But no such thing can come to pass until you are persuaded that tranquillity is more advantageous and more profitable than meddlesomeness,Meddlesomeness, ἡ πολυπραγμοσύνη, is used here and elsewhere in the speech as the opposite of ἡσυχία ( or σωφροσύνη, moderation, self-control). The latter contains the idea of quiet living and minding one’s own business in private relations, and in foreign relations, of pursuing peace and avoiding aggression. justice than injustice, and attention to one’s own affairs than covetousness of the possessions of others. This is a theme on which none of the orators has ever made bold to address you. I, however, shall devote most of my discourse to this very subject. For I observe that happiness is to be found in these ways of life and not in those which we now follow.

But anyone who attempts to discourse on a subject out of the common and who desires to bring about a change in your opinions must needs touch upon many matters and speak somewhat at length, now reminding, now rebuking, now commending, and again counselling you. For hardly with all these aids can you be led to a better way of thinking.

For the matter stands thus. It seems to me that, while all men crave their advantage and desire to be better off than the rest, they do not all know the kind of conduct which leads to this end but differ from each other in judgement, some possessing a judgement which is sound and capable of hitting the right course of action,Cf. Isoc. 12.30. others one which completely misses their true advantage.Advantage in the good sense, which works no disadvantage to others. Cf. Isoc. 3.2, Isocrates, Vol. I., L.C.L.; Isoc. 15.275.

And this is the very thing which has happened to our city; for we think that, if we sail the sea with many triremes and compel the various states to pay contributionsIn the Confederacy of Delos the quotas paid to Athens to support the league were termed φόροι, which, when Athens made it compulsory, came to have the invidious meaning “tribute moneys.” In the New Naval League, the term συντάξεις, contributions, was substituted. Cf. Isoc. 15.123 and Isoc. 7.2. and send representativesTo the Common Council of the allies, τὸ κοινὸν συνέδριον τῶν συμμάχιων, which met in Athens. to Athens, we have accomplished something to the purpose. But in fact, we have been completely misled as to the truth; for of the hopes which we cherished not one has been fulfilled; on the contrary, we have reaped from them hatreds and wars and great expense. And this was to be expected;

for in former times as the result of such meddlesomeness we were placed in the utmost peril,At the end of the Peloponnesian War, which was the end of the Confederacy of Delos and of the Empire of Athens. while as the result of keeping our city in the path of justice and of giving aid to the oppressed and of not coveting the possessions of others we were given the hegemony by the willing consent of the HellenesIn 478 B.C., when the Confederacy of Delos (see Isoc. 12.67 ff. and notes)was formed, Thucydides states that the Ionian Greeks came to Athens and asked her to take the hegemony. See i. 95, 96. Cf. Isoc. 4.72.—considerations which now and for a long time past, without reason and with utter recklessness, we have treated with contempt.