[50]
But let no one suppose that I am out of temper with the younger generation: I do not think that they are to blame for what goes on, and in fact I know that most of them are far from pleased with a state of affairs which permits them to waste their time in these excesses; so that I cannot in fairness censure them, when it is much more just to rest the blame upon those who directed the city a little before our time;1
1 He is thinking of Ephialtes and those who, following in his footsteps, made Athens more “democratic.” Aristotle says that following the Archonship of Ephialtes “the administration of the state became more and more lax,” Aristot. Ath. Pol. 26.