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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: then: If I remember rightly, she began as follows, with the mention of the
dead:-- (Thucyd.)
There is a tribute of deeds and of words. The departed have already had
the first, when going forth on their destined journey they were attended on
their way by the state and by their friends; the tribute of words remains
to be given to them, as is meet and by law ordained. For noble words are a
memorial and a crown of noble actions, which are given to the doers of them
by the hearers. A word is needed which will duly praise the dead and
gently admonish the living, exhorting the brethren and descendants of the
departed to imitate their virtue, and consoling their fathers and mothers
and the survivors, if any, who may chance to be alive of the previous
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