[56]
“Oh but,” we shall be told, “some of those who
received these rewards did not deserve them”; for that thought will
run through all their argument. In that case shall we confess that we do not
know that a man's deserts should be examined at the time of the reward, and not
an indefinitely long time after? For to give no reward in the first instance is
an exercise of judgement; to take it away when given shows a grudging spirit,
and you must not seem to have been prompted by that.
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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