They heard me with a tumult of approbation; and many other speeches they
heard from the ambassadors, both in my presence and afterward; yet none
the more, as it appears, will they keep aloof from Philip's friendship
and promises. And no wonder, that Messenians and certain Peloponnesians
should act contrary to what their reason approves; but you, who
understand yourselves, and by us orators are told, how you are plotted
against, how you are inclosed! you, I fear, to escape present exertion,
will come to ruin ere you are aware. So doth the moment's case and
indulgence prevail over distant advantage.

As to your measures, you will in prudence, I presume, consult hereafter
by yourselves. I will furnish you with such an answer as it becomes the
assembly to decide upon.

[_Here the proposed answer was read_]

[Footnote: Whether this was moved by the orator himself, or formally
read as his motion by the officer of the assembly, does not appear.]

It were just, men of Athens, to call the persons who brought those
promises, on the faith whereof you concluded peace. For I should never
have submitted to go as ambassador, and you would certainly not have
discontinued the war, had you supposed that Philip, on obtaining peace,
would act thus; but the statements then made were very different. Ay,
and others you should call. Whom? The men who declared--after the peace,
when I had returned from my second mission, that for the oaths, when,
perceiving your delusion, I gave warning, and protested, and opposed the
abandonment of Thermopylae and the Phocians--that I, being a
water-drinker, [Footnote: It was Philocrates who said this. There were
many jokes against Demosthenes as a water-drinker.] was naturally a