[101]
For I think that all men, in all that they do, feel bound to
make a contribution out of their own pockets for the benefit of their own life.
Here am I, let us suppose; moderate and merciful towards all, and a benefactor
of many. To such a man all men ought to make an equivalent return, if occasion
offers or need demands. Here again is a very different man; violent, showing no
pity to his neighbor, nor even treating him as a fellow-man. Such a man deserves
to be paid in his own coin. And such, Meidias, was the contribution that you
paid for your own benefit; such is the return that you deserve.1]
1 This metaphor of the ἔρανος, which means （1） a picnic, （2） a benefit club, to which each member paid a subscription, and from which he could claim help in time of need, is repeated more fully and clearly in Dem. 21.184. Revision of the speech would probably have cancelled this passage; Dem. 21.100, Dem. 21.101 are obelized in S and two other Mss.
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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