he offenders are known, of pursuit.
The result is that our city is rarely at rest, but is subject to
constant troubles and to contests as frequent against herself as against
the enemy, not to speak of occasional tyrannies and infamous cabals.
However, I will try, if you will support me, to let nothing of this
happen in our time, by gaining you, the many, and by chastising the
authors of such machinations, not merely when they are caught in the
act--a difficult feat to accomplish--but also for what they have the
wish though not the power to do; as it is necessary to punish an enemy
not only for what he does, but also beforehand for what he intends to
do, if the first to relax precaution would not be also the first to
suffer. I shall also reprove, watch, and on occasion warn the few--the
most effectual way, in my opinion, of turning them from their evil
courses. And after all, as I have often asked, what would you have,
young men? Would you hold office at once? The law forbids it, a law
enacted rather because you are not competent than to disgrace you when
competent. Meanwhile you would not be on a legal equality with the many!
But how can it be right that citizens of the same state should be held
unworthy of the same privileges?

"It will be said, perhaps, that democracy is neither wise nor equitable,
but that the holders of property are also the best fitted to rule. I
say, on the contrary, first, that the word demos, or people, includes
the whole state, oligarchy only a part; next, that if the best guardians
of property are the rich, and the best counsellors the wise, none
can hear and decide so well as the many; and that all these talents,
severally and collectively, have their just place in a democracy. But an
oligarchy gives the many their share of the danger, and not content with
the largest part takes and keeps the whole of the profit; and this is
what the powerful and young among you aspire to, but in a great city
cannot possibly obtain.

"But even now, foolish men, most senseless of all the Hellenes that I
know, if you have no sense of the wickedness of your designs, or most
criminal if you have that sense and still dare to pursue them--even now,
if it is not a case for repentance, you may still learn wisdom, and
thus advance the interest of the country, the common interest of us all.
Reflect that in the country's prosperity the men of merit in your ranks
will have a share and a larger share than the great mass