[14]
But as for myself, if I do not speak in a manner worthy of my subject and of my reputation and of the time which I have spent1—not merely the hours which have been devoted to my speech but also all the years which I have lived—I bid you show me no indulgence but hold me up to ridicule and scorn; for there is nothing of the sort which I do not deserve to suffer, if indeed, being no better than the others, I make promises so great.2So much, by way of introduction, as to my personal claims.
1 See General Introd. p. 30.
2 This self-confidence is something more than Isocratean vanity. It is a conscious device to enhance the greatness of this theme. At the beginning he is exalted by its magnitude; at the end, 187, he is cast down by his failure to measure up to it. See Havet's interesting remarks in Cartelier's Antidosis, p. lxv.