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[30]
That agreement, men of Athens, I urge you to keep in the way that
I have explained, and I would confidently assure you, with the authority that my
age1 confers, that we shall at once be
exercising our undoubted rights, and also making the safest use of those
opportunities which impel us to secure our interests. For, indeed, there is this
clause appended to the agreement, “if it is our wish to share in the
common peace.” But the words “if it is our wish”
mean also the opposite—if it is ever our duty to abandon our
disgraceful submission to the dictates of others, or even our forgetfulness of
those high ideals, which from time immemorial we have cherished in greater
measure than any other people.2 Therefore, if you approve,
Athenians, I will now propose that, as the agreement directs, we declare war on
the transgressors.
1 Demosthenes would be about fifty at the probable date of this speech.
2 This vague and clumsy sentence admits of no satisfactory interpretation. Theἀλλάof the Mss. conveys no meaning, and it will be noticed thatπαύσασθαιis apparently constructed both with a participle and with an infinitive. The Greek needs, but hardly deserves, emendation.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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