But let no one think that this eulogy is appropriate to those who compose the present
 government—far from it; for such words are a tribute to those who show themselves worthy
 of the valor of their forefathers, but a reproach to those who disgrace their noble origin
 by their slackness and their cowardice. And this is just what we are doing; for you shall
 have the truth. For although we were blessed with such a nature at our birth, we have not
 cherished and preserved it, but have, on the contrary, fallen into folly and confusion and
 lust after evil ways. But if I go on attacking the things which admit of criticism and of censure in our
 present order, I fear that I shall wander too far afield from my subject. In any case I
 have spoken about these things before, See Isoc. 8.49 ff. and I shall do so again if I do not
 succeed in persuading you to cease from such mistakes of policy. For the present, I shall
 speak but a few words on the theme which I proposed to discuss in the beginning and then
 yield the platform to any who desire to address you upon this question. If we continue to govern Athens as we are
 now doing, then we are doomed to go on deliberating and waging war and living and faring
 and acting in almost every respect just as we do at the present moment and have done in
 the past; but if we effect a change of polity, it is evident by the same reasoning that
 such conditions of life as our ancestors enjoyed will come about for us also; for from the
 same political institutions there must always spring like or similar ways of life. But we must take the most significant of these ways and, comparing one with the other,
 decide which is preferable for us. And first let us consider how the Hellenes and the
 barbarians felt towards the earlier polity as compared with how they are now disposed
 towards us; for other peoples contribute not the least part of our well-being when they
 are properly disposed towards us. Well then, the Hellenes felt such confidence in those who governed the city in those
 times that most of them of their own accord placed themselves under the power of
 Athens , Cf.
 Isoc. 8.76 . while the barbarians were so far from
 meddling in the affairs of the Hellenes that they neither sailed their ships-of-war this
 side of the Phaselis nor marched their armies beyond the Halys River , refraining, on the contrary, from all aggression. See Isoc. 4.118 and note; Isoc. 12.59 .