would wish: for this is exemplified for you both by the power of Sparta in those
days, to which you rose superior because you gave your minds to your affairs;
and by the insolence of Philip to-day, which troubles us because we care nothing
for the things which should concern us. {4} If, however, any of you, men of
Athens, when he considers the immense force now at Philip's command, and the
city's loss of all her strongholds, thinks that Philip is a foe hard to conquer,
I ask him (right though he is in his belief) to reflect also that there was a
time when we possessed Pydna and Poteidaea and Methone; when all the surrounding
country was our own, and many of the tribes [n] which are now on his side were
free and independent, and more inclined to be friendly to us than to him. {5}
Now if in those days Philip had made up his mind that it was a hard thing to
fight against the Athenians, with all their fortified outposts on his own
frontiers, while he was destitute of allies, he would have achieved none of his
recent successes, nor acquired this great power. But Philip saw quite clearly,
men of Athens, that all these strongholds were prizes of war, displayed for
competition. He saw that in the nature of things the property of the absent
belongs to those who are on the spot, and that of the negligent to those who are
ready for toil and danger. {6} It is, as you know, by acting upon this belief,
that he has brought all those places under his power, and now holds them--some
of them by right of capture in war, others in virtue of alliances and friendly
understandings; for every one is willing to grant alliance and to give attention
to those whom they see to be prepared and ready to take action as is necessary.
{7} If then, men of Athens, you also will resolve to adopt this principle to-
day--the principle which you have never observed before--if each of you can
henceforward be relied upon to throw aside all this pretence of incapacity, and
to act where his duty bids him, and where his services can be of use to his
country; if he who has money will contribute, and he who is of military age will
join the campaign; if, in one plain word, you will resolve henceforth to depend
absolutely on yourselves, each man no longer hoping that he will need to do
nothing himself, and that his neighbour will do everything for him; then, God