[115]
So that no one could justly condemn those who chose our present polity.1 For they were not disappointed in their expectations, nor were they at all blind to both the good and the bad features attached to either form of rule, but, on the contrary, saw clearly that while a land-power is fostered by order and sobriety and discipline and other like qualities,2 a sea-power is not augmented by these
1 This making a virtue of necessity is inconsistent with Isocrates' uncompromising attitude toward the excesses of the later democracy in the Isoc. 7., the Isoc. 8., and even in this discourse.
2 Cf. Isoc. 8.102.