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[13]
it would have been my business to tender the challenge and to order
them to open it, in order that, if the contents differed from the statements
which these men had made in their deposition, I might have called a number of
the bystanders as witnesses, and have used this fact as a proof that the rest of
their story too was a fabrication; but, if the contents were the same, I might
have required the one presenting it to give evidence himself. If he consented, I
should have had a responsible witness, and, if he refused, this very fact again
would have been a convincing proof for me that the affair had been concocted.
And in the former case the result would have been that I had one person with
whom to deal, whereas according to the depositions of these men I have many. Is
there anyone among you who would have chosen the latter course? I think not one
of you would have.
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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