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§ 42-44 Perhaps Providence has made Philip so active in order to rouse you from your sloth (42). Is there not enough already to stir you? Are we to trust to luck and wait to be crushed (43)? Do not make difficulties. Active policy will find the way, but slackness is fatal (44). μηδὲν ἔπραττεν ἔτι, ‘he were meddling with no further projects.’ ἀποχρῆν (with ἄν), oblique after δοκεῖ, representing the imperfect indicative of the direct. The subject of ἀποχρῆν is to be gathered from the protasis, ‘such a state of things.’ ἐξ ὧν, ‘though in consequence of it.’ ὠφληκότες is used in different senses with its two objects, (1) ‘to incur,’ (2) ‘to incur the reproach of.’ Both are fairly common. The periphrastic pluperfect indicates the lasting result of the action, ‘we should be saddled with.’ τινί, neuter. τοῦ πλείονος, ‘more’ than he already has; not (as in πλέον ἔχειν) more than his neighbours. Cf. Thuc. IV.17 ἀεὶ τοῦ πλέονος ἐλπίδι ὀρέγονται. ἀπεγνώκατε, ‘have abandoned hope,’ used absolutely as in Dem. 3. 33. It is also found with an object, ‘to despair of.’
Demosthenes: Philippics I, II, III with Introduction and Notes. Gilbert A. Davies, M.A. 1949. Cambridge University Press.
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