the possibility of future enterprises from the eloquence of an orator, but as to accomplished facts, instead of accepting ocular demonstration, you believe only what ingenious critics tell you[1]. No men are better dupes, sooner deceived by novel notions, or slower to follow approved advice. You despise what is familiar, while you arc worshippers of every new extravagance. Not a man of you but would be an orator if he could ; when he cannot, he will not yield the palm to a more successful rival: he would fain show that he does not let his wits come limping after, but that he can praise a sharp remark before it is well out of another's mouth; he would like to be as quick in anticipating what is said, as he is slow in foreseeing its consequences. You are always hankering after an ideal state, but you do not give your minds even to what is straight before you. In a word, you are at the mercy of your own ears, and sit like spectators attending a per- formance of sophists, but very unlike counsellors of a state.
39 'I want you to put aside this trifling, and therefore I say No city has done us so much harm as Mytilene; none ever had so little reason. Our indulgence has made them insolent. Nobles and people should be punished alike, for they are equally guilty. If you pardon them your other subjects will be encouraged to revolt; and we must neglect our enemies to fight our own allies. to you that no single city has ever injured us so deeply as Mytilenè. I can excuse those who find our rule too heavy to bear, or who have revolted because the enemy has compelled them them. But islanders who had walls, and were unassailable by our enemies, except at sea, and on that element were sufficiently protected by a fleet of their own, who were independent and treated by us with the highest regard, when they act thus, they have not revolted (that word would imply that they were oppressed), but they have rebelled, and entering the ranks of our bitterest enemies have conspired with them to seek our ruin. And
- ↑ Cp. vii. 48 med.
