[42]
But
perhaps, while admitting the truth of this, you will say that you consider him a
useful servant of the State, so that we must overlook all this and spare him.
Men of Athens, when you have had
practical experience of something, you should never take a merely theoretical
view of it. This man had no dealings with you in the five years when he was
deprived of the right to address you. Well, who in all that time regretted him?
What neglect of the city's interests has anyone observed in consequence of his
absence, or what improvement now that he is allowed to speak? On the contrary,
it seems to me that as long as he did not come before you, the city had respite
from the troubles that he caused to everyone, but since he started his harangues
again, Athens is in a state of siege
from the factious and unruly speeches that he delivers at every meeting of the
Assembly.
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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