Exordia

Since, however, past events cannot be altered[*](This commonplace is found also in Dem. 18.192; Dem. 3.6.) and it is necessary to safeguard our interests as present facilities permit, I see no fitting occasion for laying charges but shall try to offer what I think is the best counsel.

Now, first of all, you must admit this principle, that it is the duty of every man to apply to the task the same superabundance of eagerness and emulation that he displayed of indifference in times past; because thus there is a bare hope that we may be able, though far behind in the pursuit, to overtake what we have let slip.

In the next place, there must be no discouragement over what has happened, because what is worst in the past is the best hope for the future. What, then, do I mean by this, men of Athens? That it is because you do nothing that you ought to do that your affairs are in a bad way; since if you were doing everything you should and your affairs were in this state, there would be not even a hope of improvement.[*](This is called a paradox in Dem. 9.5; cf. Dem. 4.2.)

Nothing is more mischievous, men of Athens, than that those who address your Assembly should both censure and employ the same practices. For there is no man so unintelligent as to deny that to behave factiously among themselves and to accuse one another when no one is on trial[*](See Dem. Ex. 11 and note.) means damage to your interests. I think myself that these men would be better citizens if, when addressing the Assembly, they should turn the contentiousness they feel toward one another against the enemies of the State; and to you I recommend not to take sides with either of these factions or to consider how either one is to gain the mastery, but how you as a body are to prevail over your enemies.

And I pray to the gods that those who out of contentiousness or spite or any other motive express any other sentiments than those they believe to be advantageous may cease to do so; for to invoke a curse when speaking in council is perhaps unseemly. Therefore, while I should myself lay the blame for this bad state of affairs, men of Athens, upon no one except these men as a class, and although I think you ought to exact an accounting of them when you have the leisure, yet for the present I think you should consider only how the existing situation may be bettered.