[205]
The Athenians
of that day did not search for a statesman or a commander who should help them
to a servile security: they did not ask to live, unless they could live as free
men. Every man of them thought of himself as one born, not to his father and his
mother alone, but to his country. What is the difference? The man who deems
himself born only to his parents will wait for his natural and destined end; the
son of his country is willing to die rather than see her enslaved, and will look
upon those outrages and indignities, which a commonwealth in subjection is
compelled to endure, as more dreadful than death itself.
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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