[33]
And yet, if your character was such that you could force him
to adopt you, but not study how you might please him, you were not what a true
son ought to be toward his parents; and, if you were not, you would have
deserved, not only to be treated with indignity, but even to be put to death. It
would indeed be an outrageous thing, if the laws concerning parents are to be
binding upon children whom the father recognizes as his own, but are to be of no
effect against those who have forced themselves in1 and compelled an
unwilling adoption.
1 The word chosen is the one properly used of aliens who seek to arrogate to themselves the rights of citizenship.
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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