No one was ever known to be so forgetful of
his country as to care nothing for it when he was
in another state. No, those who get on badly in
foreign parts continually cry out that one’s own
country is the greatest of all blessings, while those
who get on well, however successful they may be in all
else, think that they lack one thing at least, a thing
of the greatest importance, in that they do not live
in their own country but sojourn in a strange land; for
thus to sojourn is a reproach! And men who during
their years abroad have, become illustrious through
acquirement of wealth, through renown from office-


 

holding, through testimony to their culture, or
through praise of their bravery, can be seen hurrying
one and all to their native land, as if they thought
they could not anywhere else find better people
before whom to display the evidences of their
success. The more a man is esteemed elsewhere,
the more eager is he to regain his own country.

 
Even the young love their native land; but
aged men, being wiser, love it more. In fact, every
aged man yearns and prays to end his life in it,
that there in the place where he began to live he
may