130
whereas those who live off the law-courts and the assembliesThree obols a day were paid for the attendance of jury-men and of members of the General Assembly. See Isoc. 7.24, 54, and notes; Isoc. 15.152. and the doles derived from them are constrained by their need to be subservient to the sycophants and are deeply grateful for the impeachments and the indictmentsSee Isoc. 15.314, note. and the other sharp practices which are due to the sycophants.
131
Wherefore these men would be most happy to see all of our citizens reduced to the condition of helplessness in which they themselves are powerful.Cf. Isoc. 15.241. And the greatest proof of this is that they do not consider by what means they may provide a livelihood for those who are in need, but rather how they may reduce those who are thought to possess some wealth to the level of those who are in poverty.
132
What, then, is the way of escape from our present ills? I have already discussed most of the points which bear upon this question, not in sequence, but as each fell into its opportune place. But perhaps it will help you to hold them in memory if I attempt to bring together and review those which more than others press upon our attention.
133
The first way by which we can set right and improve the condition of our city is to select as our advisers on affairs of state the kind of men whose advice we should desire on our private affairs, and to stop thinking of the sycophants as friends of democracy and of the good men and trueThis term is almost technical for the aristocratic party, but is here used in a broader sense. Cf. Isoc. 15.316. among us as friends of oligarchy,Cf. Isoc. 15.318. realizing that no man is by nature either the one or the other but that all men desire, in each case, to establish that form of government in which they are held in honor.
