Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 1.djvu/201

 DEMOSTHENES the recovery of their rank of amphictyons; nor could it have been safely attempted at Thebes before he had restored Bœotia and extirpated the Phocians. But at Athens, altho he hath robbed us of Amphipolis and the territory of Cardia; tho he awes us with his fortifications in Eubœa; tho he be now on his march to Byzantium; yet his partisans may speak for Philip without any danger. Hence, some of them, from the meanest poverty, have on a sudden risen to affluence; some, from obscurity and disgrace, to eminence and honor; while you, on the contrary, from glory, have sunk into meanness; from riches, to poverty; for the riches of a state I take to be its allies, its credit, its connections, in all which you are poor. And by your neglect of these, by your utter insensibility to your wrongs, he is become fortunate and great, the terror of Greeks and Barbarians; and you abandoned and despised; splendid indeed in the abundance of your markets; but as to any real provision for your security, ridiculously deficient.

There are some orators, I find, who view your interests and their own in a quite different light. They would persuade you to continue quiet, whatever injuries are offered to you, they themselves can not be quiet, tho no one offers them the least injury. When one of these men rises, I am sure to hear. "What! will you not propose your decree? will you not venture? No; you are timid: you want true spirit." I own,