pitiful as it could possibly be, it could not (so I believe), be made
worse than it is now. {2} It may be that there are many reasons for this,
and that our affairs did not reach their present condition from any one or
two causes. But if you examine the matter aright, you will find that the
chief responsibility rests with those whose aim is to win your favour, not
to propose what is best. Some of them, men of Athens, so long as they can
maintain the conditions which bring them reputation and influence, take no
thought for the future [and therefore think that you also should take
none]; while others, by accusing and slandering those who are actively at
work,[n] are simply trying to make the city spend its energies in
punishing the members of its own body, and so leave Philip free to say and
do what he likes. {3} Such political methods as these, familiar to you as
they are, are the real causes of the evil. And I beg you, men of Athens,
if I tell you certain truths outspokenly, to let no resentment on your
part fall upon me on this account. Consider the matter in this light. In
every other sphere of life, you believe that the right of free speech
ought to be so universally shared by all who are in the city, that you
have extended it both to foreigners and to slaves; and one may see many a
servant in Athens speaking his mind with greater liberty than is granted
to citizens in some other states: but from the sphere of political counsel
you have utterly banished this liberty. {4} The result[n] is that in your
meetings you give yourselves airs and enjoy their flattery, listening to
nothing but what is meant to please you, while in the world of facts and
events, you are in the last extremity of peril. If then you are still in
this mood to-day, I do not know what I can say; but if you are willing to
listen while I tell you, without flattery, what your interest requires, I
am prepared to speak. For though our position is very bad indeed, and much
has been sacrificed, it is still possible, even now, if you will do your
duty, to set all right once more. {5} It is a strange thing, perhaps, that
I am about to say, but it is true. The worst feature in the past is that