And it is to be expected that acting as we do we should fare as we do; for nothing can
 turn out well for those who neglect to adopt a sound policy for the conduct of their
 government as a whole. On the contrary, even if they do succeed in their enterprises now
 and then, either through chance or through the genius of some man, The reference is to the victorious campaigns of Conon and his son Timotheus.
 See Isoc. 4.142, 154 ; Isoc.
 5.61-64 ; Isoc. 15.107 ff. they soon after
 find themselves in the same difficulties as before, as anyone may see from what happened
 in our own history. For when all Hellas fell under the power of
 Athens , after the naval victory of Conon and
 the campaign of Timotheus, we were not able to hold our good fortune any time at all, but
 quickly dissipated and destroyed it. In the disastrous
 “Social War.” For we neither possess nor do we honestly seek to obtain a polity
 which can properly deal with our affairs. And yet we all know that success does not visit and abide with those who have built
 around themselves the finest and the strongest walls, Cf.
 Thucydides vii. 77: a)/ndres ga\r po/lis, kai\ ou) tei/xh
 ou)de\ nh=es a)ndrw=n kenai/ . Also Alcaeus fr. 28, 29 L.C.L., and Sir
 William Jones, What Constitutes a State . nor with those who have
 collected the greatest population in one place, but rather with those who most nobly and
 wisely govern their state. For the soul of a state is nothing else than its polity, Cf. Isoc. 12.138 ; Aristot. Pol. 1295a40 ; Dem. 24.210 . having
 as much power over it as does the mind over the body; for it is this which deliberates
 upon all questions, seeking to preserve what is good and to ward off what is disastrous;
 and it is this which of necessity assimilates to its own nature the laws, the public
 orators and the private citizens; and all the members of the state must fare well or ill
 according to the kind of polity under which they live. And yet we are quite indifferent to the fact that our polity has been corrupted, nor do
 we even consider how we may redeem it. It is true that we sit around in our shops In the market-place, especially the barber shops. 
 denouncing the present order and complaining that never under a democracy have we been
 worse governed, but in our actions and in the sentiments which we hold regarding it we
 show that we are better satisfied with our present democracy than with that which was
 handed down to us by our forefathers. It is in favor of the democracy of our forefathers
 that I intend to speak, and this is the subject on which I gave notice that I would
 address you.