[189]
Perhaps he will say of me, “This man is an
orator.” If an orator is one who offers you such counsel as he thinks
expedient for you, yet stops short of pestering or bullying you, then for my
part I would neither shun nor disclaim that title. But if by orator he means one
of those speakers such as you and I so often see, men who have shamelessly
enriched themselves at your expense, I cannot be one, for I have never received
a penny from you and I have spent upon you all but a trifle of my fortune. Yet
even if I were the most unscrupulous of that gang, I ought rather to be punished
according to the laws than insulted in the performance of a public service.
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