Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 1.djvu/85

 CLEON but from the fact of your being superior to them through your power, rather than their good feeling.

But of all things, it is the most fearful, if nothing of what we have resolved is to be steadfast; and if we are not convinced that a state with inferior laws which are unchanged is better than one with good ones which are not authoritative; that homely wit with moderation is more useful than cleverness with intemperance; and that the duller class of men, compared with the more talented, generally speaking, manage public affairs better. For the latter wish to appear wiser than the laws, and to overrule what is ever spoken for the public good—thinking that they could not show their wisdom in more important matters—and by such means they generally ruin their country. But the former, distrusting their own talent, deign to be less learned than the laws, and less able than to find fault with the words of one who has spoken well; and being judges on fair terms, rather than rivals for a prize, they are more commonly right in their views. So then ought we also to do, and not to advise your people contrary to our real opinion, urged on by cleverness and rivalry of talent.

I, then, continue of the same opinion; and am astonished at those who have proposed to discuss a second time the case of the Mytileneans, and caused in it a delay of time, which is all for the advantage of the guilty (for so 35