[26]
Democracies, however, possess many
other just and noble features, to which right-minded men should hold fast, and
in particular it is impossible to deter freedom of speech, which depends upon
speaking the truth, from exposing the truth. For neither is it possible for
those who commit a shameful act to appease all the citizens,1 so
that even the lone individual, uttering the deserved reproach, makes the guilty
wince: for even those who would never speak an accusing word themselves are
pleased at hearing the same, provided another utters it. Through fear of such
condemnation, all these men, as was to be expected, for shame at the thought of
subsequent reproaches,2
manfully faced the threat arising from our foes and chose a noble death in
preference to life and disgrace.
1 Under an oligarchy, the speaker means, it is possible for the wrongdoer to seal the mouths of the small ruling clique by means of bribes, but under a democracy it is impossible to buy the silence of thousands of citizens. The reference is to oligarchic governments set up by the Spartans in subject states. Pericles praised the Athenian form of government as against the Spartan, Thuc. 2.37-39.
2 The fear of exposure as a factor in democratic government is mentioned by Pericles, Thuc. 2.37.3, and by Hyp. 25. Blass compares Dem. 22.31.
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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