[12]
Let no one think I
have enumerated this list of achievements because I am at a loss what to say
about each of them; for if I were the most helpless of all men in discovering
what it becomes me to say, the sheer virtue of those dead reveals what
sentiments lie to hand and are easy to rehearse. It is my intention, however,
after calling to mind their noble birth and the magnificent things done by their
ancestors, with all speed to link my speech with the deeds of these dead, to the
end that, just as they were akin in the flesh, so I may make the words of praise
spoken over them to apply to both alike. I assume that this would be gratifying
not only to the ancestors but, best of all, to both them and these dead, if they
should come to share one another's merit not only by virtue of birth but also by
reason of our words of praise.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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