[3]
For this reason, Athenians, thinking that the trial holds no dangers for him,
this man is coming forward, I believe, to test your attitude. He has often
undergone all sorts of suffering short of death, which, if God so wills it and
you are wise, he will undergo today. For you must assume, by Heracles, that
there will be no improvement in him if he is pardoned by you now, and that in
future he will not abstain from taking bribes against you if you now acquit him.
For when wickedness is in its infancy perhaps it can be checked by punishment,
but when it has grown old and has sampled the usual penalties, it is said to be
incurable.
Dinarchus. Minor Attic Orators in two volumes, 2, with an English translation by J. O. Burtt, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1962.
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