[58]
Then what are we to say for ourselves, men of
Athens, if we allow this law to
be confirmed? That our tribunals, composed under popular government of men who
have taken the judicial oath, are guilty of the same iniquities as the tribunals
of the Thirty Tyrants? Preposterous! That they give righteous judgements? Then
what reason can we allege for enacting a law to reverse those judgements? Unless
indeed we plead that we were out of our minds. We have no other excuse to
offer.—
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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