[2]
But for myself I am perfectly well aware that
Athens once had the chance both
of establishing her power and of punishing Philip; for within my own memory and
not long ago, both these objects were within our grasp. Now, however, I am
persuaded that we must be content to secure the first, that of saving our
allies. If once we can be sure of that, then we can go on to consider who is to
be punished and how it is to be done; but until that foundation is well and
truly laid, it is idle, in my opinion, to say a word about our ultimate object.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.