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[2]
Since, however, past events cannot be altered1 and it is necessary to
safeguard our interests as present facilities permit, I see no fitting occasion for laying
charges but shall try to offer what I think is the best counsel.
Now, first of all, you must admit this principle, that it is the duty of every man to
apply to the task the same superabundance of eagerness and emulation that he displayed of
indifference in times past; because thus there is a bare hope that we may be able, though
far behind in the pursuit, to overtake what we have let slip.
1 This commonplace is found also in Dem. 18.192; Dem. 3.6.
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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