governing, and the productive class, which belonged to the normal Greek conception of the state, had been broken down, on the side at least of privilege and right, though not on that of social estimation, in this most democratic of the ancient states. Politically, the Athenian trader and the Athenian artisan was the equal of the aristocrat of purest blood; and so far the government of Athens was a genuine democracy.