I am a sharer in
this loan, men of the jury. We, who have engaged in the business of overseas
trade and put our money in the hands of others, have come to know one thing very
clearly: that in all respects the borrower has the best of us. He received the
money in cash which was duly acknowledged, and has left us on a scrap of
paper1
which he bought for a couple of coppers, his agreement to do the right thing. We
on our part do not promise to give the money, we give it outright to the
borrower.
1 That is, of course, papyrus.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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