[11]
As soon, then,
as they had released the defendant from the lease, men of Athens, they at once
divided between them the bank and the shield-factory, and Apollodorus, having
the choice,1 chose
the shield-factory in preference to the bank. Yet, if the plaintiff had any
private capital in the bank, why in the world should he have chosen the factory
by preference? The income was not greater; nay, it was less （the
factory produced a talent, and the bank, one hundred minae）; nor was
the property more agreeable,2 assuming that he had private capital in the
bank. But he had no such capital. So the plaintiff was wise in choosing the
factory. For that is a property which involves no risk, while the bank is a
business yielding a hazardous revenue from money which belongs to others.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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