All those who come before you on this platform are accustomed to assert that the
 subjects upon which they are themselves about to advise you are most important and most
 worthy of serious consideration by the state. Cf. a similar
 statement in Dem. 24.4 . Nevertheless, if it was ever
 appropriate to preface the discussion of any other subject with such words, it seems to me
 fitting also to begin with them in speaking upon the subject now before us. For we are assembled here to deliberate about War and Peace, which exercise the greatest
 power over the life of man, and regarding which those who are correctly advised must of
 necessity fare better than the rest of the world. Such, then, is the magnitude of the
 question which we have come together to decide. I observe, however, that you do not hear with equal favor the speakers who address you,
 but that, while you give your attention to some, in the case of others you do not even
 suffer their voice to be heard. This expression is used in
 a similar connection in Isoc. 15.22 . And it is not
 surprising that you do this; for in the past you have formed the habit of driving all the
 orators from the platform Plutarch ( Plut. Phoc. 9 ) states that this happened in the case of Phocion. except
 those who support your desires. Wherefore one may justly take you to task because, while you know well that many great
 houses This term is used of estates in Isoc. 8.117 . Here it is used of both families and their
 estates. Cf. Isoc. 8.88 . have been ruined By the casualties and expenses of war. by
 flatterers Demagogic leaders of the war party, later
 termed sycophants. See Isoc. 8.121 ff. and while in
 your private affairs you abhor those who practice this art, in your public affairs you are
 not so minded towards them; on the contrary, while you denounce those who welcome and
 enjoy the society of such men, you yourselves make it manifest that you place greater
 confidence in them than in the rest of your fellow citizens. Indeed, you have caused the orators to practice and study, not what will be advantageous
 to the state, but how they may discourse in a manner pleasing to you. And it is to this
 kind of discourse that the majority of them have resorted also at the present time, since
 it has become plain to all that you will be better pleased with those who summon you to
 war than with those who counsel peace;