107
For when has it ever happened otherwise? Did we not choose to pursue a policy in consequence of which the Lacedaemonians became masters of the Hellenes? Did not they, in their turn, manage their supremacy so badly that not many years later we again got the upper hand and became the arbiters of their safety?
108
Did not the meddlesomeness of the partizans of Athens cause the various states to become partisans of Sparta, and did not the insolence of the partisans of Sparta force these same states to become partisans of Athens? Did not the people themselves, because of the depravity of the popular orators, desire the oligarchy which was established under the Four Hundred? And have not we, all of us, because of the madness of the Thirty,For the excesses of the Thirty see Isoc. 7.66 ff. become greater enthusiasts for democracy than those who occupied Phyle?Thrasybulus, the leader of the “people’s party,” seized the fortress of Phyle on Mt. Parnes and held it against the Thirty until the democracy was restored. See Isoc. 7.64, note.
109
Indeed in matters of lesser importance and in our everyday life, one could show that the majority take pleasure in the foods and habits which injure both the body and the soul but consider laborious and irksome those from which both sides of our nature would benefit, and that those men are looked upon as austere who remain steadfast in habits which are beneficial.Cf. Isoc. 2.45.
110
Since, therefore, in the circumstances in which they live every day and about which they are more directly concerned, men show that they prefer the worse to the better course, how can we be surprised if they lack insight regarding the empire of the sea and make war upon each other to possess a power regarding which they have never reflected in their lives?
