[54]
The proofs by which you must be judged worthy of my praises
must also acquit me of all censure for the friendship I bear you.I would not be pressing you so urgently to study
philosophy1 unless I thought
that in this I was making you a most precious contribution as evidence of my
goodwill, and unless I observed that our city often makes use of ordinary men
for lack of men of the best type, and through their bungling incurs the gravest
misfortunes.
1 Blass notes the occurrence of this sentence in Isoc. 6.87, with ἐπὶ τὸν πόλεμον instead of ἐπὶ τὴν φιλοσοφίαν.
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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