these men, when they perceive that all the topics have been covered and find themselves
 unable to gainsay a single point which I have made, will, I think, turn their attention to
 the question of polities, comparing the institutions of Sparta and of Athens, and especially their sobriety and discipline with our
 carelessness and slackness, and will eulogize the Spartans on these grounds. If, however, they attempt anything of the sort, all intelligent men should condemn them
 as speaking beside the point. For I undertook my subject with the avowed purpose, not of
 discussing polities, but of proving that our city has been of much greater service to the
 Hellenes than has the city of the Lacedaemonians. If, then, they can overthrow any of
 these proofs or cite other achievements common to both these cities in which the Spartans
 have shown themselves superior to us, naturally they should be commended. But if they
 attempt to bring in matters of which I have made no mention, they will deserve the censure
 of all for their lack of perception. Nevertheless, since I anticipate that they will inject the question of polities into the
 debate, I shall not shirk from discussing it. For I think that I shall prove that in this
 very matter our city has excelled more than in those which I have already mentioned. And let no one suppose that I have said these things with reference to our present
 polity, which we were forced by circumstances to adopt, but rather with reference to the
 polity of our ancestors, The democracy of Solon and
 Cleisthenes, much praised in the Isoc. 7. . from which
 our fathers Beginning with Aristides and Themistocles,
 especially the latter, who made Athens a sea-power. changed over to that which is
 now in force, not because they condemned the older polity—on the contrary, for the other
 activities of the state they preferred it as much superior—, but because they considered
 that for the exercise of supremacy by sea this polity was more expedient by adopting which
 and wisely administering it they were able to fend off both the plots of the Spartans and
 the armed forces of all the Peloponnesians, over whom it was of vital import to Athens,
 especially at that time, to have the upper hand in war. So that no one could justly condemn those who chose our present polity. This making a virtue of necessity is inconsistent with
 Isocrates’ uncompromising attitude toward the excesses of the later democracy in the
 Isoc. 7. , the Isoc. 8. , and even
 in this discourse. For they were not disappointed in their expectations, nor were
 they at all blind to both the good and the bad features attached to either form of rule,
 but, on the contrary, saw clearly that while a land-power is fostered by order and
 sobriety and discipline and other like qualities, Cf. Isoc. 8.102 . a sea-power is not augmented by these