[2]
I myself would
neither propose such a distribution of the doles, nor oppose the right to
receive them; but I do urge you to reflect seriously in your own minds that
while the sum of money you are discussing is a trifle, the habit of mind that it
fosters is a serious matter. Now if you so organize the receipt of money that it
is associated with the performance of duties, so far from injuring, you will
actually confer on the State and on yourselves the greatest benefit; but if a
festival or any other pretext is good enough to justify a dole, and yet you
refuse even to listen to the suggestion that there is any obligation attached to
it, beware lest you end by acknowledging that what you now consider a proper
practice was a grievous error.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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