When, therefore, you find a politician coveting crowns and proclamations in the presence of the Greeks, bid him bring his argument back to the proof of a worthy life and a sound character, precisely as the law commands a man to give security for property.1 But if he has no testimony to this, do not confirm to him the praises which he seeks let your thought be for the democracy, which is already slipping through your hands.
1 “Just as the law orders that a vendor should give a purchaser of property a security for the validity of his purchase, so should the orator he compelled to show that his conduct, for which the reward is claimed, is a sure and proper ground on which to grant it.” （Gwatkin and Shuckburgh, ad loc.）
Aeschines. Aeschines with an English translation by Charles Darwin Adams, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1919.
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