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— 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. 
 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? But in order that you may make a choice and come to a decision between the two
 constitutions, not from the summary statement you just heard, but from exact knowledge, it
 behoves you, for your part, to render yourselves attentive to what I say, while I, for my
 part, shall try to explain them both to you as briefly as I can. For those who directed the state in the time of Solon and Cleisthenes did not establish
 a polity which in name merely was hailed as the most impartial and the mildest of
 governments, while in practice showing itself the opposite to those who lived under it,
 nor one which trained the citizens in such fashion that they looked upon insolence as
 democracy, lawlessness as liberty, impudence of speech as equality, and licence to do what
 they pleased as happiness, For similar caricatures of the
 later Athenian democracy see Thuc. 3.82.4 ff. , and
 especially Plat. Rep. 560-561 . but rather a
 polity which detested and punished such men and by so doing made all the citizens better
 and wiser.