[25]
Again, he dispatched to the Adriatic a cargo of two talents' value, and told their mother, at the moment of its sailing, that it was at the risk of the children1; but when it went safely through and the value was doubled,2 He declared that the venture was his. But if he is to lay the losses to their charge, and keep the successful gains for himself, he will have no difficulty in making the account show on what the money has been spent, while he will find it easy to enrich himself from the money of others.
1 It was unlawful for a guardian to venture a ward's money in bottomry, and the Adriatic was notoriously perilous for navigation.
2 Hume （Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations） has remarked on the fact that a profit of 100 per cent on such a venture does not seem to have been thought extraordinary.
Lysias. Lysias with an English translation by W.R.M. Lamb, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1930.
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