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For I find that the one way—the only possible way—which can avert future perils from us and deliver us from our present ills is that we should be willing to restore that earlier democracy which was instituted by Solon, who proved himself above all others the friend of the people, and which was re-established by Cleisthenes, who drove out the tyrants and brought the people back into power—
17
a government than which we could find none more favorable to the populace or more advantageous to the whole city.For Solon and Cleisthenes as the authors of the restricted democracy of Athens cf. Isoc. 15.232. For Isocrates’ political ideas see General Introduction p. xxxviii. The strongest proof of this is that those who enjoyed this constitution wrought many noble deeds, won the admiration of all mankind, and took their place, by the common consent of the Hellenes, as the leading power of Hellas; whereas those who were enamored of the present constitution made themselves hated of all men, suffered many indignities, and barely escaped falling into the worst of all disasters.Cf. Isoc. 7.6 and note.
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And yet how can we praise or tolerate a government which has in the past been the cause of so many evils and which is now year by year ever drifting on from bad to worse? And how can we escape the fear that if we continue to progress after this fashion we may finally run aground on rocks more perilous than those which at that time loomed before us?
