these men had advised properly in time past, there would be no necessity
for deliberating now.

First I say, you must not despond, Athenians, under your present
circumstances, wretched as they are; for that which is worst in them as
regards the past, is best for the future. What do I mean? That our
affairs are amiss, men of Athens, because you do nothing which is
needful; if, notwithstanding you performed your duties, it were the
same, there would be no hope of amendment.

Consider next, what you know by report, and men of experience remember;
how vast a power the Lacedaemonians had not long ago, yet how nobly and
becomingly you consulted the dignity of Athens, and undertook the war
[Footnote: He refers to the war in which Athens assisted the Thebans
against Lacedaemon, and in which Chabrias won the naval battle of Naxos.
That war commenced twenty-six years before the speaking of the first
Philippic, and would be well remembered by many of the hearers. See the
Historical Abstract in this volume.] against them for the rights of
Greece. Why do I mention this? To show and convince you, Athenians, that
nothing, if you take precaution, is to be feared, nothing, if you are
negligent, goes as you desire. Take for examples the strength of the
Lacedaemonians then, which you overcame by attention to your duties, and
the insolence of this man now, by which through neglect of our interests
we are confounded. But if any among you, Athenians, deem Philip hard to
be conquered, looking at the magnitude of his existing power, and the
loss by us of all our strongholds, they reason rightly, but should
reflect, that once we held Pydna and Potidaea and Methone and all the
region round about as our own, and many of the nations now leagued with
him were independent and free, and preferred our friendship to his. Had
Philip then taken it into his head, that it was difficult to contend