But what I am now about to notice—­a matter which I hear Demosthenes will speak of—­about this, by the Olympian deities, I cannot but feel a righteous indignation.  He will liken my speech to the Sirens’, it seems, and the legend anent their art is that those who listen to them are not charmed, but destroyed; wherefore the music of the Sirens is not in good repute.  Even so he will aver that knowledge of my words and myself is a source of injury to those who listen to me.  I, for my part, think it becomes no one to urge such allegations against me; for it is a shame if one who makes charges cannot point to facts as full evidence.  And if such charges must be made, the making surely does not become Demosthenes, but rather some military man—­some man of action—­who has done good work for the State, and who, in his untried speech, vies with the skill of antagonists because he is conscious that he can tell no one of his deeds, and because he sees his accusers able to show his audience that he had done what in fact he never had done.  But when a man made up entirely of words,—­of sharp words and overwrought sentences,—­when he takes refuge in simplicity and plain facts, who then can endure it?—­whose tongue is like a flute, inasmuch as if you take it away the rest is nothing....

This man thinks himself worthy of a crown—­that his honor should be proclaimed.  But should you not rather send into exile this common pest of the Greeks?  Or will you not seize upon him as a thief, and avenge yourself upon him whose mouthings have enabled him to bear full sail through our commonwealth?  Remember the season in which you cast your vote.  In a few days the Pythian Games will come round, and the convention of the Hellenic States will hold its sessions.  Our State has been concerned on account of the measures of Demosthenes regarding present crises.  You will appear, if you crown him, accessory to those who broke the general peace.  But if, on the other hand, you refuse the crown, you will free the State from blame.  Do not take counsel as if it were for an alien, but as if it concerned, as it does, the private interest of your city; and do not dispense your honors carelessly, but with judgment; and let your public gifts be the distinctive possession of men most worthy.  Not only hear, but also look around you and consider who are the men who support Demosthenes.  Are they his fellow-hunters, or his associates in old athletic sports?  No, by Olympian Zeus, he was never engaged in hunting the wild boar, nor in care for the well-being of his body; but he was toiling at the art of those who keep up possessions.