man as the noblest man.  Suppose it were enquired of the fathers of such Patricians as Albinus and Bessia, whether, if they had their choice, they would desire sons of their character, or of mine:  what would they answer, but that they should wish the worthiest to be their sons.  If the Patricians have reason to despise me, let them likewise despise their ancestors, whose nobility was the fruit of their virtue.  Do they envy the honours bestowed upon me? let them envy, likewise, my labours, my abstinence, and the dangers I have undergone for my country, by which I have acquired them.  But those worthless men lend such a life of inactivity, as if they despised any honours you can bestow; whilst they aspire to honours, as if they had deserved them by the most industrious virtue.  They lay claim to the rewards of activity, for their having enjoyed the pleasures of luxury.  Yet none can be more lavish than they are in praise of their ancestors:  and they imagine they honour themselves by celebrating their forefathers.  Whereas, they do the very contrary:  for, as much as their ancestors were distinguished for their virtues, so much are they disgraced by their vices.

Observe now, my countrymen, the injustice of the Patricians.  They arrogate to themselves honours, on account of the exploits done by their forefathers; whilst they will not allow me the due praise, for performing the very same sort of actions in my own person.  He has no statues, they cry, of his family.  He can trace no venerable line of ancestors.  What then!  Is it matter of more praise to disgrace one’s illustrious ancestors, than to become illustrious by one’s own good behaviour?  What if I can shew no statues of my family:  I can shew the standards, the armour, and the trappings, which I have taken myself from the vanquished:  I can shew the scars of those wounds which I have received by facing the enemies of my country.  These are my statues; these are the honours I boast of.  Not left me by inheritance as theirs; but earned by toil, by abstinence, by valour; amidst clouds of dust, and seas of blood:  scenes of action, where those effeminate Patricians, who endeavour, by indirect means, to depreciate me in your esteem, have never dared to shew their faces.

DEMOSTHENES to the ATHENIANS.

When I compare, Athenians, the speeches of some amongst us, with their actions, I am at a loss to reconcile what I see, with what I hear.  Their protestations are full of zeal against the public enemy; but their measures are so inconsistent that all their professions become suspected.  By confounding you with a variety of projects, they perplex your resolutions, and lead you from executing what is in your power, by engaging you in schemes not reducible to practice.