45
For you do not exonerate him from the charges, but only declare that some others have done the same things, inventing thus a very easy refuge for all criminals. Why, if it is not easy to find a crime which has not yet been committed, and if we should consider that those who have been found guilty of one or another of these crimes have done nothing so very wrong, whenever others are found to have perpetrated the same offences, should we not be providing ready-made pleas in exculpation of all criminals and be granting complete licence for those who are bent on villainy?
46
You would best perceive the inanity of your defense of Busiris if you should imagine yourself in his position. Just suppose this case: if you had been accused of grave and terrible crimes and an advocate should defend you in this fashion, what would be your state of mind? I know very well that you would detest him more heartily than your accusers. And yet is it not disgraceful to compose for others a plea in defense of such kind that it would arouse your extreme anger if spoken on your own behalf?
47
Again, consider this, and meditate upon it. If one of your pupils should be induced to do those things which you praise, would he not be the most wretched of men who are now alive and, in truth, of all who ever have lived? Is it right, therefore,to compose discourses such that they will do the most good if they succeed in convincing no one among those who hear them?
48
But perhaps you will say that you too were not unaware of all this but that you wished to bequeath to men of learning an example of how pleas in defense of shameful charges and difficult causes ought to be made. But I think it has now been made clear to you, even if you were previously in ignorance, that an accused person would sooner gain acquittal by not uttering a word than by pleading his cause in this way.
