The Public Orations of Demosthenes, vol 2 | Page 7

men, must you do?
Knowing and realizing your position, as you do, you must lay aside this
excessive, this irremediable[n] indolence: you must contribute funds,
and require them from your allies; you must so provide and act, that
this force which is now assembled may be held together; in order that,
as Philip has the force in readiness that is to injure and enslave all the
Hellenes, you may have in readiness that which shall preserve and
succour them. {47} You cannot effect by isolated expeditions any of
the things which must be effected. You must organize a force, and
provide maintenance for it, and paymasters, and a staff of servants; and
when you have taken such steps as will ensure the strictest possible
watch being kept over the funds, you must hold these officials
accountable for the money, and the general for the actual operations. If
you act thus, and honestly make up your minds to take this course, you
will either compel Philip to observe a righteous peace and remain in his
own land--and no greater blessing could you obtain than that--or you
will fight him on equal terms.
{48} It may be thought that this policy demands heavy expenditure,
and great exertions and trouble. That is true indeed; but let the objector
take into account what the consequences to the city must be, if he is
unwilling to assent to this policy, and he will find that the ready
performance of duty brings its reward. {49} If indeed some god is

offering us his guarantee--for no human guarantee would be sufficient
in so great a matter--that if you remain at peace and let everything slide,
Philip will not in the end come and attack yourselves; then, although,
before God and every Heavenly Power, it would be unworthy of you
and of the position that the city holds, and of the deeds of our
forefathers, to abandon all the rest of the Hellenes to slavery for the
sake of our own ease--although, for my part, I would rather have died
than have suggested such a thing-- yet, if another proposes it and
convinces you, let it be so: do not defend yourselves: let everything go.
{50} But if no one entertains such a belief, if we all know that the very
opposite is true, and that the wider the mastery we allow him to gain,
the more difficult and powerful a foe we shall have to deal with, what
further subterfuge is open to us? Why do we delay? {51} When shall
we ever be willing, men of Athens, to do our duty? 'When we are
compelled,' you say. But the hour of compulsion, as the word is applied
to free men, is not only here already, but has long passed; and we must
surely pray that the compulsion which is put upon slaves may not come
upon us. And what is the difference? It is this--that for a free man the
greatest compelling force is his shame at the course which events are
taking--I do not know what greater we can imagine; but the slave is
compelled by blows and bodily tortures, which I pray may never fall to
our lot; it is not fit to speak of them.
{52} I would gladly tell you the whole story, and show how certain
persons are working for your ruin by their policy. I pass over, however,
every point but this. Whenever any question of our relations with Philip
arises, at once some one stands up and talks of the blessings of peace,
of the difficulty of maintaining a large force, and of designs on the part
of certain persons to plunder our funds; with other tales of the same
kind, which enable them to delay your action, and give Philip time to
do what he wishes unopposed. {53} What is the result? For you the
result is your leisure, and a respite from immediate action--advantages
which I fear you will some day feel to have cost you dear; and for them
it is the favour they win, and the wages for these services. But I am sure
that there is no need to persuade you to keep the Peace--you sit here
fully persuaded. It is the man who is committing acts of war that we
need to persuade; for if he is persuaded, you are ready enough. {54}
Nor is it the expenditure which is to ensure our preservation that ought

to distress us, but the fate which is in prospect for us, if we are not
willing to take this action: while the threatened 'plunder of our funds' is
to be prevented by the proposal of some safeguard which will render
them secure, not by the abandonment of our interests. {55} And even
so, men of Athens, I feel