of your voice
instead of preserving total silence,--nevertheless the State ought not
to have deviated from her course, if she had regard to her own honor,
the traditions of the past, or the judgment of posterity. As it is, she
is looked upon as having failed in her policy,--the common lot of all
mankind when such is the will of heaven; but if, claiming to be the
foremost State of Greece, she had deserted her post, she would have
incurred the reproach of betraying Greece to Philip. If we had abandoned
without a struggle all which our forefathers braved every danger to win,
who would not have spurned you, AEschines? How could we have looked in
the face the strangers who flock to our city, if things had reached
their present pass,--Philip the chosen leader and lord of all,--while
others without our assistance had borne the struggle to avert this
consummation? We! who have never in times past preferred inglorious
safety to peril in the path of honor. Is there a Greek or a barbarian
who does not know that Thebes at the height of her power, and Sparta
before her--ay, and even the King of Persia himself--would have been
only glad to compromise with us, and that we might have had what we
chose, and possessed our own in peace, had we been willing to obey
orders and to suffer another to put himself at the head of Greece? But
it was not possible,--it was not a thing which the Athenians of those
days could do. It was against their nature, their genius, and their
traditions; and no human persuasion could induce them to side with a
wrong-doer because he was powerful, and to embrace subjection because it
was safe. No; to the last our country has fought and jeopardized herself
for honor and glory and pre-eminence. A noble choice, in harmony with
your national character, as you testify by your respect for the
memories of your ancestors who have so acted. And you are in the right;
for who can withhold admiration from the heroism of the men who shrank
not from leaving their city and their fatherland, and embarking in their
war-ships, rather than submit to foreign dictation? Why, Themistocles,
who counseled this step, was elected general; and the man who counseled
submission was stoned to death--and not he only, for his wife was stoned
by your wives, as he was by you. The Athenians of those days went not in
quest of an orator or a general who could help them to prosperous
slavery; but they scorned life itself, if it were not the life of
fr