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one which, as you all know, is a heritage from our fathers, which has been the source of numberless blessings both to Athens and to the other states of Hellas, and which was, besides, ordained and established by men who would be acknowledged by all the world to have been the best friends of the peopleThose who did, not what the people liked, but what was for their good. So Solon is called δημοκώτατος, Isoc. 7.16. among the citizens of Athens; so that it would be of all things most absurd if I, in seeking to introduce such a polity, should be suspected of favoring revolution.
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Furthermore, it is easy to judge of my purpose from the fact that in most of the discoursesSee especially Isoc. 4.105 ff.; General Introduction p. xxxviii. which I have written, you will find that I condemn oligarchies and special privileges, while I commend equal rights and democratic governments—not all of them, but those which are well-ordered, praising them not indiscriminately, but on just and reasonable grounds.
