J. E. Sandys, Select Private Orations of Demosthenes

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ἐν ἐμπορίῳ καὶ χρήμασιν ἐργαζομένοις Kennedy: ‘In the commercial world and the money-market it is thought a wonderful thing, when the same person shows himself to be both honest and diligent.’ The order is: θαυμαστὸν ἡλίκον ἐστὶν ἀνθρώποις ἐργαζομένοις ἐν ἐμπορίῳ καὶ (ἐργαζομένοις) χρήμασι, τὸν αὐτὸν δόξαι φιλεργὸν καὶ εἶναι χρηστόν, i.e. a reputation for businesslike habits and a really honest character, when combined in the same person, have a striking influence in the moneymarket and the commercial world.

ἐν should be taken with ἐμπορίῳ only, the construction being (as G. H. Schaefer notices) ἐργάζεσθαι ἐν ἐμπορίῳ with the preposition, and ἐργάζεσθαι χρήμασιν without. Cf. Or. 57 § 31, ὲν τῇ ἀγορᾷ ἐργάζεσθαι with Or. 33 § 4, where τῆς ἐργασίας τῆς κατὰ θάλατταν is followed by τούτοις (sc. τοῖς χρήμασι) πειρῶμαι ναυτικοῖς ἐργἀζεσθαι.

δόξαι is slightly contrasted with εἶναι, the outward reputation for business habits with the inward and inherent honesty (cf. ἔφυ χρηστὸς below). G. H. Schaefer says, ‘dativus regitur a verbo δόξαι. Deinde τὸ ἑξῆς est: τὸν αὐτὸν δόξαι εἶναι φιλεργὸν καὶ χρηστόν.’ But the position of δόξαι and εἶναι makes against this construction. Cf. Aesch. Theb. 592 οὐ γὰρ δοκεῖν ἄριστος ἀλλ᾽ εἶναι θέλει.

It is the combination of δόξαι φιλεργὸν and εἶναι χρηστὸν that is insisted on, because a forger, for instance, might have all the air of a painstaking man of business without being really χρηστός: and vice versa, a man of unblemished morale might never get a name for financial skill, or even ordinary businesslike habits.

οὔτε—οὔτε ‘As then his masters did not bequeath to Pasion this virtue, but he was honest by nature, so neither did Pasion bequeath it to Phormion; for he would have made you honest rather than him, had it been in his power.’

πίστις ἀφορμὴ ‘If you don't know that for money-making the best capital of all is good credit; then, what do you know?’

ἀφορμὴ Cf. § 12 n.

χωρὶς πατρὶ An accidental iambic line. See Isocr. Paneg. § 170 n.

ὅλως ‘Generally.’—On ὑμετέροις, cf. § 30 fin.

ἀλλ᾽, οἶμαι...τίς ἂν δύναιτ᾽ Questions of this kind are often best rendered by a negative sentence. ‘But no one, I feel, can come up to your covetousness and your general character.’ ‘Your covetousness &c. no language, I take it, can adequately describe.’ On the various senses of οἶμαι see Wyse on Isaeus 2 § 29. ἐφικέσθαι, sc. τῷ λόγῳ. Or. 14 § 1 ὧν οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἷς ἀξίως ἐφικέσθαι τῷ λόγῳ δύναιτο. For the genitive, cf. Isocr. 4 § 187; 9 § 49; 10 § 13.