[123]
Here is another point, men of Athens. The difference between railing and
accusation I take to be this: accusation implies crimes punishable by law;
railing, such abuse as quarrelsome people vent upon one another according to
their disposition. These law courts, if I am not mistaken, were built by our
ancestors, not that we should convene you here to listen to us taunting one
another with the secret scandal of private life, but that we should here bring
home to the guilty offences against the public weal.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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