72
Nor indeed does it seem to me the part of an honest citizen to devise political measures by which I shall at once take the highest place among you, but you the lowest among the nations. No, the advancement of the State must always go along with the measures proposed by good citizens, and they must always support the best and not the easiest policy; for towards the latter nature herself will lead the way, but to instruct you by speech and guide you to the former is the duty of the good citizen.
73
Now I have even heard some such remark as this: that I, of course, always speak for the best, but that you get nothing from me except words, while what the city wants is deeds and a practical policy of some sort. I will myself explain how I stand in this matter, and I will be perfectly candid. I do not think that your adviser has any business except to give the best counsel he can, and I think I can easily prove that this is so.
74
For you know, of course, that the famous TimotheusOne of the most successful of the Athenian generals, from 378 till his eclipse in 354, when he was condemned and fined for failure in the Social War. His intimacy with Isocrates had made him also an effective speaker. His biography is included in the collection of Cornelius Nepos. The occasion here referred to is the Euboean expedition of 357, when Demosthenes served as trierarch. once harangued you to the effect that you ought to send an expedition to save the Euboeans, when the Thebans were trying to enslave them, and his words ran something like this: Tell me, he said, when you have got the Thebans in the island, are you deliberating how you will deal with them and what you ought to do? Will you not cover the sea with your war-galleys, men of Athens? Will you not rise up at once and march down to the Piraeus and drag them down the slips?
