[1] The bickering and disorder, men of
Athens
, that are accustomed to injure the State all the time, have proceeded on this occasion from the same men as always. But the thing to do is not so much to blame these men—for perhaps they do it out of spite and quarrelsomeness and, what is the chief reason, because it pays them to do so—as to blame yourselves, men of
Athens
, if, after assembling on matters of common interest and prime importance, you sit and listen to private bickerings and cannot figure out for yourselves that the tirades directed against one another by all the speakers, when no one is on trial, cause you to pay the penalties for the offences of which they convict one another.
[2] For outside of a few perhaps, to avoid saying all, not one of them abuses another that any of your interests may be forwarded; very far from it, but in order that he may himself with the greater immunity succeed in doing what he says, if so-and-so did it, would be the most outrageous conduct imaginable.
[3] Do not take my word for it that this is so but consider for a little. Has anyone ever stood up before you and said,
I have come forward, men of
Athens
, desiring to get my hands on something of yours, not for your sakes? Certainly not a single one. Instead, they say
for your sakes and
on your account and cite these plausible motives.
Come now, men of
Athens
, consider why in the world you,
for whose sakes they all speak, are on the whole no better off now than before, while these, who all say
for your sakes, without a single one having ever said
for our own sakes, have turned from beggars into rich men.
1
It Is because, though they say they love you, men of
Athens
, they love not you but themselves.
[4] The portion they allow you is to have a laugh and to raise a hubbub and now and then to have a hope, but they would not want you to get or acquire for the State any benefit in the proper sense of the word. Yes, and on the day when you are freed of this lamentable weakness you will be unable to endure even the sight of them. At present with their drachma and gallon measure and four obols
2
they regulate the populace like a sick man, giving you, men of
Athens
, doles very similar to the diets of the physicians. For these diets neither put strength into the patient nor allow him to die, and these doles neither allow you to cry quits and engage in some different and better business, nor can they alone suffice.
3
Exordia. Demosthenes. Norman W. DeWitt (Translator), Norman J. DeWitt (Translator). London. 1949.
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