THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

372 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
leaving out of his political calculations that important,
and fatal, factor of '
sentiment/
Yet, though the methods of Capodistrias were tyrannous,
this is not to say that he was a ' tyrant; ' for the
true tyrant
is as selfish in his ends as he is
unscrupulous
in his means. Capodistrias doubtless had ambitions,
and legitimate ambitions; he aspired to rule his
country; and he laboured to this end. But,
for all
was for Greece that he toiled as much as for
that, it
himself, or more and if he desired to rule his ;
country,
it was for her good. To his love for Greece he had
sacrificed, long since, his splendid position in the councils
of Kussia;
to this, when he was called to the presidency,
he surrendered his time, his health, his pleasures,
and all that he possessed. On his arrival, the
Assembly had proposed to vote him an income out of
the national funds; but this Capodistrias had refused;
and, so far from receiving a penny from the revenues
of Greece, he devoted the whole of his slender fortune
to the attempt to eke out the poverty of che national
treasury. His personal habits were worthy of the elder
Cato. He rose early, and worked the whole day in his
bureau, the sole furniture of which was a square sofa
and a plain writing-table. For the pleasures and
amusements which t tyrants ' usually allow themselves,
he cared nothing;
and he used to remark that his ex-