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I could wish that, even as to praise virtue is a facile theme, so it were easy to persuade bearers to practice it. But as things are I am afraid that I may be expressing such sentiments to no purpose. For we have been depraved for a long time by men whose only ability is to cheat and delude—men who have held the people in such contempt that whenever they wish to bring about a state of war with any city, these very men who are paid1 for what they say have the audacity to tell us that we should follow the example of our ancestors and not allow ourselves to be made a laughing-stock nor permit those Hellenes to sail the sea who are unwilling to pay us their contributions.
1 That is, bribed to speak. See Isoc. 8.50 and note.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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